Once upon a time, not that long ago, there was a country that
was the envy of the world. Where people were proud to say
"I am an American" when they traveled the world. But
something happened to change all that. In the past three
years I have been to five different countries, and in each
of these countries, I was approached by natives who asked
me, in perfect English I might add, "What happened?" I
had no answer.
I had no answer, because I don't understand it myself. In
September of 2016, you could probably get good odds
betting that Donald Trump would be the next president.
Ask me, I had to pay handily in November. I would have
given fifty times that to have Hillary Clinton as president
now, nay a hundred times what I had lost. But there is no
sense wishing for what we cannot change.
When Trump was running he said over and over again that
the United States was the butt of jokes through-out the
world, and the world was laughing at us. Russia was
laughing at us, Japan was laughing at us, the European
Union was laughing at us. But Donald told his adoring
crowds, when he is president, he and he alone, would make
America great again. He had little red hats, made in China,
that were emblazoned with MAGA, 'make America great
again'. And there were people in the crowd who believed,
for some reason, that America had lost her greatness, that her
image was tarnished, that she was no longer the beacon of
democracy that the world looked to.
And yet, when I was in Great Britain in 2015, there were
several people who told me that they loved president Obama,
that he and Michelle were an 'elegant couple', I think that
was the most often used phase I heard. In one pub I had to
turn down several pints offered to me by folks who learned
I was a 'yank'. I didn't hear anyone laughing. In China in
2014, when I told people I was an American, they all wanted
me to take a picture so they could show the friends and family
their 'American friend'. There was no one laughing at me in
China either. It was the same in 2013 in Italy and Turkey, when
people found out you were American, they smiled and gave up
their seat on the tram or offered to show you the way to a good
restaurant. I don't recall anyone laughing at me.
Quite on the contrary, people were still lining up and waiting
all day to get a visa to visit America. Students from the far east
and the UK were vying for entrance into the American universities.
Immigrants were filling the quotas for the chance to migrate to
this land where the streets were paved with gold. Little did we
know that America was slipping down the rungs to oblivion, and
only one man could stop the downward slide; Donald J. Trump.
The same Donald Trump who bragged about assaulting women,
who made fun of the disabled, who threatened hecklers with physical
harm. The Donald Trump who drew huge crowds, half of whom
were bought and paid for, to cheer him on. And while the press
and the TV/radio media - including Fox News - scoffed at the
idea that this buffoon could be a serious contender for the
Republican nomination, Trump was winning the hearts and minds
of the great unwashed, the 'basket of deplorables'.
But you can fool some of the people all of the time, and that is
what Trump did. But he didn't fool the rest of the world, which
was aghast when the electoral college voted Trump into the
presidency, and the most surprised was The Donald himself.
The dog had caught the car he was chasing and now what to
do with it?
The first time I recall laughing at the president was when he
declared that there were more people at his inauguration than
ever before in history, even more people then showed up for
Obama's inauguration. That was funny, in a sad sort of way.
Then there were the political cartoons in the London Times
and the Globe and Mail some were pretty funny. But that
meant that people were laughing at us, not with us, at us.
The comments on his ill-fitting 'off-the-rack' suits, and that
hair, what was it with that hair? The op-eds in The Times
that called him the 'orange orangutan'. More laughter.
And talk about the whole world laughing, his speech at the
United Nations in September of 2018, when he said he had
accomplished more than any other president in the history
of the United States, the UN body laughed, to a man, they
laughed. What started as a snicker burst forth as laughter.
And the G7 members laughed when Trump left early, in a
snit over some perceived insult. One columnist at the Globe
said Trump's skin was so thin he didn't know why his bones
didn't fall out when he stood up, hee-hee. More laughter.
At the seventieth anniversary of NATO this week, poor Boris
Johnson, who is running to retain the Prime Ministry, was
hiding in the potted palms to keep from bumping into the
our president. Trump is so unpopular in Great Britain, BoJo
was sure that being seen with Trump would hurt him in the
election. That inspite of the fact that Trump gave Johnson a
glowing recommendation, being seen with him would be the
kiss of death. But the crowning insult was when Justin Trudeau,
Emmanuel Macron, BoJo, and several other dignitaries were
caught on tape making fun of and laughing at Trump, yup,
our president. I guess he was right the world is laughing at
us. Trump was so upset he, once again, went home from the
dance early.
I am not laughing though. If I really sat down and thought about
it, I would be crying. How did this happen? There are congressional
hearings going on right now as to whether Donald Trump used the
power of the presidency to try and influence the outcome of the 2020
election. And, once again it came to light, that he has been trying to
obstruct the inquiry into what he did. And you know the really funny
thing is? People still think that Trump should not be impeached.
That's the real joke !
I'm just sayin'.
