PRAGMATIC ISSUES

Tom Collins says the world must stand up to Trump. The one obvious truth here is that  Americans must do it themselves, first.

For generations the United States has cast itself as democracy’s referee.

When leaders abroad attacked courts, smeared journalists or questioned election results, Washington responded with  that all too familiar language that democratic norms were under threat.

Strongmen were undermining institutions.

Citizens were urged to resist the erosion of their freedoms.

It was the vocabulary of warning.

Now that vocabulary is being used about the United States itself.

Irish columnist Tom Collins recently argued that the world must stand up to Donald Trump. The claim is blunt, but it reflects a growing reality. From Europe to Asia, foreign observers increasingly view American politics not as a stable democratic model but as a cautionary tale.

Yet Collins’ argument contains an uncomfortable gap.

The world cannot defend American democracy.

Only Americans can.

Trump’s rise has depended less on persuasion than on normalisation. Each controversy lowers the bar further. Conduct that once would have ended a political career now barely interrupts the news cycle.

The insults become routine.

The attacks on institutions become strategy.

Accountability itself becomes framed as persecution.

Step by step, the extraordinary becomes ordinary.

In another country, American officials would call this democratic backsliding.

At home, many Americans simply call it politics.

The war with Iran has less to do with actual threats against American’s and more to do with both Trump’s fragile ego and his self ideas of grandeur.

Trump said he was anointed by God Himself.

If that is not insanity on he front page of every paper or headline in the world I don’t know what is.

What I do know is that it is not normal behaviour and that it is coming from a very sick and demented individual. Donald J Trump.

That resignation has been reinforced by a deeper crisis of trust. The Jeffrey Epstein scandal exposed a network of extraordinary wealth and influence operating largely beyond public scrutiny. Trump along side many figures from politics, finance and entertainment appeared in fragments of documents and social circles connected to Epstein, leaving the public with more questions than answers. Recently, a document was released that illustrates how Trump our own President, raped a young girl.

He does not care about women or children and emboldens those that rape them.

Whether any individual committed crimes is a matter for investigators and courts. IF we had anyone in place with some actual balls…instead we have yes men and women who bow at the feet of the fake prophet Donald J Trump.

When citizens begin to suspect that powerful people live under a different set of rules, the foundation of democracy begins to crack.

The danger, in the end, is not simply Donald Trump.

It is not Iran and it never was.

It is the slow adjustment of a nation learning to live with conduct it once condemned.

Democracies rarely collapse with a single dramatic moment. They fade quietly as citizens grow accustomed to behaviour that would once have shocked them.

History will not remember how loudly the warnings were issued.

It will remember whether anyone still had the courage to listen.