“The Buck Stops Here” was a straightforward commitment of responsibility and confidence in leadership made famous by President Harry Truman. He lived by this mantra and stood behind the statement as President of the United States and ‘leader of the free world’. Symbolistic of his resolve as America’s CEO, Truman had a desktop sign made with these famous words imprinted and displayed it proudly on his desk in the Oval Office.
Truman instilled America’s confidence in his presidency and was the kind of leader you’d follow anywhere.
We can’t say this today of our President Donald Trump. This is how far the U.S. has fallen as a revered world leader of nations and countries and how far our country’s leadership has fallen in commitment and resolve to serve and protect its own people. It seems as if “We the People” are being fooled and conned around every corner by our own leader's egotistical tendencies.
Trump‘s desktop sign could defensively read, “The Dog Ate My Homework” ...(or “The Media Ate My Homework.”)
Trump is a master of the shell con game, now you see it now you don’t ...now I’ve said it, now I didn’t. But he’s not fooling anyone ...except the people who voted for him and the people who make up his base of support (you know who you are). Trump is irresponsible with his words and his actions. He’s playing us. It’s called lying. Most people learn about this by the time they are six years old, both the liers and the idiots who are fooled and accept the lies as truth. Forgivingly, let’s call it ‘pathological’ lying to give it a clinical spin and a possible basis for professional help rather than jail time.
I’m afraid the buck stops here, with us. We the People. We are on our own, because there is no clear leadership. “We” (you know who you are) who voted for Donald Trump thought it was a good idea for him to be president. Who are you anyway, Trump voter? Are you prepared to make critical decisions for yourself now? Are you prepared to make critical decisions that affect the rest of us, “We” the majority of America who did not vote for Trump? What are your intellectual qualifications to choose a president? Can you even spell president? Can you think past your nose?
What were you thinking?! What are you thinking?!
Well, the buck now stops with you too. You, the Trump supporters who make up the now infamous “Trump base”. The buck now stops with you because you are now responsible for his words and actions, not him. He is playing to your sympathies, your wishes and desires, your dreams ...your intellect. You are now president, Trump base. You are the leader of the free world. You, reflect to the world what America is.
You, Trump supporters, are America to the world. God help the rest of us.
You cheer at his rallies, rallies that are curiously over-the-top and not necessary at this stage of the game. It’s over a year into Trump’s presidency. Why does he need a rally? He already won. Why? ...because he needs you, his loyal base ...to hide behind, that’s why. To justify and legitimize him as the American president. The American King, to kiss his ring. You energize him, he energies you ...with bull**it.
I don’t know why the media even broadcasts Trump rallies. It’s a national disservice and disgrace. But it's entertainment, it pulls ratings, and that is what the media is all about notwithstanding their free pass for “journalism”, which opens a whole ‘nother can of worms. And the worms just keep coming. Trump uses these rally venues to shamelessly bash the press to their face, and you to your Facebook, just like the Russians are doing. His tweets are uncommonly ludicrous and indicative of a thin skinned, vacuous, insecure, paranoid individual.
That’s your president.
So, who are you Trump supporter, Trump base? You have become a mnemonic cliche, a toothless symbol of a devolved Bermuda shorts, camera-around-the-neck self-indulgent American in wonderland laughed at and loathed the world over. You have devolved from a foolish rube to hateful pessimist. What happened to you?
There is seemingly no longer a middle class, only the rich and the poor ..and there is seemingly no more middle intellect, only the stupid and the cunning. Where did logic and reasoning go?
White House shill, Kellyanne Conway, one of the original Trump apostles, surprisingly still there amidst the continuing mass apostolic exodus, says we should “have more respect for the White House”. She surely knows that respect is earned not granted. How can America, or anyone, have respect for a president and White House so fraught with deceit, corruption, lies and embarrassment?
The buck stops with you Trump voter, Trump supporter ...Trump base. You asked for this. You, and the rest of us are now stuck with it. You are running the country. Your values, your thinking, your enigma. You did this.
If I was your parent or your teacher, or your jailer, I’d put you in time-out for a while, solitary. Now you sit there, and think about what you’ve done.
John Kushma is a communication consultant and lives in Logan, Utah.
