The winds of a storm are battering us today, making it difficult to concentrate on the work we are trying to do. It is only wind... but it’s disruptive with its incredible banshee wail, and the occasional gust, dust and leaf-laden, distracting... disorientating.
It is a storm... and if we were to venture outside we would find it difficult to stand up, walk, or keep our balance. Even driving becomes a challenge in such high winds, as you must not only control your vehicle but to be keenly aware of others. Whether it's anxious or inexperienced motorists, those who think the wind doesn’t affect ‘them,’ or heavy trucks and road trains, effectively ‘sailing’ up the road, driving is today, a real challenge.
I guess that’s how we are all feeling about our world given the emphatic changes that the election of a new US President has spawned. There is potential for safe arrivals, if after somewhat challenging journeys. However, there is also potential for something to go wrong, and to not get safely home.
The world needs America, not so much to be strong, as to be authentic, and to be fair, under Joe Biden’s leadership, authenticity appeared elusive. It’s unclear so far, how far Trump’s determination to ‘make America great again’ will remain sustainable, but one thing we can be sure of is that, like driving in a storm, it’s going to be one heck of a ride.
A government civil service of 2.2 million employees, is facing immediate reclassification, which could mean tens of thousands of lay-offs, and you can bet your boots that any bitter, disenfranchised federal union member getting an ‘F’ classification will fight like a rabid dog to retain their salary and benefits.
Trump’s ‘signed into law’ changes have already ruffled feathers, and a never-ending diatribe of sackings and tariff impositions must have consequences, and they are hardly going to be pleasant. Maybe even be ready, with an ambulance at the bottom of the cliff, because it’s not going to be pretty.
Probably the most impactful decision, apart from the so-called closing the borders, is what Trump sees as the solution to the ‘immigration issue’ with his overturning of ‘birthright citizenship.’ Apart from alienating millions already in the states, slamming the door in the face of millions of others is not going to win friends, is it?
Is it possible too, that just saying “there are only two genders,” will make it happen? I’m just one who feels that gender issues distract and disengage us from reality, disproportionate to its 3 per cent of the global population, but is supported one day, abandoned the next a good look in terms of progressive and empathetic leadership? Probably not, and the sacking of thousands of equality, diversity and inclusion administrators across America will draw some extreme support, but where will the nation’s minorities then turn to, for help?
The imposition of higher tariffs on imported goods is upsetting friends and foes abroad, and it’s counter-productive to friendly international relations to alienate everyone, surely? Protectionist trade policies have never proven a solution, at any time in history, because they are antagonistic, tit-for-tat, and in the end, only penalise the lowest income demographic.
Environmental protections and policies are being rowed back quicker than you can cross a duck pond, and along with the gender and international antagonism, and endless conflict and contradiction that emerge anew every day, the man in the street is trying to stay abreast of, and relevant to, this new America!
Just this week, Pope Francis wrote to the Oval Office expressing his ‘disappointment’ that Vice-President J D Vance is ‘picking and choosing’ selective biblical texts to support their stand on migration. The southern bible belt won’t like that!
Using Elon Musk to do their ‘hatchet’ work looks like a horrible misjudgement, ‘chaos theory,’ has never had more prominence, and Philip of Macedon’s ‘divide and rule’ philosophies are alive and well in the ever more Dickensian absurdity that threatens all respect for democracy.
The writer is a media consultant
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