Donald Trump was so effective in imparting his hateful, divisive. Vision for America that he is no longer needed on the political stage. He trained his disciples well, and they have taken the reins to continue the spread of his racist, power-grabbing, disinformation agenda for the country. In addition, his supportive alliances with the likes of men like Roy Moore, Jeffrey Epstein, Matt Gaetz, Rob Porter, and Rudy Guiliani indicate he has never met a womanizer or a suspected pedophile he didn’t like. Americans feel hateful, fearful, and divided because their elected officials are disrupting the country with partisan wars and the normalizing of dishonesty to promote their self-interests.
Has America been reduced to the likes of a dysfunctional family unable to recover its stability because of abuse by its authority figures? Family therapy practice describes a dysfunctional family as rigid authoritarian, oppressive, critical, emotionally suppressed, and abusive. Comparatively, under the non-leadership and character-flawed ” former guy,” America became a system as dysfunctional as a troubled family where the authority figure is incompetent, impaired, and selfish, rendering the rest of the family members confused, traumatized, disconnected, distrustful, and damaged.
Neither political party is made up of flawless people. However, the current Republican party’s level of dysfunction has become a threat to the country’s moral character and democracy itself. No matter what transgression a party member commits, Republicans stay silent. On any issue related to compassion, humanity, equality, or safety, they are disengaged. Lying has replaced facts. Dishonesty is justified in the name of winning elections and retaining power. The disinformation machine has become normalized and fueled by hyperbolic performance journalists. The Republican politicization of information has manipulated their base to trust everything FOX news and Trump acolytes report, no matter how false or toxic it may be.
Psychotherapists treat patients who believe in conspiracy theories, compulsively lie, are abusive, selfish, and do not feel empathy. These patients wreak devastation on their families. Lying and strange beliefs make it impossible for family members to trust. Self-esteem is damaged by abuse, and narcissism causes neglect and loneliness. Compassionless people create a sad, isolated home environment. In the atmosphere of this severe dysfunction, disconnected, adversarial relationships develop, which results in aggression, arguing, sabotage, and abandonment. Under the autocratic, divisive, dishonest, and corrupt leadership of Donald Trump, America now functions like a sick family. It is a battlefield between political parties, ethnic groups, genders, and individual states. Unless the negative emotions and attitudes Americans feel about their differences improve, tolerance, compassion, and healthy functionality will be impossible to achieve.
The Republican party now relies on division and cheating to win elections instead of creating policies for solutions for America’s problems. They oppose every policy and piece of legislation introduced by Democrats, solely based on hate-driven partisanship. The current GOP is not interested in encouraging Americans from diverse cultures, races, religions, or political parties to respect each other. The politics of division is dysfunctional because it promotes conflict without an equitable resolution.
Now that America has a president in office who is committed to uniting Americans from all walks of life, the federal government should establish a program dedicated to providing education to the public on how morality, honesty, and tolerance enhances the quality of our lives and how divisiveness and disinformation degrade the quality of our lives. Monthly newsletters written by non-partisans in government, psychology, sociology, and history should be provided to all Americans. Disinformation filling the heads of many Americans must be replaced with information to motivate the masses to pursue a functional, moral government.
Trump surrogates do not want their constituents to be educated with truths and facts, so the Democrats have to do it. Instead of spending millions of dollars on campaign mailings to Democrats, the Biden Administration should produce a monthly education newsletter and send it to rural Americans who Trump, Fox News entertainment journalists are gaslighting. A one-page, easy read newsletter must be made by the White House to combat the disinformation steering the country towards authoritarianism.
