The Witness Chronicles, 5/18/25
Why not just trust others?
What Happened to Common Decency?
And what are they all so angry about?
Temper tantrums are something small toddlers resort to when they can’t get what they want. Scream, cry, blame, and shame until someone quiets them down. But who quiets down an angry toddler when he is President of the United States?
And what, exactly, is he so pissed off about? He has the world at his feet and it’s not enough. Americans have long taken pride in not being victims, of standing up in the face of adversity, and of being magnanimous in victory. In other words, being a decent human being.
Apparently, not any more. Too much is never enough seems to be the mantra in the world of Donald Trump. If you gain an inch instead of a foot, it is someone else’s fault, never your own.
This seems to be the disease that grips my country these days and, frankly, I am ashamed to see it take hold, or appear to. But my immersion in the news, which these days is out of control, sometimes blinds me to the common decency most of us still practice.
Trump and his mouthpieces are gaslighting the country, creating constant mayhem and fear to cover for what they are really doing. The pattern is now obvious. When the news, or the courts, or public opinion is going against them, they create a distraction. And a lot of the media fall for it, desperate for a scoop or to simply just fill up the insatiable need for content, even if that content doesn’t hold up to the slightest scrutiny.
Selfish people constantly make excuses and blame others and somehow that has become acceptable for many Americans, and now that acceptance has become the rule of thumb in the White House and Congress. But has this disease infected most of us?
Fortunately I’d say no, not yet. The way we treat strangers is the bellwether for what kind of person we are. That’s because they are strangers which means we don’t know them so we have two choices. Make a judgement based on appearance or behavior or assume they are decent people.
We’re living in a country that is now snatching up anyone who is not white, speaks another language, or looks different, and threatening them just because of those differences. That is not like a police state, that is a police state and somehow we have become one in just a few months under an unhinged leader who has decided no one matters who does not agree with him or even just wants to lead a quiet life.
A glaring example of all this dominating the news right now is the Biden blame game. Two respected reporters felt the need to document Biden’s cognitive decline and his protectors who sought to hide it from the public, even as we watched it unfold in real time.
This was a historic event because Biden was President and a public figure, so documenting this was legitimate journalism. But the book created a massive outburst of the blame game, turning Biden and his handlers into the root cause of all this Trump damage, a story Trump has been more than willing to exploit.
The reality is that we should feel compassion for the man. He did not choose to decline, and it is normal to refuse to accept it when you are. That’s why it’s called cognitive decline. But what purpose does throwing blame around accomplish? Ultimately it is a distraction from the awful reality of what Trump is doing, something far more destructive than anything Joe Biden did.
His story encapsulates this public decline in normal decency. The man, who had a distinguished and productive career in public service, including most of his Presidency, is now being rewritten into recent history as the source of Trump’s second win. It is absolutely pointless at this point in time.
But that is the dark nature of politics and right now we have far worse problems than anything being blamed on Biden. Right now, the dark nature is the dominating political rule and Trump is using the darkness to cover his corruption and lust for power.
That’s the real story right now and all the rest is a smokescreen. It’s vital that we all remember that as we catalog today’s events, events that could very well change the course of history, for the worse.
Decency is the light that reveals truth and it costs nothing.
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Martin
Wag the Dog
I agree. Thank you for your writing, highlighting that this atmosphere of blaming and deflecting is not the culture we've grown up to believe normal, conscientious adults work to live up to. I was shocked to see "Biden's Decline" back in the news again. With all that's going on now that Trump and his cronies are actively doing to destroy our country and hurt people, surely that is not relevant news!
But, yes, as you pointed out, they will use anything, no matter how irrelevant or cruel, to defect from the real news. Especially the news of judges repeatedly mandating that they stop the illegal deportation and other unlawful actions. Or the very low public approval rate. Or the devaluing of the dollar and dangerous dips in the economy.
Trump is a narcissist and con man and the Republican party and wealthy elites are using him to destroy the democracy that has limited them. I don't think there's any rational reason for their behavior, other than this.
Those of us who still believe in the qualities of decency, kindness, rationality, and fairness need to work hard to maintain them, while protesting and resisting the actions of the bullies in power.