‘Trumping of our future’

The cascade of bad ideas tumbling down on us from Trump and the Republicans is overwhelming our capacity to keep up with the sheer number of noxious notions and developing disasters. In addition to the message sent to the world when Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Paris Accord dedicated to fighting global warming, the trumping of our future is also being effectuated by deep cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency.

On every imaginable front, the right wing is doing the very worst things imaginable, from attacks on the elderly (cutting Meals on Wheels) to attacks on kids (cutting funding for school lunch programs). It’s bad guys on steroids, a caricature of villainy. “Let evil be unbound” could serve as the slogan for the American right wing these days. Republicans have become so aggressive, overt and shameless that it would hardly be a surprise if they adopted such a motto. They can’t do anything remotely shitty enough to alienate their benighted base.

They want to privatize everything from Social Security to the schools, from prisons to national parks. Grover Norquist’s ambition of shrinking government until it is small enough to drown in the bathtub is being realized, except for the military, of course, and the transfer of ever bigger bundles of taxpayer money to corporations.

Among the latest privatization schemes is Trump’s plan to redefine public-sector air traffic controllers as private-sector “nonprofit” business employees. Like all the privatization plans, however, this idea is sold the old-fashioned way, through lies and deception. It is a thinly disguised boon to the airline industry, transferring chunks of their tax burden directly to passengers. We’re told that it’s all about efficiency, but if this happens, it’s just going to be more bad news for already beleaguered airline travelers.

Ronald Reagan began his assault on unions by going after air traffic controllers. Trump’s move is in the same vein. In the long run, it will cost more and make us less safe. But the airlines love it, so what could possibly go wrong?