Sunday, September 17, 2017

The New Normal Is Still Not Normal

Is it just me or is the political circus breaking for an intermission?

Yes, I know that the president watched FOX News, then tweeted that the British knew who the suspects were in Friday's terrorist attack. And he also reiterate his position that civil rights agitators are just as bad as Nazis and Klan members.

But somehow, it feels different.

Maybe it's that the president struck a deal with Democrats about the debt ceiling and agreed with Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi that we shouldn't deport 800,000 people who were brought here by their parents, have generally led fine American lives, and now risk having their worlds upended because, well, why? There was some speculation that the president was concerned that his poll numbers were just too low or that throwing hard working people out of the country was too egregious even for the right wing media, who generally opposed his proposed policies.

Or it could be that John F. Kelly is actually doing a decent job as White House Chief of Staff and was able to get through the haze and appeal to the president on a level that Trump's children, spouse, past advisers, conscience, sense of decency and humanity, and presidential behavior have not. Or maybe he was just havin' fun, and next week he'll go back to savaging the truth, reacting and tweeting about news stories he hears and calling for the wall to be built.

In the end, it won't matter. Another eruption is always just around the corner. But, again, it just feels different.

And this week, the diplomats come calling for the annual opening of the United Nations. The president is scheduled to give a speech and of course anything goes, and will, when he takes the podium. Then he and his staffers must give some kind of explanation as to what his foreign policy will look like, but when you have no clue or knowledge about that it's difficult to be...cogent.

The great fear among those who oppose the president's agenda is that his behavior and utterances will become normalized. Perhaps we are seeing that. That's why this new feeling can be dangerous. This is no normal Republican administration.

And I don't think it ever will be.

For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest

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