October 27, 2017
Trump makes a lot of people nervous and worried. And for good reason. Recent polls show that most people in this country do not think Trump has the ability to lead our country during a global crisis. Most people think Trump lies. Most think he does not care about them. Most think our country is going in the wrong direction. That is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the growing sense of concern about Trump. Trump has shown over and over again that he is not fit to be president in many ways. We see how he stirs the pot of hatred. Instead of being a voice for unity as most presidents are, he is a voice for disharmony and divisiveness. His appeal to white grievance voters energizes his base, but aggrieves the rest of the people in this country. Beyond his continued insistence that he is really there for the blue-collar guy, there is little to no evidence that he really is there for them (evidence of that is the health care fight and now the tax cuts for the wealthy, even his opioid emergency proclamation has no teeth- no additional funding and will, in fact, be losing funding). There are many people in the rust belt who voted for him reluctantly after voting twice for Obama. They switched parties, voting for Trump hoping that he was the unlikely populist hero they yearned for. These voters have been getting schooled in the real Donald Trump who is there for the rich and for the Nativists who fear change and want to return to the bad ole days. We can see this now. And many of these voters would not vote for Trump again. They, along with many of us who did not vote for Trump, are worried, even if his solid core 35% of Republican base of rapid right wing primary voters love him and enjoy every minute of this new Trump dominated world we are living in.
Nonetheless, a majority of Americans are worried about Trump.
What we who are worried can see more clearly now that he has been in office for 9 months, is that something is seriously wrong about the way the guy thinks. Something is really wrong with his brain. But many can’t quite place it. Journalists and reporters muse about his lying. Why does he lie so much? Why is it that he can get something in his head that he believes and then stick to it with utter conviction despite evident and irrefutable information to the contrary? Behind the scenes, lawmakers who interact with him whisper that he must have Altzheimer’s or early dementia. They mention the way he says things over and over again and the sorry state of his limited vocabulary. They are aware of his inability to concentrate. He is temperamental and erratic as well as impulsive. The nature of Trump’s thinking is baffling to many people. Probably most pressing of all is this concern: why does he lie so much and what does that mean about the way he thinks and behaves in the role of president?
For those of us in the professional world, I sense a greater feeling of uneasiness and fear about Trump being in the driver’s seat of the bus we are all stuck on. We realize the many character flaws and shortcomings of this bus driver and for many there is growing consensus that Trump poses a clear and present danger to all of us. This comes at a time when Republican lawmakers are normalizing and supporting this president; they are doing what they can to deny and ignore his problems. We can see more clearly than ever before that Trump will stay in the driver’s seat even if a few Republicans peel off (McCain, Flake, Corker). The rest of them have apparently climbed aboard the Trump train and, although they know better, they are acting like everything is just fine and dandy.
It isn’t. There is a growing sense in America that it isn’t. The majority knows better. We know better.
There is a gathering storm of energy among us who are seeing the truth of the matter. We know he cannot lead. We know he is uninformed. And we know he lies and lies with impunity and without compunction. Thousands of lies. He lies openly every single day. He gets other people to lie for him and protect him with lies. (John Kelly, Sean Spicer, Sarah Sanders, Jeff Sessions and many others.)
There is good reason to be worried about a president who is detached from reality and truth.
This online community of psychiatrists and psychologists and mental health professionals can help people to gain understanding about the underlying reasons why we in the majority are feeling worried about Trump. The public and main stream media is concerned and wants to understand why Trump lies and whether and to what extent he is detached from reality. Not crazy like a fox but really crazy in the sense that he does not experience a reality that can be affected by facts. He lives in his own inner and impenetrable world.
This is where this group, Duty to Warn, could have a very important impact on the conversation. If this group can help lawmakers and the American people understand the impaired relationship Trump has with the truth and why he has this problem, this information could become part of the conversation that could help more Americans see that Trump needs to be removed from the driver’s seat.
How do you get rid of this driver?
It is not likely that the 25th Amendment will be a viable way to remove him, because a group of cabinet members requesting that he leave would be seen as a bloodless coup and the Republicans will not be on board with that. Many of our current lawmakers in the House and Senate, fearful of his wrath and the wrath of his followers, would say that Trump carries out his daily duties, therefore he should be allowed to stay in power as our duly elected 25th president. In addition, Trump has the power under the 25th Amendment to reject the decision that he should leave. He can simply say “No. I am fine. I won’t go.” Game over.
It does not seem, given the current political situation, likely that Trump will be impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors which would include obstruction of justice and conspiracy to violate our campaign finance laws or election laws by illegally obtaining materials of value from a foreign enemy. Even if he is guilty of these and other crimes, as long as the Republicans are in the majority of the House and Senate, afraid of Trump, afraid to lose their seats in Congress, they will be unlikely to impeach. We can see that they are getting on the Trump train, not rejecting him at this point.
The only way presidents get removed from office is by impeachment but impeachment has to do with the political will of the House majority. Right now, there is no political will there. They are all afraid that Bannon will primary them if they do not go along with everything Trump demands of them.
But against this backdrop of current spinelessness we see in Republican lawmakers, there is, nonetheless, a growing number of Americans, both Republicans and Democrats who want him to leave office. The way it might actually come to pass, I think, is if Mueller comes out with clear findings of conspiracy and obstruction of justice by Trump himself, which seems likely to happen. Mueller’s findings will be attacked by the right wing, but if there is convincing evidence, many Americans both Democrats and Republicans could rise up and join a chorus to demand ouster. And if that happens, even if Trump stays in office, then it is more likely that 2018 will be a wave election in which more Democrats get into the House and Senate. Democrats do not have to be afraid of being primaried by Bannon or worried that Trump will tweet at them. If there is a wave election, then Trump could be impeached and probably would be impeached by a newly empowered House with the will to do that.
