Caffeinated Politics

A Bluesky posting from Adam Kinzinger caught my attention this week.

The thing that bothers me so much is not the “we have to enforce our borders and laws.” We do.

It’s the giddy joy and celebration they have at the misery of people far less fortunate.

Always punching down

Since Inauguration Day, there has been one continuing theme emanating from Donald Trump and his administration. OK, two themes. The first is complete absurdity. The second is cruelty. Often times they are are one and the same. I am sick of it. I strongly suspect my readers are too.

There are wagonloads of examples (the phrase comes to mind as farmers are bringing in produce from the field on these warm dry fall days) to show what I am writing about in this column.

Perhaps one of the most despicable and cruelty-based -based policy moves from Trump was the executive order instructing federal agencies to block gender-affirming care for trans youth under the age of 19. The intent was clear, and that was to deny care to a vulnerable group.

Consider how the Justice Department rescinded guidance documents related to the Americans with Disabilities Act, making it harder for disabled Americans to access public spaces and services.

Or ponder how this administration rescinded a memorandum that supported global labor rights, weakening protections for workers both domestically and abroad.

My reading of history proves that in a healthy democracy, moral and reasoned leadership is measured not by how it treats the powerful, but by how it protects the vulnerable. That idea has been attacked under Trump’s administration, as cruelty has become not just a byproduct of policy, but it’s very driving point.

From immigration crackdowns to social safety net rollbacks, the pattern is unmistakable. There is designed policies that disproportionately harms the poor, the undocumented, and the marginalized. The Nazi-like Stephen Miller openly celebrates and advocates these cruel actions. What I know from studying history is the disturbing practice now being demonstrated from this White House of punching down. It is not only ugly but a massive political problem. Targeting above your weigh class is considered more the noble path to take. (But then, who is above Donald Trump’s weight class?)

Consider just the rhetoric this year. Immigrants are demonized as criminals, welfare recipients as lazy, and protestors as threats to the very fabric of the country. These absurd narratives aren’t just divisive, but too often downright dehumanizing. They serve to somehow, in the addled minds of MAGA, justify dangerous policies that inflict suffering while stoking resentments among those who might otherwise empathize. It’s a politics of scapegoating, where the pain of the powerless becomes a spectacle for the powerful. We know throughout history how some in a leadership position would create ‘the other’, an outsider or group seeming to be less ‘worthy’ so to score points with the leader’s base. That is the Trump playbook now being offered to the nation. One that is wholly wretched.

This isn’t governance. It’s bullying. And when cruelty becomes a governing principle, it corrodes the very foundation of civic life. It teaches citizens to look away from suffering to cheer for punishment, and to measure success by how much pain can be inflicted on those with the least power to fight back. That is the ground rule in the retribution-laved Trump White House.

Reading history tells me that actual leadership should elevate and inspire compassion. Not create utter and complete contempt as the Trump White House is manufacturing. I am quite confident in saying Trump never spent any time in Sunday school learning basic guidelines for living a life of giving or providing an uplift for others. How Trump became such a low person where it is accepted that cruelty is the ideal and where empathy is replaced by glee in others’ misfortune is something that historians need to sort out and explain.