Our National Dilemma

The firing of former FBI Director, James Comey, by president Trump has turned into some kind of alternative universe. The political arena, the media and much of the nation have lost their minds over this.

Comey was not fired because president Trump is trying to cover up any ties to him and the Russians and the last election. It’s not about Hilary, either, and her ubiquitous emails. It’s not because Attorney General Jeff Beauregard Sessions told him to do it. What the firing of Comey was about is psychology 101. It’s about Mr. Trump’s gaping insecurity, his paranoia, and his not just demand but neurotic need, for total and unequivocal loyalty.

When James Comey refused to comply with that, he was removed.

What we are seeing is The Apprentice being played out in the White House by celebrity tycoon Donald Trump. There is no governing going on. There are no polices to legislate. Hundreds of important positions in government have not been filled. Chaos monopolizes everything. What we have is simply a president pretending to be president while carrying on his usual business persona.

No one anywhere seems to get this. The media, the Congress, the bumbling and bullying GOP, the passive and impotent Democrats. They all completely ignore president Trump’s genuine, all absorbing need for acceptance and approval. He only gets that from a small posse of people undeniably unfit and incompetent to guide him. They are themselves deeply damaged individuals, some of them even more than that, some of them so unscrupulous and morally warped, they threaten both the president and the nation with their deviant ideas and behavior.

It mystifies me that our leaders apparently have no insight into people like president Trump. I hear nothing from religious leaders other than the same blather that political pundits are saying, that Trump is evil, insane, a preening and greedy manipulating monster. Where are our philosophers and psychiatrists, our therapists and mental health experts? Silence. No one of any legitimate professional reputation is making any effort, as far as I can tell, to understand the president, his manic and disturbing tweets, his endless acting out, his distressing obsession with being favored and approved.

These are serious psychological matters. And to ignore them and just rail on and on about Mr. Trump’s antics does nothing to solve the problem. Mocking him, calling him names, insulting him over and over only fuels the deep menacing fears that consume him.

He has to convince himself that he is a powerful influential person. He does this by surrounding himself with yes people. If they say no he fires them or ignores them or breaks any ties with them. If he has to lie to keep the pretense going, he will and he does. Nothing is allowed to penetrate the thinly veiled farce he has created about himself.

It must be a terribly lonely existence.

We are watching the disintegration of a person who happens to be the president of the United States. Unless a true friend intervenes, someone more interested in the president than in their own ambition and cashing in on Trumps bizarre conduct; unless someone with human compassion and moral courage, who can win his trust and offer authentic concern and stand in the gap and convince Mr. Trump he must get help or step down, or unless a Republican-controlled Congress initiates impeachment proceedings, then our fragile democracy may very well be torn to pieces.

This is not a time for petty wrangling, empty rage, cute zingers, and hostile disputes. The country is facing a serious crisis of national identity. Our most treasured values are at risk. The freedoms we enjoy and the human dignity we claim are all in jeopardy.

President Trump needs help. And now.

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The Unclad Soul

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