I admit I think that it’s a good thing, the way Trump twists around ineffectually, struggling to respond to the crisis of the hour.  It guarantees he can’t actually get things passed.  I hate almost every goal Trump seems poised to try, so I’m good with that.  But even the good stuff is bad news these days.

Note that, perversely, I’d love seeing him try to do the great things he actually promised people.  (A trillion in infrastructure?  Goodie!  Better health care for everyone, all the time, that’s cheaper than the ACA?  You betcha!)  But that’s never happening, because, you know, Trump.  And Republicans.  So constant turmoil is good enough, so long as it keeps his grubby little mitts off the levers of power.

Besides, I enjoy watching him suffer.  It leaves me feeling happy.  Hey, Don, having a bad day?  Is it really terrible, giving you headaches and stomach acid?

Good.

<Sigh>

But it isn’t enough.  Watching Trump fumble through his Charlottesville response, and then Boston, all I see is the damage to America.  Trump is deliberately working to weaken our democracy.  And the truly crazy-making bit?  We have no choice but to let him.

‘Democratic institutions’ don’t have expensive offices.  Well, not always.  They’re the main bulwark of democracy as we see it, but they’re things like a free speech, a culture of inclusion, an active press, citizen involvement, non-partisan government services, the idea of ‘public service’, and so on.  Consider it ‘squishy’, if you want.

Trump is undercutting as many of these as he can.  He uses cultural weapons with a unique skill: ‘rapists and murders’, ‘anti-police demonstrators’, ‘fake news’ (a classic), ‘millions of illegal voters’, ‘bureaucrats’, and all the rest.  They’re words and ideas meant to weaken our respect for each other, to make us more vulnerable and easier to manipulate.

Not that Trump doesn’t use the obvious powers that being President gives him.  Trump spits out Executive Orders left and right; he hires the worst partisan hacks to actively destroy balance and honesty in the Executive; he applies loyalty pledges for people who should be objective, and hires his family over and over.

Anyone who’s read a tweet knows about Trump’s cultural war.  We make fun of the nonsense and noise as Trump escalates and doubles down, lighting himself on fire to distract us from his last disaster.  But as nonsensical as it seems, all the noise and fury isn’t just empty.  We’re being hurt, and it’s worse than you think.

So, ‘democratic institutions’.  Like what, you ask?

Here’s one.  Climb up the military chain of command and at the tippity-top, you’ll find civilians, not generals.  We’re proud of that, and for good reason.  Many countries suffer from military threats and domination.  It’s a big problem, but not here.  We don’t want our own Generals deciding which leader they approve of, or which actions they’d deign to follow.  Not in America, we said.  So we ensure the military reports to civilians, and we don’t allow members of the military to act like civilians, either.

Except now.  The problem now is that Trump only supports family, cronies, or, for whatever reason, generals.  I don’t know, he likes ’em, but they’re usually the only candidates he nominates who aren’t obviously and grossly compromised right out of the gate.  Think Scaramucci.  We don’t like the way he chooses so many military and ex-military people, but given that his other nominations are the stuff of nightmares, we don’t have a real alternative.

“Lemmie see…” The Senator said.  “So Trump gave us H.R. McMaster’s name.  He still active military?”

“Yes sir,” the aide said.

“That’s not ideal.  Who’s the other nominee?”

“Um… I believe it’s… well…” the man takes a deep breath, “Cthulhu, the Great Old One.  Um, his resume says he’s the son of Yog-Shotothdark, son of Azathoth, and lord of the elder gods.”

“Hmmm.  Photogenic family?”

The aide flips a page and gasps, dropping the papers.  “Um, no sir,” he says, suppressing a gag.

The Senator looks down at the falling paper in surprise, then he winces.  “Is that an octopus?”

“No sir, his face.  I think.  He uses the tentacles for… I’m not…” the sweating aide carefully shuffles the papers up while carefully looking away.  “He has a scales, claws, and… um… I think I remember bat-wings.”  He puts the papers face-down on the table.

“All right, all right.”  The Senator closes his eyes and rubs his forehead, looking pained.

So we’ve gotten James Mattis, retired General and former head of Central Command.  He’s a good man, but he only retired three years ago.  Trump nominated him for Secretary of Defense, the civilian head of the military.  Current law forbids anyone recently out of the military to have that job, and for good reasons.  Trump got a waiver for Mattis.  The only choices we had were worse, but we’re left with an important institution — civilian leadership of the military — that’s degraded.  At this point, it wouldn’t be a huge step to have a General ‘retire’ straight into a civilian role.  Just like in so many other countries.

The Senator looks down at the other aide.  “Who’s up for National Security Advisor?  Not  Kellog, is it?

“No sir.  That package is next.”

The Senator pushes aside a folder, then opens the next, peering.  “Is that… um…” He looks at the page.  He tilts his head to the left, then the right.  Reaching into his jacket automatically, the Senator pulls out his reading glasses and holds them up to his eyes. He peers, then gasps, jerking back, dropping his glasses, and shoving the papers away from him.  “Oh my God in heaven!”  he wheezes, staring at the photo, the color drained from his face.

“Yes sir.  Ny-Rakath, the brother of Shub-Niggurath.  Ah… the President also submitted Scott Pruitt’s name, sir.”

The confirmation hearings were colorful, but several partly-chewed Congressional interns were found stuffed into the shred bins afterwords.

So, compared to the other options, Lieutenant General H. R. McMaster as the US National Security Advisor seems like a deal.  The NSA is less critical as a civilian post — better than the Secretary of Defense, anyway — but it’s still an important check on military abuses of intelligence.  The military runs much of the government’s intelligence, and their results often drive subsequent military actions.  Civilian checks against military decisions are critical.  Having an active military man in that position would have been unthinkable before now, but again, it was the least evil option we had.

Another institution — civilian leadership of intelligence — falls.

Now we have former General John F. Kelly as Trump’s Chief of staff.  He retired in 2016, served as Trump’s Secretary of Homeland Security in 2017, and moved to Chief of Staff recently.  Another military man working in civilian positions.  Maybe he’s good at it, but does anyone think he’s not at least considering how each decision affects the military he served and reveres?

I’m not saying that any of these men are poor choices for service, but they have conflicts of interest between military and civilian concerns.  They’re probably acting the best they can, but we depend on their ability to act appropriately despite these conflicts.

We have no choice but to accept each compromise.  With Trump, the alternatives are worse.

The American military is commanded by civilians, and Trump is the Commander-in-Chief.  The military is required to follow his direction and his commands.  They may not decide on their own what to do, and they may not disobey the Commander in Chief’s directions.  This is a key part of America’s civilian democracy.

Yesterday, the five Joint Chiefs each issuing official denunciations of the murderous racism that our execrable President Trump embraces.  Again, we have no real choice, since the alternatives — silence — are much, much worse.  It speaks well of them that they couldn’t remain quiet.

But all the Military Joint Chiefs have openly and publicly disagreed with their civilian boss.  As reasonable as it is, the military has declared a political position.  That’s bad, and breaks yet another of the democratic institutions we depend on.

So, while I agree with each step, I know that each of these compromises damages us as a nation, and as a democracy.  With a clear precedent for the military to disagreeing with the current American President, what happens when some future President issues an order that’s as unpopular with the military as, say, integration was.  After this precedent, do you think the military would be more likely to follow through, or less?  What about military actions they don’t feel are justified?

Yes, Trump is deeply incompetent, but this isn’t incompetence.  Trump corrupts independence and checks and balances, and he does it intentionally and openly.  Every.  Single.  Time.  He doesn’t tolerate the independent thought and actions, because he sees each one — rightly — as a threat his absolute authority.  He’s working to crush each of them as quickly as he can.  And he’s got a lifetime of practice in doing exactly that.  Trump is very good at corrupting people and institutions.

So far during his administration, Trump has been hamstring, legislatively.  Self-inflicted, sure, but he hasn’t gotten a single important law passed or signed so far.  And I’m OK with that.  I am in teeth-gritting agreement with Putin’s goals of crippling the President because the alternatives are so much worse.  I’m happy seeing Trump flailing.

But Trump is still damaging America in basic, essential ways.  We can’t see all of them, but they’re important, and we may never recover from what he does every day.

America matters to people outside the US.  I don’t think we understand how much the people in other nations depend on America’s voice.  They know America isn’t always perfect, or even right (lord knows), but people know that we care and that we try to change to the world to be something better.

Many cultures have a long-standing indifference to governmental problems.  They know there’s corruption, poverty, and injustice, but they’ve always been there.  They just accept that as given.  ‘What can you do?’ they say resignedly.

America doesn’t accept that.  We think we can make things better, and we act.  It makes a difference.  Even when we’re ineffective, the fact that we’re at least trying to make things better matters.  People see that.   It wasn’t until I talked to people outside the US that I saw how important that role was.

Not so much of that these days.  Too hard for Trumpie, I guess, or not enough in it for him.  These days, even the good is bad news.