Imagine being in a room outlined with gray clouds and not clearly delineated walls. And inside, so many people, either in black tuxedos and white shirts, or pastel-colored dresses. A few, however, stood out with slightly sharper but still muted colors, some red and blue, others orange, like a sunrise, or purple like dusk. It felt a bit like a dance competition in a fantasy world.
The opposition was, of course, to DT and his regime. But nowhere was HIS name spoken or did HIS image appear. It was all unstated, forbidden, but everyone knew what was going on. We were dancing to oppose a dictator and possibly save our lives, despite at the same time knowing that anyone who stood out too much, anyone who seemed too “different,” and especially anyone who took the role of leader could be “disappeared.”
I was standing a bit on the sidelines, occasionally talking with people, mostly watching; and looking much younger than I am now. One person I was watching was this older person, in their 80s or 90s, dressed in what traditionally was a woman’s clothes, yet in a sharper red. And they were dancing like a pro, with moves so individual they were shockingly in opposition to conforming and surrendering one’s freedom.
I began to wonder if she would soon collapse and be taken out on a stretcher or just disappeared. And crazily, unbelievably, I was beginning to imagine letting loose like that, and dancing in ways I’ve never danced before. Would I then be disappeared? Would my health deteriorate? Or maybe, it was exactly dancing that made me feel young?
It’s remarkable that I had this dream the night after deciding to write a blog about a president who is so crazily, dangerously set on building up displays to his ego. Tolerating any opposition to his ideas or any differences at all, or any policy that benefited the nation but not his own power and financial situation, was unthinkable, forbidden.
ABC News recently published a list of people attacked for defying him. It includes Democrats, Republicans, his former cabinet members, etc. The article could also include all the election workers, victims of Epstein’s crimes, tv hosts and entertainers, reporters, judges, and so many others who spoke out against him; or women alleging sexual misconduct, former employees suing him for nonpayment of wages, etc..
And his war against Iran– when DT claims he has brilliantly brought it to a conclusion, remember that he started it to begin with for no clearly justifiable reason. Did he start it imagining he’d be glorified for bringing regime change to Iran as quickly as he subdued Venezuela? Did he start it to destroy Iran’s missile stockpile, end their nuclear capacity, or to help his friend Netanyahu? Or maybe he did it reap profits from the war? Maybe it was a crazed whim? Or maybe, as some have alleged, it was to distract the nation from the persistent, increasing reports about his possible participation in Jeffrey Epstein abuses and crimes? His rationalizations kept changing.
His treaty or memorandum of understanding to end the war, is just an agreement to search for an agreement. And does it improve the situation in the Middle East? In an article in the Atlantic, national security scholar Tom Nichols wrote, “it is clear that Trump has failed to achieve every one of the goals he put forward for this war of choice, and now he is determined to deliver America’s capitulation as quickly as possible.” Historian Heather Cox Richardson agrees with Nichols. Iran is battered but stronger while we are strategically worse off than before the war.
Although the fighting will hopefully stop, Iran is now under an even more extremist regime than before, even more strongly in the grip of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The Strait of Hormuz will hopefully, sometime be opened but– administered by Iran and they can shut it down at any time. They still have the capacity to sponsor terrorism– and we have spent billions, depleted weapons supplies, disrupted alliances, and lives have been lost not only of our soldiers but civilians in the Middle East. NPR reported the war has increased ‘disquiet’ in the military and worsened our ability to retain troops. Moody’s has calculated the war cost taxpayers $100 billion & counting.
In terms of Iran’s nuclear capacity, Iran promises not to develop nuclear weapons. Promises promises. But clearly, we are worse off than before 2018. It was in 2018 that DT tore up President Obama’s treaty of 2015, which had been successfully working to limit Iran. Even now, Iran is nowhere near developing the bomb.
Senator Cassidy, Republican from Louisiana, called the war the “Worst foreign policy blunder in decades.”
And meanwhile, we in the US are paying higher prices for gas and other essentials while Iran will be getting $24 billion in unfrozen assets and cash, and a $300 billion reconstruction fund. Who’s the winner here? Instead of working to lower prices on necessities in the US, improve health care and infrastructure, DT is using our tax money to start wars and celebrate himself. He wants to build an arch to himself and a giant ballroom, put his face on our money; he spent $60 million to stage a UFC fight on the front lawn of the White House, and he illegally renamed the Kennedy Center–temporarily. This renaming was recently struck down by the courts and his name removed.
In response to questions about inflation in the US and the pain it’s bringing to so many, he responds “I love inflation.”
He also tried to make us taxpayers pay for a $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund to help him weaponize our government. The money would go to those who tried to stage a coup on his behalf and nullify our votes, attacked the capital, and assaulted police officers. He’s been trying to re-write history and claim these rioters were instead victims of political prosecution. Was this fund proposed to wave his power in the face of opponents and create an army to serve him?
Such actions are destructive not only to the nation but himself. They make the US more vulnerable. They waste money. Meanwhile, his standing with Americans and worldwide, and the chance his party will retain power have all decreased. This is a good thing for the US but bad for him. Hopefully, his self-destructiveness won’t bring all of us down with him. Historian Timothy Snyder said, “When you elevate the mad king, you elevate the madness.”
As Carl Jung and others tell us, dreams speak truth in their own language. They reach deeply into the most intimate realities of ourselves, ones just before speech and masks can be formed, to reveal dimensions of our response to events in the world we don’t see or we ignore when awake. They highlight how a passing moment reaches into the timeless and pushes us to puzzle our lives and shake loose meanings.
They also reach deeply into our need to act. In this case, the dream brought to my attention one aspect of the frightening world we’re now living; and the exhausting, threatening, yet necessary choices we face. We might fear the price we’ll pay for opposing him. But the price we’ll pay if we don’t, and the possibly wondrous benefits to so many if we do, means we can do it anyway.
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