.png)
1 day ago
6
Simon Jenkins is right: Donald Trump is certainly moving fast and, two months in, the sound of things breaking is cacophonous. His contention that the end result might be a better US, however, is beyond contrarian (27 March).
In rejecting his argument, I would cite the work of several American commentators and academics: the constitutional and legal experts Marc Elias and Joyce Vance, the widely acclaimed historians Timothy Snyder and Heather Cox Richardson, and the Yale philosopher Jason Stanley are all full of apprehension for the future of the country they love. None suggests an upside; all anticipate a long and difficult fight. The risk is existential.
To take two examples of how serious the challenge to American democracy is, I would draw attention to Mr Trump’s relentless efforts at voter suppression and the willingness of his officials both to break the law and to disobey direct judicial instructions. Beyond this, there is the trashing of decades-old alliances, the coddling of Vladimir Putin, the betrayal of Ukraine, the ludicrous appointments, the barefaced lying, the reduction of politics to spectacle and the full-frontal assault on the structures of the federal state. So no, I find it impossible to see how any of this will have the positive outcome Mr Jenkins anticipates.
John Bailey
Farnborough, Hampshire
Mark Zuckerberg may have said “move fast and break things” years ago, but he did not break organisations, government departments or the lives of impoverished peoples. He broke concepts, and did no damage. Elon Musk is trying to break organisations that provide food and medical aid to extremely poor people. There are ways to improve organisations, but using a chainsaw and wholesale sackings are not the answers.
Simon Jenkins writes: “The US may review its role in the world, ... revert to being … another nation among nations.” That seems very admirable, but Donald Trump is not doing that. Trump wants to put the US above other nations, using its economic and military power, and if others let him, he will take what he wants. He sees Putin as somebody in his own mould.
Yes, Russia is obsessed with its frontier states, yet it has to accept that it can’t rule over people who by misfortune border its land. The Baltic states, Ukraine and others want freedom, and we in western Europe and others believe we have to help them in that desire.
Jeffrey Frankel
Lisbon, Portugal
Simon Jenkins optimistically proposes that Donald Trump and his fellow “playground thugs” provide necessary and overdue challenges to convention. I doubt that Jenkins’ lofty hopes are shared by the countries and individuals who will be hit hardest by Trump’s smash-and-burn approach. To give so little consideration to those losing their jobs, healthcare, aid, social security and democratic freedoms while Trump “moves fast” seems self-indulgent and shortsighted.
Far from constructive movers and shakers, Trump et al may be more accurately compared to the privileged Great Gatsby characters Tom and Daisy Buchanan, who “smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money … and let other people clean up the mess they had made”. Breaking the fibre of a democratic society hurts the most vulnerable, and may take decades to repair.
Dr Annie Hickox
Thirsk, North Yorkshire
