Opinion | America is becoming a banana republic

By Philip Yeung, university teacher

PKY480@gmail.com

America is in trouble, waist-deep trouble. If you doubt this, you only have to look at its Republican candidates for the presidency. Trump, by far its leading contender, is a danger to decency. The more he is indicted, the more money he rakes in from his nutty fan base. A habitual tax cheat, a rapist, a payer of hush money for sex scandal, a serial liar, a racist and a Hitler reincarnate, he is somehow untouchable, the ultimate Teflon-Don. Any other politician saddled with his mountain of legal jeopardy and moral bankruptcy would have been toast. But Trump is gleefully profiting from his spinning notoriety. This wackiest man-child is telling his brain-damaged supporters that "I am indicted for you." And they believe him, lapping up his every fact-free word, and sucking in his disgusting spittle. They open their wallets wide to their cult-leader to feed his falsehoods and fatten his bank accounts. Trump is unquestionably America's most successful big-time professional "pickpocket" and con artist.

His closest rival, Ron DeSantis, equally insecure in his manhood, is trying to out-pig Trump. He is supposed to be the Republican Party's Plan B. But if disaster has a name, it is DeSantis. He has the personality of a Florida alligator. At one time, he was touted as "Trump without the baggage". But lately, his bubble has burst, firing his campaign staff, shooting himself in the foot and putting it in his mouth, with his favorability ratings dropping like a rock. He just survived a car crash, but he may not survive his car crash of a campaign. His political future won't go beyond Miami Beach.

On the Democratic side, there is Robert F. Kennedy Jr. In less than the time it takes to say "Holy Moly", he has tarnished the revered Kennedy name, which commands the most cachet in America. Like his Republican cousins, he, too, is knee-deep into the China conspiracy game, spouting his wild theory that the Covid virus is designed to target Whites and Blacks, sparing the Chinese and the Jews. It is so far-out ridiculous that even his own party and family have pooh-poohed his hallucinations.

What's the matter with America these days? Is it the burgers they eat or the coke they drink or the cocaine they snort? When God wants to destroy a nation, he first makes its leaders mad. Except in America, madness has become an epidemic. Each day, out of the mouths of its leading politicians gush crazy nonsensical notions. This is American democracy in action.

Even a sober-sounding presidential hopeful, Chris Christie, Trump's former sidekick, now his crabbiest critic, has put his snout into the anti-China trough, promising to rush to Taiwan's defense if it is attacked by the mainland. Not content with funding a cruel and calamitous proxy war in Ukraine, America is itching to start a deadlier second front in the East. Far-fetched? Hardly. Not if you listen to the drumbeat of Republican war rhetoric.

The US, unfortunately, has an unchallenged dominance in global affairs. The American brand is broken. It is now equated with the normalization of amorality and insanity, and the dissemination of falsehood and disinformation. The world watches in fear and loathing as this once simon-pure nation goes rogue with its war-mongering. There is no stopping this wrecking ball. Doomsayers are right to be worried. God save us from America.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.

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