COLUMN: Anything goes

I’m a “theater and movie geek.” I’ve attended, directed and acted in my share of theatrical productions. Movies are anticipated. I love the Oscar and Tony Awards. I’m not sure whether it matters if art imitates life or life imitates art.

Life in the U.S. today feels like the title of a Broadway show called “Anything Goes” or a Jim Carey movie called the “The Truman Show” only the main character and title would be “The Trump Show.” Everything rotates around the current president and his ever-changing whims or tantrums.

Americans are living in a reality movie of President Trump’s design, disrupting our security, hopes and belief in national stability.

I shake my head too often as the daily barrage of newsbites are revealed. I’m old enough to remember the GOP meltdown when Obama wore a tan suit. It was catastrophic and drew headlines for weeks. I long for the tan suit days.

Each day we face acts of cruelty, international confrontation, ICE raids, weather chaos, disease breakouts or palace intrigue within the presidents’ cabinet, which occupy all news and social media.

The world turns upside down with each comment made on Truth Social, executive order, judge’s intervention in illegal behavior, announcements of ever-changing tariff rates and comments about weather, “fake news”, the deep state, conspiracy theories or anything that is displeasing to the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Let’s recall a few of the most startling moves since Inauguration Day, no specific order intended.

President Trump last week remarked at the Iowa State Fair grounds that he “hated all Democrats.” How can a sitting president make that statement? Isn’t a president elected to represent all Americans, not just the ones of their own political party? Imagine if Obama had made that statement standing on the Iowa State Fair grounds. Think about the outrage it would have caused!

The president has a habit of declaring reporters asking a difficult question “evil” or incompetent. Every question is a personal afront. Reporters ask questions. “The buck stops” at the president’s desk and he should know the answers. In a democracy, questioning is appropriate and answers are expected from elected leaders.

Over the weekend, the 47th President floated the idea that he would revoke the citizenship of Rosie O’Donnell, a natural-born U.S. citizen. He doesn’t have that authority. He isn’t king, even if he thinks he is.

ICE agents execute raids wearing masks covering their faces, displaying no identification of their authority and plucking people off the streets in black unmarked vehicles. It looks more like an espionage movie or life in a police state, not the United States. Unfortunately, it happens on a daily basis.

Brown-skinned people or people with accents have been the targets. Legal rights regardless of citizenship status have been ignored. No due process rights, phone calls or access to legal counsel, refusal to reveal the location where they are being held or taken is the common course of treatment. That is not how a democracy works.

Kristi Noem and the 47th President are proud of “Alligator Alcatraz.” Would you want to be there? A Congressional delegation gained entry on Saturday, July 12, only to discover questionable conditions, 32 people living in cages with toilet/sink units, questionable food, insects everywhere and wastewater on the floor. The delegation was not allowed to interact with detainees or to view conditions in the areas of incarceration. Descriptions of the facility are split along partisan lines.

What is the point of the chaos? Is it deflection to divert attention from uglier truths? Is cruelty the point, to gain sick pleasure from ignoring another’s humanity?

Immigrants do jobs U.S. citizens won’t like working in hotel housekeeping, food service, vegetable fields, packing plants, roofing and road work. Their reward for building our infrastructure is to be picked up off the streets, trying to live a semblance of ordinary life.

We cannot be desensitized to the horror and fear experienced by immigrants who came to the U.S. seeking education, safety and a better life. We aren’t part of a reality show. It’s our responsibility, “We the People,” to protect democracy and hold elected officials responsible for their actions or lack of actions. We aren’t observers. We are participants. Now is not the time to sit on the sidelines.

There is much work to do before it’s too late.