By MARSHA MERCER
In the Hans Christian Andersen fable “The Emperor’s
New Clothes,” when the little child sees the emperor without clothes, he blurts
out the truth.
Everybody in the village instantly realizes the child is
right -- except for the emperor who, shivering, carries on.
“So he walked more proudly than ever, as his noblemen
held high the train that wasn’t there at all,” the story ends.
If only real life were that simple.
There was no universally shared “ah-ha” moment when two
former presidents, a the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and
two sitting senators – one his party’s former presidential nominee -- separately
denounced President Donald Trump.
Instead, opinion in the American village split along
predictable lines. The critiques won praise from the Democratic left and fell on
deaf ears of the president’s Republican supporters.
In the latest poll by Fox News, Trump’s favorite news
outlet, a whopping 83 percent of Republicans still approve of the job Trump is
doing. Only 7 percent of Democrats and 30 percent of independents approve, Fox
reported Wednesday.
Overall, because Trump can’t expand support beyond his
base, only 38 percent of registered voters surveyed approve of his job
performance. That was a new low for the Fox poll.
Americans in 2017 live in parallel universes with
their separate news sources, heroes and very different takes on events at 1600
Pennsylvania Ave.
Trump’s foes see nothing good in him and his fans are
blind to his faults. Trump himself ricochets between calling congressional Republicans
names and insisting they’re having a love fest.
Critics say Trump has accomplished nothing, while he
and his press secretary cling to the dubious claim he’s already done more 10
months than President Barack Obama in eight years.
Trump’s former chief strategist, Steve Bannon, has
struck fear in the hearts of Republicans with his well-funded plans to sweep Washington
clean of incumbent GOP senators, except for hardliners like Texan Ted Cruz.
Many political observers believe Trump must deliver a
substantial policy change to keep Republican voters’ support, hence the rush to
enact a tax cut before year’s end.
But Trump’s constant blaming others for his failure to
deliver on any of his major campaign promises – build the wall, bring back coal
jobs, replace Obamacare with a better, cheaper plan – has worked for him so far.
What is different now is the growing bipartisan
resistance to Trump. His two predecessors have taken the extraordinary step of
warning Americans about the direction Trump is taking the country. Neither
named Trump directly, but their message was clear.
Former President George W. Bush said almost nothing for
the eight years Obama was in the White House.
But things have gone so off the rails that the
Republican felt obliged to say Oct. 19: “People of every race, religion and
ethnicity can be fully and equally American. It means that bigotry or white
supremacy in any form is blasphemy against the American creed.”
Lamenting “our discourse degraded by casual cruelty,” Bush
pointedly said, “And we know that when we lose sight of our ideals, it is not
democracy that has failed. It is the failure of those charged with preserving
and protecting democracy.”
Speaking the same day at a campaign rally in Richmond
for Virginia gubernatorial candidate Ralph Northam, Obama said, “Why are we
deliberately trying to misunderstand each other and be cruel to each other and
put each other down?”
Republican Sens. Bob Corker of Tennessee and John
McCain and Jeff Flake of Arizona have rebuked Trump by name, saying he is unfit
for office, divisive and debasing the country.
McCain is battling brain cancer, and Corker and Flake,
conceding heavy weather for mainstream Republicans in GOP primaries, have announced
they will not run for re-election next year.
Unlike other Republicans, they are free to speak their
minds, but such scathing criticism from within a president’s own party is rare.
A tough defense and strong fiscal conservatism have been bedrocks of
Republicanism for decades.
So when we see staunch fiscal conservatives like
Corker and Flake and a defense hawk like McCain call out a Republican president
for his policies and his behavior, it should give everyone pause. This is no
fairy tale.
©2017 Marsha Mercer. All rights reserved.
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