The Donald and the Paris Accord

I have to state up front that I’m bending over backward to be analytical and objective in this short opinion essay on Donald Trump and climate change. So I’m trying hard not to vent whatever ongoing irritation, and worse, I harbor toward our President.

Okay, why did the Trumpster withdraw from the Paris climate agreement? Many reasons have been bruited about in the media but I think one stands out above all others. The Donald is nothing but cunning and devious. In this case I believe those sterling qualities came to the fore. I refuse to believe that The Donald was motivated in his decision by anything other than rock-bottom political expedience. Surely, the true climate change denier’s passion had not one thing to do with his withdrawal from the Paris Accord. It’s well known The Trumpster had never liked the Accord. He made his position abundantly clear during his primary and presidential campaigns. More importantly, he had promised his base on numerous occasions that he would “cancel” the climate pact that he claimed was screwing American workers if he were elected.

Since the Trumpster’s first four months in office have not been the stuff of hosannas from adoring non-partisan multitudes, or even marginal triumphs with miniscule bragging rights, he needed to throw a ton of bleeding red meat to his hungry base to prove he meant business and was a decisive as he had so shamelessly bragged. And that’s exactly what he did regarding the Paris Accord. He shitcanned it to keep his base, and here you better be thinking about people like Jeffrey Lord, crowing he was “Making America Great Again.” Hip, Hip Hooray! Run that up the flagpole and see how many right-wingers are overcome with pure unadulterated emotion.

All the media “analysis” about parsing the Trumpster’s supposed callous indifference to whether climate change would lead to political instability, increased societal tensions, and could place new burdens on developing economies and Third-World countries missed the point. The Donald doesn’t give a rat’s ass about such matters. They’re not on his plate now and most likely never will be.

Pumping up the base is what he’s all about to ensure he gets re-elected in three plus years. If he can keep his base pumped up with mindless enthusiasm, he’s convinced he’ll win again. Period. The Trumpster isn’t all that complicated. We can’t compare him to that likeable and ever so charming chameleon, Barack Obama, who wasn’t anywhere close to what many of us leftists thought he would be as President. After all, with The Donald what you see is what you get, a house of cards whose existence is grounded in one thing only, making a name and fortune for himself. Everything else is dirty, rotten dreck not worthy of his attention.

In The Donald, America has elected a President we deserve. We’ll have to wait and see what he does in terms of changing the presidency and our country but we should never forget who The Donald is: a huckster shilling for himself and his growing fortune, ethics and morality be damned.