When you get stopped in your thought process, you may be on to something. I just got stopped. The something turned out to be a reminder to deal with a basic confusion. My confusion is how to deal with the reality around trump and the probability that things for the world may be in a state of great positive movement. Has Trump caught a wave that can sweep him over the sharp rocks of his Russian problem?
The recovery of the world is almost documentable, provable. Regardless whether countries are democratic or not things are getting somewhat better for most people.
In the United States, we are wrestling with the reality of Donald Trump and the clear damage that he is doing as the market continues to rise and even the US seems to be doing better than might be expected.
Easy falsehoods
If I had not been covering Trump for many months, I would be inclined to believe him when he claims credit for good things. But I know full well he is also engaged in daily fraud. False promises are not fooling Americans. Trump is suffering low polls and low public confidence. He is also leading a huge campaign to make it seem that he is leading the global recovery of which I speak.
The confusion is intensified by the chorus behind the president. The media is in full-throated support and much of the business community, riding a market high, is singing in harmony.
Are we all wrong?
A triadic approach
If what I have described as reality is accurate -- a confused picture -- what is a good way to parse it all out? First I need to tolerate it for what it is. I cannot dance around Trump's evils without knowing that any day they may be revealed in a devastating manner. I can't refuse to acknowledge the possibility that we can overcome things that have perplexed us forever.
Nor can I ignore a prevalent sense of foreboding that rises from the inexorable change that is underway.
1 big thing: A synchronized surge https://t.co/e4DCXtDiTO #axiosam
— Stephen C. Rose (@stephencrose) December 21, 2017
What is helpful at this point is to see that there is more than one truth. What is also helpful is escaping Binary Thinking.
I can see Trump for what he is without denying that good things are happening. There may even be conclusions that relate to the need to break down the barrier between the commercial and the personal -- a huge hit on binary thinking.
Finally
The last thought is that if things do not work for all they work for no one. We never attain perfection but we always must seek to see that the same rights are available to everyone and that fairness must prevail.
My conclusion is that we can be done with Trump and make real progress at the same time.
