Triadic solutions are a means of resolving conflicts in reference to ethics and aesthetics. The conflict is a reality, ethics is tolerance, helpfulness and democracy, and aesthetics is aiming for truth and beauty.
The reality is Trumpism, meaning a nation beset by anti-democratic forces and despotic signs. A despot is one who exercises power oppressively and with cruelty. Unfortunately, these characteristics have not been absent from our national history, The fate of indigenous peoples and the toll of colonial ventures have been so considerable that it challenges our most optimistic notions of who we are.
So Trumpism does not do well when submitted to the blunt truths of tolerance. It quails before helpfulness if you happen to be an immigrant or among the homeless or anyone who can be characterized as not white. And democracy has only to be aware of the president's consistent efforts to empower voters who are certain to oppose him, to give him a most questionable grade.
Moving forward
A positive iteration of these values would celebrate court decisions that underline openness to all. Helpfulness would see education and enablement made the basic thrusts of a move toward prosperity for all. Democracy would concede the actual makeup of our country and political parties would respond to things as they are, not as they are not.
Trump Repeats Nixon’s Fateful Panic https://t.co/J1sUx3By4S
— Stephen C. Rose (@stephencrose) January 29, 2018
Charles Blow has offered us an instructive basis for thinking that it is not the truth that has changed but the lay of the land. The country has moved ever farther from a resilient and full-blooded commitment to democracy.
It has endangered tolerance. It would not be disposed to lend a helping hand unless it carried a political advantage.
My Nixon story
I knew Richard Nixon and in retrospect, the most shocking thing was that I could be perfectly affable with a person who was careless with the lives of so many thousands. I regard the greatest evil as the taking of life.
I have never been more aware of the truth behind "The Godfather." People are a spectrum from the best to the worst. They are however known by their actions. It does not make any difference whether you see your victims or not. Fallibility spreads far and wide.
Aesthetics of impeachment
The story will not be over until there is no doubt about the triumph of despotism or Trump is out of office. Mueller is not far from testing the possibility of Trump's staying power. Trump himself has a need to put a good face on things. In this case, it is his face he is concerned with. We shall see this unfold either as a resuscitation of truth and beauty or an ugly happening of which we will be ashamed.
