Half his term is over, and so far we have limped along. However, as Paul Starr points out in the May issue of The Atlantic, if Trump wins a second term we will be in even deeper trouble, perhaps trouble that will change the very essence of our country. Right now Trump has appointed two unqualified Supreme Court justices, has signed tax laws that benefit the rich, and rolled back environmental and economic protections. Some of those actions could be undone by the next President. It is the second term that will cause damage from which we won’t recover.
A second term, as Starr points out, could bring irreversible changes in three areas. One is climate change. Trump is not only failing to take action to lessen global warming, he is deliberately making things worse. Another four years of this type of policy may take us over the tipping point.
The second area of concern is nuclear proliferation. Our allies no longer think we will protect them. We have pulled out of the Iran deal. We seem to be encouraging North Korea. We have scrapped the nuclear deal with Russia. A nuclear arms race could result in a nuclear war.
Starr notes the third area of irreversible change involves Supreme Court rulings. In the decision on the ACA, four justices took the view that the Commerce Clause did not apply. This is the same philosophy that guided the Supreme Court at the beginning of the New Deal, and it would set U.S. policy-making back a hundred years.
If you think that Trump can’t possibly win a second term, think again. If we have a good economy, continued voter suppression, and Democratic Party disarray, Trump could definitely win in 2020.
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