When will Trump start dismantling Lady Liberty?

Donald Trump continues to chip away at everything good about America. Before long, I expect him to send confederate flag-waving white supremacists with hammers and chisels to start chipping away at the Statue of Liberty. Then, the Lincoln Memorial, Mount Rushmore and the statue of Martin Luther King Jr. won’t be far behind.

Last night, when he thought no one was looking, he carved another huge chunk out of the Affordable Care Act. That was two large chunks in a single day, so badly dismantling the law that elderly, poor and sick people who depend on the ACA are almost certain to die, just so Trump can continue to try and make Barack Obama’s name disappear from history.

Trump isn’t smart enough to craft his own health care legislation, even though he claimed during the campaign that he already had one and would roll it out on Day One. (Who knew health insurance was so complicated?)  And he isn’t influential enough or politically savvy enough to convince a Republican-controlled Congress to pass a better version of the law.

So, the only option left for him is to cripple Obamacare with executive orders that break off major portions of the law – a law, by the way, that enabled millions of low- and middle-class Americans to have health insurance for the first time in their lives.

I tried to think of a word that describes a person who would do this to millions of people for his own gratification, but “vile,” “despicable,” “evil,” “wicked,” “deplorable” and “heartless” just don’t do it for me any longer. I’m going to call it “Trump-a-psycho-narcissistic-paranoia-phrenic” until something better comes along.

I suppose I could expand this essay by listing all of the pieces of America that Trump has chipped off and discarded, but I’m just too tired and weary to look them all up. Off the top of my head are:

• The environment,
• Immigrant rights,
• Women’s rights,
• Workers’ rights,
• All other basic human rights,
• Public education,
• Fair housing,
• Government ethics,
• Protection of our natural resources,
• Protection of endangered animals,
• Protection of our national parks,
• Our relationship with our allies,
• Our participation in treaties and agreements designed to strengthen and protect America, and
• Our standing among other nations in the world.

Oh, and there’s also failure to uphold and defend the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, failure to respect the office of president and failure to recognize the respective authority of the three branches of government. I apologize if I left out something important...oh, wait! Let's add his failure to condemn neo-Nazis and white supremacists or to adequately support the brown people of Puerto Rico.

For a more complete (and very impressive) list, google “Amy Siskind” or go to her Facebook page and read her weekly summaries. She’s been doing an amazing job of keeping track of Trump's authoritarianism since before the inauguration.

Spoiler alert: After you read what Amy has compiled, you’ll begin to wonder what – if anything – is left of the country we used to have. Sadness and depression may follow. You’ve been warned.