{"id":34733,"date":"2018-12-08T11:47:41","date_gmt":"2018-12-08T19:47:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=34733"},"modified":"2018-12-08T12:13:58","modified_gmt":"2018-12-08T20:13:58","slug":"the-disunited-states-is-the-trump-presidency-causing-irreparable-damage-to-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2018\/12\/08\/the-disunited-states-is-the-trump-presidency-causing-irreparable-damage-to-america\/","title":{"rendered":"The Disunited States: Is the Trump presidency causing irreparable damage to America?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was cruising through YouTube trying to find a particular video when I came across this one.\u00a0 The title intrigued me so I listened in.\u00a0 It is a discussion about Trump which took place at Emmanuel Centre, London UK before a live audience who were given the opportunity to ask questions near the end.\u00a0 The panelists are American with the exception of the moderator.\u00a0 I enjoyed it . . . hearing their thoughts, all from different perspectives, so I thought you might too.\u00a0 Forgive me if it does not interest you.\u00a0 I am a bit of a political junkie, not that I would ever go into politics myself.\u00a0 It is about 1 hour 20 minutes in length.<\/span><\/p>\n

YouTube<\/a><\/strong><\/span> — America has never seen anything like this. Time and again, Donald Trump has attacked the very fabric of US democracy. He has called the press \u2018the enemy of the American people\u2019. He says that claims that Russia interfered in the US election are a hoax. And that the FBI – currently investigating his campaign – should be personally loyal to the president. And it\u2019s not just political institutions Trump is damaging, his opponents say: in America he has stoked racial tension, coddled Wall Street and given succour to the gun lobby. On the world stage, he\u2019s alienated key allies, slapped $50 billion in tariffs on China that may spark off a trade war, and appointed the hawkish John Bolton, who has advocated regime change in Iran and North Korea, as national security adviser. If Trump is a new kind of threat, the big question is whether the damage he is doing to America will be permanent. Will the country that survived two world wars, the Cold War and the attacks of 9\/11 really be put off its stride by a reality show host who could be gone in less than three years\u2019 time? Or is Trump dismantling the robust system that has kept America united and irreparably damaging its standing as the most powerful nation on earth? But perhaps this is all liberal hand-wringing. Could Trump, in fact, be that rarest of things – a politician who delivers on his promises – and prove to be the reformer the American electorate voted for? To examine the political health and standing of the United States at this crucial moment, Intelligence Squared brought together Ronan Farrow, former US government adviser and journalist, who has just been awarded the Pulitzer Prize for breaking the Harvey Weinstein scandal; Mark Lilla, the American political scientist who hit the headlines last year with an article arguing that it is the left\u2019s preoccupation with identity politics that opened the door to Trump\u2019s victory; Lionel Shriver, award-winning novelist and commentator; and Brian Klaas, an expert on authoritarianism who claims that with every autocratic tweet Trump is edging America away from its democratic norms.<\/p>\n