[Note for TomDispatch readers: After you’ve read my introduction to Bob Lipsyte’s latest piece, and while you’re considering whether to buy a copy of his new young-adult novel Rhino’s Run for somebody you know, give some thought as well to visiting the TomDispatch donation page and making sure that TD has the ability to keep going in this ever-stranger world of ours. And many thanks in advance! Tom]
Just recently, in an op-ed responding to his threatened 25% tariffs on Canadian goods (now postponed a month), the Toronto Star‘s editorial board labeled Donald Trump a “bully.” Indeed, there probably couldn’t be a more accurate descriptive word for him. Its concluding paragraph read this way:
“These Canadians understand what all of us must now grasp: No one has ever won by appeasing a bully. No one has ever won by negotiating with a knife to their throat. But again and again, battles have been won by those who were counted out, who had no right to survive, never mind thrive, but did because they found strength in each other and a shared commitment to ideals and together did the hard work necessary to overcome. It has never been harder to band together despite our differences, and never more important.”
At 80, I must admit that there’s something deeply painful about having a bully as president of my country and, accompanying him, in a totally made-up Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) that’s only growing more powerful by the day, the richest man in the world, Elon Musk. He is himself, of course, both distinctly a bully and increasingly moving the already right-wing Trumpist movement to greater extremes, even as he’s tried to close down the U.S. Agency for International Development and so shut off any decent American aid to anyone in trouble anywhere on this planet.
If anything, Trump and (at least for now) his buddy (Heil, Musk!) are redefining what it means to be a bully in a country that still passes (even if barely) for a democracy. So, it seemed all too appropriate that only recently this 80-year-old guy sat down and read former New York Times sportswriter and TomDispatch regular Bob Lipsyte’s latest young adult novel, Rhino’s Run. It’s about a high-school football player who fears being bullied and throws an impulsive punch at a teammate’s jaw and what follows. Despite my age, his striking new work gripped me in a distinctly youthful fashion that I’ll continue to savor (before I pass the book on to my grandson).
And while you’re thinking about whether to get the book for anyone you know (or yourself), check out Lipsyte’s thoughts on how to deal with the bully who, for the second time in our life (even if only by 49.7% of the vote), is president of these ever less united states of ours. Tom
How to Bump, Lump, Crumple, and Eventually Dump Donald Trump
In bad times -- and these are bad times -- I call up the spirit of Willie.
Willie has seen me through cancer, divorce, and deaths in the family. His memory has given me the courage and strength to push on when I wanted to give up and hide. Willie reminds me that, even at 87, I can take it, get back up, survive, sometimes even win.
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