I have always argued that we are hypocrites to say other countries can't have nuclear weapons but we can. People have always said we were not crazy enough to use them. Um ... Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Even if you ignore those bombings, the argument can no longer hold true.
Now there is a madman in the White House threatening fire and fury. Kim Jong-un may be a nut job, and the world is a more dangerous place with him in power. However, the new problem is Donald Trump, a nut job with a more dangerous military at his disposal.
The North Korean regime, like many others in history, depends on fear to remain in power. They need their people to believe they are strong leaders, and they depend on propaganda to feed that belief. The bluster that comes from North Korea is designed to give the North Korean people the impression that their country is a world power.
North Korea's missile tests are part of that propaganda campaign. The rhetoric out of North Korea has not gone unnoticed, and the responsible response has been isolation and sanctions.
Donald Trump depends on the same formula to govern the United States: propaganda, irresponsible rhetoric, and outright lies. He knows how to push all the right buttons to keep his angry white base motivated. The rest of the country and the world are disgusted by his actions, but his angry white base loves what he is doing.
This is nothing new with Trump. Everything he does is calculated to fire up his bigoted base of support. I am not saying all Trump supporters are racist or bigoted, but the base of his support is. Let's look back to his support of the birther movement. I don't believe he ever doubted that President Obama was born in the United States. He did know that if he championed the issue, he would become a hero to people who didn't think a black man should be president.
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