Look to the future and what do you see?

The continuing debate about the rights and wrongs of everything to do with the Trump administration, as well as its impact on the UK, polarises people in the US and at home in a way that little else has before. Those criticising Trump are vilified as slack-minded, do-gooding liberals, while his supporters are characterised as ignorant, xenophobic fascists. Small wonder that social media is full of vituperative exchanges where each side snipes at the other, to little effect or productive outcome.

So here I enter into the fray with my six-penn’orth. I have one main question (which also spawns a number of smaller, subsidiary questions) to ask of those who support Trump or at least support his policies and also of our government, which seems determined to defend his behaviour, come what may. Here it comes:

If we project forward into the future, what sort of administration do we anticipate will be in the US, say in two years’ time? Will it be a country that sits comfortably with the Founding Fathers’ vision of the New World that they created (as immigrants, incidentally)? Will all Americans look at their country and be proud and will we in the UK look at the US and say, yes, we are proud to be partners of this great nation? Or, given the first ten days of President Trump’s administration, can we see the writing on the wall?

Where is it going to? How will it end? Our current cosying up to Trump seems to be a determined effort to ensure we have a major trading partner on board before Brexit is enacted. Is this good politics? Do we really like and admire Trump, to the extent that we want to give him a state visit. Theresa May characterised his comments on Muslims as “"divisive, unhelpful and wrong” before the election victory. This is the same man with whom she now claims to have a “special relationship”.

Do we want to be closely aligned with a government that is heading down an isolationist, protectionist route? And if it’s “America first” for trade, where does that leave the UK, even given our ultimate aim to get trade agreements from the US after we have finally left the EU?

No doubt there will be those who will post against these comments, saying that Trump is upholding his election commitments (yes, indeed - again, why are we surprised and what will our government do with such a right-leaning ally?) The US Christian right vociferously supports him, yet, to my mind there is very little that is Christian in policies that segregate, discriminate and persecute people on the grounds of their race (Mexicans) and religion (Muslims). I’m struggling to find the Bible verses in the New Testament that say anything other than things along the theme of “Love your neighbour”, “blessed are the meek” and let’s try to look after the underdog (couldn’t find that one verbatim!)

So back to the original question - where is this all heading for all of us, UK, US and the rest of the world? When the President sacks people who disagree with him, tells his own consular staff to shape up or ship out when they advise that his strategy is wrong-headed. When even members of his own party are watching in dismay as he confidently destroys any chance that the Republicans will be elected again for many a long year (why? Because he is so certain he is right on everything, yet blind to consequences and resistant to any informed advice, that it will almost certainly end in economic disaster and possibly social unrest). Where is it going? No one will vote for a party that has failed its country - oh, and that includes the Democrats who are now toothless and leaderless.

Where will it end up? A new party emerging - one that is centrist, not too liberal, not too right-wing, perhaps? One that balances the warring factions and makes America Great Again, but for real this time. We in the UK better pray that’s going to happen, because if it doesn’t and we are in the Brexit wilderness without a big strong ally, we’re all screwed.

And, Theresa May, you need to start looking in your crystal ball to see where we are going because on current showing, you’ve lost your compass.