By Erick Erickson

The Trump Presidency is very good for ratings. The media loves it. The media loves the chaos and President Trump loves ratings. But the United States of America is not a reality TV show and the measure of a successful Presidency is not ratings and Time magazine covers, but a society that conducts itself orderly, lawfully, and with sanity.

There are those who can never and will never give the President credit for anything. They will not acknowledge problems not of his making and they will not acknowledge the few competencies this Administration has show.

But there are those who cannot acknowledge anything wrong. They think everything is fine as the nation burns around them. They apologize for and defend the President’s every utterance, thinking to correct him, admonish him, or state the obvious is to help the other side.

Both sides are fighting and on top of that we have Antifa activists on one side throwing molotov cocktails and threatening to harm people and we have neo-Nazis on the other running people over in the street.

While all of this is going on and the nation is distracted with activists tearing down statues without permission, we have a law enforcement system that is less and less enforcing the law. This is a big difference from the riots and protests of the sixties when police insisted on keeping law and order. Now police in Durham and elsewhere are letting the fights break out and the damage be done. They’re working clean up instead of preventing the messes in the first place.

If that was not enough North Korea is going nuclear, Iran is plotting a nuclear strategy while the former President’s advisers deny it, China is trying to expand further into South America through businesses and mining rights as well as stretching its land grabs in the South China Sea, and Russia covets Eastern Europe relentlessly.

And our President? The man is not in his right mind. Compare the Donald Trump of 1999 who talked to Tim Russert about North Korea with the current President. They are not the same man. It is Invasion of the Brain Snatchers. The current President is not so much the President of the United States as he is a C-List actor doing a Spaghetti Western impression of what a President of the United States might sound and act like.

The rest of the world is looking on this with amazement and, in some quarters, delight.

What ISIS plots are ongoing while the nation is distracted. Al Qaeda was able to bomb, plot, and re-bomb the World Trade Center while the United States was distracted by a stained blue dress and then hanging chads. What can ISIS do with our present distractions?

Oh, and by the way, Steve Bannon thinks this is all hunky-dory and told a left wing reporter that North Korea had us and President Trump was lying about having a military strategy. Who the hell in their right mind does that? But I guess that is the point. It does not seem the President or very many of his advisers are anything other than bi polar schizophrenics who meet new people daily when they look in the mirror.

This is not sustainable. Something is going to have to give. I do not know what, but something will give. The nation cannot sustain this constant state of chaos and crisis drift for three and a half more years. We will either see external or internal forces applied that will hurt the nation.

This is not sustainable and if the President cannot figure out how to operate, he needs to step aside. Instead, he thrives on the chaos, the punch back, and media yes men telling him nothing is wrong and his poop does not stink. But while the President thrives, every day a piece of our national unity dies. And I don’t care whether you blame the left for refusing to acknowledge the President’s presidency or you blame the President for refusing to behave as you think a President should — this situation is not sustainable regardless of where blame lies.

As for me, I am increasingly convinced President Trump’s Presidency is doing more harm than good while, I might add, he accomplishes practically nothing, and I am increasingly convinced the leftwing agitators given moral clout by the media are doing more harm than good. The white supremacists are actually small in number and hated by everyone (except possibly the President and Steve Bannon). But Antifa is as violent and loved by the left, or at least tolerated. The President and Antifa both on the national stage is a toxic combination and as neither will be departing any time soon, the nation itself will atrophy in prestige and ability.

Personally, I’m thinking of expanding my garden, filling my freezer, and stockpiling ammo. Something wicked this way comes and it is almost here.