In just six months, the new president of the United States has caused much of this nation to sink into confusion, despair, fear and anger.

His supporters like to say that people are just angry that he won the election, and to be sure, there is a fair amount of anger which some people feel at those who voted for him, but more specifically for those who did not vote at all. Most conversations to which I have been privy do not list Russia’s involvement in the election as a determinant cause of the election’s outcome. The non-voters are pretty much blamed for that.

But there are three things which seem to be manipulating the American psyche: the president’s tweets, his apparent disrespect and disregard for the office of president, and his unabashed lying about almost everything.

With his nearly daily tweets, which are very often filled with disparaging remarks about someone ― anyone, it seems ― are the lies. To date, some of the things he has apparently lied about include the crowd size at his inauguration; the number of bills he has signed, which he says are more than “any president, ever;” and the fact that the Paris Agreement is not non-binding

All politicians lie. But this president’s lies seem different; they are so blatant that even young children can pick them up. His lying, his coarse language when talking about people, his disrespect for authority and for the office of president, his poor treatment of America’s allies which is in stark opposition to the way he treats Russia ― all of this and more have weakened the foundation on which we thought we were standing.

His actions and words are causing world leaders to laugh at him and therefore, at the American people.

It feels like this president is hell bent on destroying American democracy, not “draining the swamp” as he has promised, but instead using his words and disrespect for government to break into pieces the American political tradition. His actions and words are causing world leaders to laugh at him and therefore, at “the American people.” He is being played like a fiddle by those who have picked up on his lack of impulse control and his inability to take the slightest bit of criticism.

He conflates weakness with not acting and reacting when he “feels” that someone has attacked him, even though we saw during the campaign that he began the attacks, starting with his comments about Megyn Kelly.

He has no sense of loyalty to those who have stood with him through thick and thin; his attacks on Attorney General Jeff Sessions were shocking to some who know how completely loyal to him Sessions has been. Most recently he publicly berated Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, because he is angry at the outcome of the Senate’s effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and because McConnell proffered that perhaps “the president didn’t realize how slowly things work in the Democratic process.”

Every day there is some new piece of presidential foolishness.

This president said he would make America great and safe, but he has done neither. It seems that he has not really had enough time to devote to the serious business of making policies because he has been too busy concentrating on attacking those who have criticized him via Twitter, making a buffoon of himself and of this country.

The Congress has not helped. They seem blindly loyal to him, even as he violates his oath to “preserve, protect and defend” the Constitution of the United States. He is clearly not concerned about anyone honoring the Constitution; he wants and demands that people honor him.

The public’s angst is further exacerbated by the fact that truth seems not to matter. Half the time, because of the pervasiveness of lies flying about, it is hard to know just what to believe. That is by design, some would say, but be that the case or not, the inability to trust what is being said and reported is a problem. Destroying the free press is a tactic of those seeking to overthrow democracies, according to Professor Tim Snyder in his book, On Tyranny, and it is troubling that neither the Congress nor the judicial system has much power or has shown much desire to challenge what is happening.

And so we, the public, are totally neurotic. We see progressive reforms made over the past 50 years being systematically and regularly dismantled and erased. We hear surrogates of this president talk about “alternative facts” and wonder where our country is headed? We hear this president give an inflammatory retort challenging North Korean President Jim Jong Un, promising “fire and fury’ and we shake in our boots. Some in his administration try to “walk back his comments,” but words stick. They are as damaging as are actual daggers. This president is leading us to Armageddon, and we seem to be able to do nothing but sit back and hopelessly watch.

It used to be that being an American provided a sense of safety and security and pride. We knew, or felt we knew, that we were “the best” country in the world, in spite of our obvious flaws. It seemed like our politicians, really no better than others but certainly more polished, knew how to govern and how to practice diplomacy. We had the highest respect and we knew it.

But nothing feels safe anymore. The world is looking at our country with skepticism, disrespect and cynicism. Nobody knows what the next move of this man in the White House will be. It feels like the United States of America is on a slippery slope of decline, and it is scary. At the end of the day, this president and his rich friends may be OK if his antics and behavior lead to massive destruction of all we have ever known.

And that is a scary and troubling thought to the American people.