This is a surreal world we now live in. The entire Republican Party is falling in behind the worst president in the history of the U.S.

Meanwhile, this president’s only strategic allies are not friends of our nation, but enemies. The grand photo op that occurred in Singapore this week was compliments of the world’s most brutal dictators (not counting Trump, he’s second rate at best).

These people made Singapore happen because they know it will help to buoy up Trump’s dismal regime when nothing else can. His lawyer and long-time fixer is about to be criminally indicted, and the consequences of his crude insults to leaders of our nation’s most important allies will soon come crashing in with economic countermoves that will trigger a recession potentially worse than the last big one.

How laughable (and scary) would it be for North Korea’s Kim Jong Un to knock over the milk bottle by suddenly launching another missile test right now? How would that impact the public’s perception here of Trump?
But don’t worry, it won’t happen because the world’s Axis of Evil is having too much fun as marionette masters, taking turns dangling their strategic wishes in front of Howdy Doody Donald.

They achieved two major goals in Singapore: to prop up their puppet president in the U.S., and to shut down U.S. strategic military maneuvers with South Korea. In exchange, they gave up nothing, absolutely nothing.

The target of all this is nothing less than democracy, itself. Every crooked political and corporate thug in the U.S. shares this objective. That’s why this “one percent” is so glib in supporting how others like themselves – Putin, the Chinese, the North Koreans – do what they can to soften up American democracy by ruining her alliances and threatening her free press.

Last weekend, the other side of the American coin was on display, the hope of a non-Trumpian future.

In Northern Virginia, across the Potomac from Washington, political events showed the growing power of the opposition to Trump swelling and teeming with explosive potential.

The one in my hometown of Falls Church drew the biggest turnout ever in the history of the annual Democratic potluck. Two things were key: the presence of youth, a lot of them, and messages of passion, hope and optimism from the key leaders, including Senator Tim Kaine, Congressman Don Beyer Jr., state legislators Sen. Dick Saslaw and Del. Marcus Simon and Falls Church Mayor David Tarter.

Those among the more than two dozen high school youth who spoke were smart and articulate, like those kids from Parkland High School. There is a look of resolve in their eyes that is totally serious. They are more totally connected with their peers across the U.S. now than ever before thanks to the Internet, and over four million of them turn 18 every year in the U.S., with the power to vote. Blue waves are coming, and coming and coming.

Kaine quoted the Book of Isaiah 11:6, “A little child shall lead them.”

That was written in a time of incredible trial and need, he said. “We’re in that place again now, in a place of great division, and just as the teenager Barbara Johns’ action in 1951 led to the Brown V. Board of Education ruling to integrate schools, so now the youth shall again lead us.”

Rep. Don Beyer, a recruiter of Democratic candidates all across the U.S., said, “Despite the impact of recklessness and narcissism in our culture and institutions, we must remain positive, optimistic, resolute, full of hope, ready for tomorrow. The Age of Enlightenment is 300 years old, and one person will not end it…We need to be happy warriors, angry but unfazed by the destruction around us.”

Del. Danica Roem, the young transgender woman who defeated a notoriously bigoted state legislator last year, spoke with Kaine at an anti-gun violence event Tuesday, citing St. Francis de Sales, “Be who you are and be that well.”

“Be courageous, be brave,” she implored. “We can do something. Reject the nihilism that says government is broken beyond repair. As problems are caused by man, and so are solutions.”

Nicholas Benton may be emailed at nfbenton@fcnp.com.