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President Trump has been telling us this for years. Is Trump right?There are Americans who are a disgrace. He is one of them,
but, sadly. others are as well.Those who disparage reporters, judges, elected officials, women, gays, minorities, educators, the military, the media, the courts, foreigners, Democrats and Republicans.Those who cage kids. Those who lie and perpetuate the lies of others that diminish America’s values and institutions.Those who suppress the right to vote rather than expand it and do so for all of the wrong reasons.Those who advance ideologies of hate and racial bias. United States Paul Gosar from Arizona, a Congressman who took an oath to uphold the Constitution, was keynote speaker at the America First Political Action Conference, a white supremacy organization, at which “the conference organizer, …called the Jan. 6 riots “awesome” and demanded elected leaders like Gosar enact protections for the country’s “white demographic core.”Those who become violent, who assault and even kill Asian Americans, blaming them for our pandemic or who murder gays because they aren’t “normal”, or who storm the Capitol to “stop the steal” harming Capitol police, killing one, injuring dozens and threatening to harm our elected representatives.Those who are defined by our FBI as domestic terrorists.Those who no longer root for the underdog, but instead root to “lock her up.” “Knock the crap out of him.” “Hang Mike Pence.”Those Americans ARE a disgrace. Most Americans say this is not who we are but it IS who we are unless we condemn and rebuke and ostracize such actions, words, and behavior. We said “NO” to Donald Trump. We must say “NO MORE” to those who disgrace America. Senators swear to preserve, protect, and defend our country and our constitution. If the Republicans in our Senate acquit the President for inciting a riot and failing to protect our Capitol, they will betray their oath of office.Donald Trump also swore to preserve, protect, and defend the country and the Constitution. Yet, not accepting his loss in 2020, and using every means necessary to change that outcome, and after all election officials and judges found no evidence of fraud or wrongdoing, our president called upon his base to help him “Stop the Steal”. Stop the electoral college certification. His words and deeds incited a riot that became a full-fledged insurrection. He betrayed his oath of office.Nothing makes this more indisputable than his tweet, hours into the siege, where he announced that “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our country and our Constitution…”. Trump’s message only fueled the mob’s rage. The rioters constructed a noose, chanting, “Hang Mike Pence…Hang Mike Pence.” Trump knew the danger Pence was facing and, yet, the Commander in Chief ordered no action against the mob, did not call in the National Guard or reinforcements for the besieged police. Others finally did.The police swear an oath too, and they lived up to it that day as they put their bodies and their lives, between the insurrectionists and the Capitol. When it was over, the carnage left one police officer stabbed with an American flag pole, another with a gouged-out eye, two with crushed spines, dozens beaten, and, five dead.The officers left standing were called upon to clean up the mess. Feces on the walls. Urine on the floors. Broken property. Desecrated offices. And the Republicans are going to acquit a President who did nothing to help them. Why? The Republican Senators cannot claim that the trial is unconstitutional. The Senate settled that question on Tuesday, voting, yes, it is.They cannot claim first amendment protection. Hundreds of first amendment scholars, many conservatives, called a first amendment defense “utterly frivolous” and “baseless.” No one can seriously argue that a president can engage in speech that leads people to attempt to overthrow the United States government.
They cannot claim that there is no evidence connecting Trump to the insurrection. Republican leaders themselves frantically called upon Trump to call off his supporters. They knew who had incited the mob and who had the power to turn them off.Why are these Republicans so blinded by Trump and his dereliction of duty? It boils down to raw politics, and these Republican Senators clinging to power. They know what Trump did, but to acquit him means to risk losing their 2022 election. What contempt they display for all of those who jeopardized their lives when Senate Republicans won’t even risk their seats of power.It is ignominious. It is disgraceful. It is shameful. It is embarrassing. It is inglorious.If they will not convict him, then we must convict them. We must declare those Senate Republicans guilty of a betrayal of their oath of office and remove them by voting them out of office in November, 2022 There is need for a Trump vaccine. Vaccines contain agents that eradicate a virus. The Trump injection would not go into the arm but into ears, eyes, brains and hearts and would include a panoply of agents in its formula.Those agents would attack misinformation, deception, duplicity, equivocation, corruption, lies and betrayal. Elected officials would uphold their oath of office and would tell us the truth regardless of party. The media would air its news with accuracy, honesty and validity. Teachers would prepare students to think critically, practice civil discourse and be well versed in the basics of American government. Clergy would follow the religious principles of their faith. Citizenry would speak up and speak out, reward truth and call out lies, abandon the politics of “us versus them” and, finally, and forever, STAMP OUT racism.If we could achieve the delivery of such a vaccine with all of those active agents, Americans would have the tools necessary to participate fully in the democratic institutions that bind us together. Treachery would be unable to compete. This is the vaccine we would name after Donald Trump.
We have a lot of weak Republicans in our Congress. We saw a number of them display their weakness last week when they signed onto a lawsuit filed in the Supreme Court by Texas that asked for millions of 2020 election ballots to be thrown out.Many of those GOP congressmen are lawyers and doctors and businessmen in these seats of high office. They should be well educated and able to think reasonably. Clearly, lawyers knew that the lawsuit was without merit and injudicious. Why then would they sign onto such a, dare I use the word, fraudulent lawsuit? Weak people don’t have the courage to think independently or stand alone amongst a crowd or call out a lie or take a risk in defense of a principle.
Weak people follow; they do not lead. We cannot afford to have weak people in our most influential avenues of power. They give in to their weaknesses and the country suffers.In signing on to the Texas lawsuit, those Republican Congresspersons and 17 Attorneys General became accomplices in perpetrating deceit and misinformation; they bore false witness.Trump feeds them with perks and prominence. They cater to Trump’s need for power and survival. We have successfully voted Trump out. Now we must vote out those in Congress who have abetted Trump in growing a malignancy in our democracy.We must restore our government to the strong, the thoughtful, the truthful and the principled. My husband and I do not socialize, not even with family. We are in our 80s and extra cautious. We do curbside pick-up; if forced to go to a store, we know what we need and get in and out within a few minutes. We haven’t been to a café, restaurant, movie, or gathering, and even avoid our neighbors. While lonely, we feel lucky to have a roof over our heads and money to buy what we need.We have been following this protocol since early March, awaiting the promise of a vaccine. No whining. No tears. Just a steadfast determination to do our part and get through this. And then yesterday happened. We learned that Trump was offered millions of additional doses of vaccine and declined the offer. Millions of Americans now have to wait many more months for the injection. Some will die waiting.We knew he was incompetent. But this? This is monstrous.And now, in the wake of his losing re-election, he has abandoned his post. He is like the Italian captain of the Costa Concordia who abandoned ship when it began to sink. The captain left his post while 32 people died and scores were injured. He was convicted of manslaughter. A similar fate should await Mr. Trump. He is responsible for the deaths of 284,000 and counting. He has caused the closure of 100,000 businesses. Suicides are on the rise. Children are failing in school. There had been hope and anticipation, now both dimmed and delayed.
This was a cruel decision that makes no sense. For the first time. I cried. I couldn’t help it. America First in Trump world is not a statement of patriotism. It is a statement of perfidy and means not my country first but “Me First.”Instead of turning his energies to the pandemic or to millions of Americans in need, Trump is co-opting state legislators to change the election outcome.America First can mean my country before me. In Trump world, that can be devastating. Alexander Vindman, testified about Trump’s illicit actions in Ukraine and was forced out of the military. Georgia Secretary of State Raffensperger refused to “game the system” to help Trump win and suffered death threats. DHL Security Chief Chris Krebs, reported the 2020 election was the most secure in history and was fired. A host of Inspectors General, ambassadors, and others have had careers upended for telling the truth. They put “America First” and thank God for them. Their patriotism is saving our democracy.
Tomorrow we are done with you. In the 2016 election, the American people were ambivalent, taking all too much for granted about our government. You read their mood and even though you lost the popular vote, you played the game well enough to win the electoral college. Well, Mr. President, those days are over. You won the presidency but you lost the country.
And now we’re back!!! And stronger and better than ever. So many of us have been anxious about this election, fearing that your chicanery would work and we would be stuck with your misconduct and crookedness in the White House for another four years. However, anxiety has given way to affirmation. You have awakened a democratic spirit so strong that your attempts to orchestrate the election outcome will fail because we have written the symphony and its sweet music is going to play through to the finale. I am just one of the hundreds of thousands of Americans who phone banked or text banked or filled out post cards until the wee hours of the morning, or who marched and rallied, wrote letters, called legislators, organized advocacy groups, all of which resulted in a base of power too inalienable to overcome. We even have our own Proud Boys. Our proud boys are the young men and women who lost high school mates in a mass shooting. Instead of picking up a gun, they organized “March for Our Lives” and immediately began to advocate for gun control. Their numbers have grown. They are now a prominent interest group and they voted, Mr. President. You woke Americans up and we are going to walk you out. But, even if the worst happened, and your treachery worked to put you back into the highest office in the land, it won’t matter. Americans are aroused and vigilant and will never let you get away with breaking down our institutions of government again. Never. Regardless of party or gender or race or religion or ethnicity or economics, we are stalwart in our commitment to control our democracy. You don’t begin to understand what these long lines are about or why people are dancing in the rain as they wait to cast their ballot. Our democracy is stronger not weaker because of you. Our democratic values are expanding not contracting because of you. Our love of country is more firmly crystallized because of you. Mr. President, you are done.!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Miss bobble head, sitting to the right and behind Mr. Trump at his town hall meeting Thursday night, vigorously nodding in agreement with everything he said, is emblematic of a group I christen Qaknown (because they choose to be known. (public rallies and MAGA hats). They are a loosely knit organization of persons who have been galvanized by our president into his “base” of support.
They are anti-science, anti-media, anti-immigrant, anti-minority, anti-government, anti-regulation, anti-intellectual, and, pro, not much. Qaknown is emboldened by having a leader who dismisses the media as fake news and denounces climate change; “it’s called weather,” says leader, Donald Trump. Qaknown supports Trump as he demeans immigrants coming from our southern border; thus, “we need a wall to hold them back”. He characterizes recent protesters for justice as thugs who are burning down American cities. Qaknown resents regulation, even mask wearing, because such edicts, they claim, interfere with freedom. Qaknown supporters buttress Trump’s reversals on environmental protections with their disbelief in the scientific evidence of harm to our water, air, and habitat. Finally, they snub their noses at academics, as intellectual elites who look down on them. Qanon (Q for the ringleader; anon for anonymous) is also a loosely knit organization of persons who support Trump but for different reasons. He is their declared champion, protecting America in a good and evil battle. They believe there is a satanic cult of liberals operating a child sex trafficking business out of Washington, D.C; cannibalistic Democrats who energize themselves by sucking a child’s blood. They believe that well known persons such as Tom Hanks and Pope Francis, among others are part of this criminal ring. Trump claims to know nothing about Qanon but refuses to denounce their conspiracy theories. He publicly supports a Qanon candidate running from the 14th Congressional District in Georgia; Trump campaign lawyers represent her. There are 24 Qanon candidates on the federal ballot in 2020. An alternative to those Q’s could be QandA. (ask questions; seek answers) QandA would rely on the facts. QandA would look to science for the necessary facts of how to combat the pandemic and how to protect the environment. QandA would cherish a free press as essential to democracy and study multiple media sources for the facts. QandA would respect the fact that immigrants have continuously contributed to America, raising the quality of its society, its people, and its economy. QandA would earnestly defend freedom as a fact of life in any democracy; freedom until it does harm to someone else. It is a fact that regulations ensure safety of our roads, bridges, consumer products, the food we eat, the air we breathe, the cars we drive, the water we drink. It is a fact that protests and police can be in sync; there is no disconnect between those who peacefully protest and law and order. Qanon is growing within the Republican Party. Qaknown is already an established base of the GOP. What about a QandA? It is time for Republicans to be ousted.
The President of the United States is plotting with Republican operatives, governors, state legislatures, staffers, his cadre of believers, to undermine election results. It is a clever plot. Create chaos on election day. Declare ballots invalid and the vote count unreliable. Proclaim the election rigged and substitute the electors chosen by the voters with a set of electors appointed by the Republican state legislature. Pennsylvania is working on this. Other GOP led states are considering similar actions. Not a peep out of a Republican. The President of the United States is calling for an Army of right wing extremist vigilantes to poll watch. The real purpose is voter intimidation and suppression. Not one word from a Republican. These groups of gun-toting thugs can be found on the streets of Portland and Chicago, Kenosha, Philadelphia, and other cities causing, disruptions and outright brawls. These vigilantes are warming up for civil war. That is what they will foment if given a chance. Not an utterance from a Republican. Silence from the Republican party as it obediently follows their President in making fun of masks and downplaying the pandemic. Silence from the Republican party as it rejects compromise on a stimulus bill that would keep people from dying, jobs alive, businesses open, and people working, Silence from the Republican Party as President Trump lauds Putin and denigrates our institutions and agencies. And now as the election approaches, when the most precious right Americans have is about to be exercised, SILENCE from the Republicans as Trump sows fear into the electorate and encourages intimidation and chaos at the ballot box. In the oath of office taken by State and Federal representatives each swears to protect the Constitution. Their silence injures our most precious document. Each swears their allegiance. Their silence is infidelity. They must go. These good old boys are our Founding Fathers; they are so because of their prescience in creating a system of checks and balances that protects us from being at the mercy of the Rogue (former Republican) Party.
The Constitution grants power to Congress to overturn Supreme Court decisions in wondrous ways. We can amend the Constitution. Not an easy task but it can be done. The 26th Amendment was passed in a matter of months and overturned a Court decision, thus establishing a national voting age of 18. Congress can rewrite legislation that negates a Supreme Court decision. The 1991 Civil Rights Act reversed multiple Supreme Court decisions and broadened rulings on workers’ rights and employment discrimination. Congress can rectify past rulings of the Court by enacting new legislation. They could pass a new DACA law that explicitly protects Dreamers. They could easily write a bill that corrects the flaws in the Affordable Care Act. They could explicitly protect a woman’s right to choose. We are not helpless but we must capture control of the Senate, maintain control of the House and win the Presidency. A tall order but it can be done. Vote. Exercise your power. You are not at the mercy of Donald Trump or the Rogue Party or a conservative court. The power is in your ballot. Exercise it and you can right this ship after all. |
