Every once in a while, my anger, my indignation gets the best of me, and I feel the need to dip into matters political in this blog. Tonight is such a night. If you want to turn away, I’ll understand. The source of my puzzlement is of course the man some have referred to as the orange buffoon. Now thoroughly disgraced in the eyes of most of us, he is still front and center in the daily news. So I’m throwing out some things that puzzle me, not expecting hard and fast answers, but perhaps some will share their thoughts
We hear constantly about trump’s
plans for his next term as president, as though it were a given certainty. Much
of what he plans to do is apparently illegal, but he’s good at manipulating,
and I have no doubt, back in office, he would consolidate power in the
presidency. That’s one of the more scary thoughts, considering the direction he
took the country in his term—disease uncontrolled, debt ballooning out of
sight, international relationships destroyed, environmental controls ignored and
cancelled, infrastructure improvements promised but never delivered.
But so much that indicates
that he will never hold office again. For starters, most Americans think he
deserves a trial and punishment, and if statistics are right, most of us assume
he has done at least half of what he’s accused of. So who’s going to vote for
him? (I know—the cult; but how big are their numbers?)
Legal scholars, even
conservative ones, are coming forward in recent days to declare that the fourteenth
amendment absolutely means trump is ineligible to hold any federal office because
instigated a revolution against our country and violated his oath of office.
Even though that has not yet (stress yet) been determined in a court of law,
most folks agree. But if that’s true, and if the Senate has to vote on his eligibility
(I think that’s the way it works), who is going to put that in motion? We can talk
about it for two years, but it shouldn’t wait until after an election.
Then there’s the question of
his mental stability—just ask his niece, Dr. Mary Trump. Or maybe we don’t have
to ask her. Clearly, he is impulsive, uncontrolled, without compassion or
intellect or any idea of the social bounds that govern most of us in our daily
lives. Does he fit the definition of a psychopath? Sociopath? I’m no expert,
but it seems to me experts are testifying, granted at a distance, to his
instability. So once again, who puts things in motion? The 25th
amendment is no help now, since it applies to sitting presidents. So who
declares a candidate mentally unfit for office? It’s a question not much considered
in elections in our long history. But we have never before elected a man like
Donald J. trump.
On the other side of these
weighty questions are the MAGA folks who are threatening to shut down the
government unless the DOJ backs off all charges against trump. I’m not sure the
American people would stand for that, let alone elect him. Why would we let a
minority dictate that the rule of law be abandoned?
Yet these folks seem convinced
of the rightness of their arguments, and I am left puzzled. Do they really
believe, in the face of all the evidence and court cases, that the 2020
election was stolen? And do they really believe that President Biden weaponized
the DOJ to help him defeat trump in 2024. They have watched trump throw most of
his colleagues under the bus—do they not realize they could be next? And do
they really believe that they can sway the 2024 election by hounding Hunter Biden
for being the president’s son?
How many American voters
assess the candidates logically when deciding on their votes? I’m afraid it’s a
disappointing number. If people were paying attention to policy, they would see
that the Democratic policies, as enacted by President Biden, have put our
country on an upward path—economically, internationally, environmentally, etc.
Those logical voters will see that the Republicans have no policies, no plans
for the American future. They are too busy trying to blame Biden and his family
for what they call the disastrous path that America is on.
In some ways, it all comes
back to education—and that explains why DeSantis, Abbott, and other Republicans
are trying to destroy public education. An educated voter will see through the
smokescreen of lies and choose the party and leader who has solid plans for the
future of the country.
I sure would welcome some comments.
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