National politics is going through some trying times. We have a President that is redefining the role in ways many find disgraceful, including allegedly doing illegal shenanigans. We have a Congress that can’t seem to get its stuff together… No wonder so many people say ‘to heck withall of this’ and walk away from following, trying to understand, or influence National politics. Hecks, almost 1/2 of America does not even vote!
Still, National politics is critical. We must #RESIST and cause systemic change for the better. AND – not but – the fact is that much of our daily life is also impacted by local politics. It is at the local level that we get responsive elected officials to fill pot-holes, care for the homeless, navigate the complexities of growth, transportation, and infrastructure. structure property taxes, oversee public schools, public safety, and much more.
If you are not engaged with your local public officials, you are missing a lot. These areregular folks, our friends and neighbors, everyday people. They are accessible, they shop the same stores we shop, they visit the same bars, and their dogs are as unruly as ours. Yet these are folks that are committed to civic service. They open up their lives to the public. They compromise their own personal anonymity and have to be ‘on’ 24/7. These folks are the truly the local s/heroes of our times. Our hats off to them!
I am blessed to live in an area where given my appointed role with County government, the neighborhood in which I live, and my personal interest in local Party politics I’ve gottento know many of these local elected officials. Having worked in over 100 cities throughout the United Stated fermenting local private/public partnerships I can truly say that the team of local elected officials we have in Silver Spring (Maryland) rivals any elected officials team in the Country.
We just ‘ended of an era’ with the 12 years of leadership by Ike Leggett, an amazing County Executive. He not only weathered the storm of the Great Recession responsibly, maintaining both the safety net and a Triple A bond rating, but also made Montgomery County the most welcoming County in the U.S.A. His work in the County was augmented by nine Councilmembers of impeccable integrity, commitment,and heartfelt concern for the community.
And now we begin a new journey with County Executive Elrich, a man truly of the people; a school teacher and avid advocate for the 99%. We also have four new and five returning councilmembers. This includes a Latina and Latino, the first openly gay Councilmember, an African American, and a son of an African immigrant.
This local team is augmented by a Congressman who also happens to be a Constitutional scholar (Jamie Raskin), two amazing Senators (Van Hollen and Cardin), a fighter of an Attorney General (Frosh), and a team of diverse State Delegates that make us all proud. (Plus a School Board with Guatemalan friend Karal Silverstre, newly elected to the Board.)
These folks certainly do not agree on everything. Indeed, they have difficult disagreements on many issues. Yet, their core values are aligned – and it shows when they battle for major policy issues to continue on what we call our “Montgomery Way.”
If all politics islocal, I am certainly blessed to be in a good place!
For the record,here are some of the recent speeches – and statements – given by some of these elected officials. Words matter. And these are beautiful, inspiring, sincere words that give us pride – and challenge us for the journey ahead.
County ExecutiveElrich Vision Statement
County ExecutiveElrich Inauguration Speech
Council PresidentNancy Navarro’s Remarks at ther Installation as President
(Past) CouncilPresident Hans Reimer Remarks at the Inauguration
Author: Reemberto@gmail.com
When leaders disappoint: Two Battles for a Lifetime and Eternity
Leadership matters.
How we perceive leaders matters.
How leaders behave matters.
All too often we become enamored with a leader way too soon, way too fast. We project unto them what we wish they were and avoid seeing – believing – who they clearly are.
We all too often put leaders up on a pedestal only to see others tear them down, disparage them, belittle them, make fun of them; destroy them… And we watch in disbelief, only to realize later that they were duly criticized, that they belong in jail. That they duped us.
This happens in big and small ways. It happens with world leaders; it happens with community leaders; with family leaders; with politicians and faith leaders. And it happens over and over again.
And yet we continue doing the same thing, seemingly refusing to learn from history, from past events, from well-founded words of wisdom from friends and family.
And so it is today with so many of us.
In some cases we are part of the willing posse, buying into the illusion of leadership perfection. Friends warn us, yet we believe. It is how we were brought up. It is deep in our faith DNA.
In other cases we are in the resistance from the get-go and can not understand how our best of friends don’t see the clearly evident evil of – in our eyes – a phony leader. We warn them, yet they persist in their unbending support for the leader because their fixation on a particular outcome, be it pro-life or judicial control.
As a practicing Catholic – that is, we are practicing but we don’t have it quite right yet – we are aghast with the blatant failure of our faith leaders to grasp the severity, emergency, and immediacy of the catastrophic age our Church is living through. These leaders are tone deaf. You want to give them the benefit of the doubt; you pray for them; you try to understand their meek statements and attempts at theological calisthenics. Yet, it simply does not feel right. Rather it feels you are being played. It feels they are buying time. It feels they are about one thing and one thing only: Power.
And so it is, of course, with our premier national civic leader, the President of the United States of America. In his case, it seems it is not only about Power. It is only about himself. Nada mas. Nothing more. The criticism are many: The atrocities he says, his demeanor, the way he behaves, acts, talks; coupled with his evident lack of human decency, empathy, and authentic care for others; and, add to that his persistent lying and total disregard for empirical facts.
Yet many tell us to accept these undisputable shortcoming for the greater good. Many tell us that it is the results that count; keep the eye on the prize; don’t get swayed by the waves of criticism. Stay strong. Believe. America first. At all costs… These leaders will tell you they are the victims of deranged fanatics who want to destabilize the cherished institutions and question the bedrock of our core beliefs – be in our faith or our country.
They will instill doubt in our minds. They will question our allegiance, our commitments, our steadfastness to your core values if we dare disagree. They will insist that they have the answers for the greater good. Just trust them. Hang in there. There is a brighter future under their leadership. Their’s is the way. Remember you are the servant, they are the masters. Pray. Obey. They know best. You have incomplete, biased, and inaccurate information. Facts are in the eye of the beholder. They can best interpret facts for you. Beware of group-think. Remember the group-think people, the academics, scientists, and other self-proclaimed thinkers are all against us, these leaders will tell you. They will tell us that these “others” don’t understand us, they want to tear us down…. These self-centered corrupt leaders will do whatever they have to do to make you think their authority is unquestionable.
We, however, must say ENOUGH!
Leadership without informed, skeptic, questioning, discerning followers is not leadership: it is power grabbing; it is manipulative governance; it is authoritarianism.
Whether it is one specific leader at the top – as it is evident with the President of the United States – or it is a team of corrupt appointed leaders – as it is evident with some bishops and priests in the Catholic Church – we have a choice to make as participants in the flock, as residents of this Nation.
As with most things in life, three choices mark the extremes.
[1] Choice one: Leave – and disengage
[2] Choice two: Accept – and live on
[3] Choice three: Resist – and work for change
I choose the third.
The Catholic Church is my Church. It is far from perfect, but it has provided me the foundation for my life’s spiritual journey. I am not going to let a bunch of criminals disguised as leaders to steal the beauty, grace, love which is the Catholic Church. These criminals belong in prison. I will work with every ounce of my spirit to see that we as a Church cleans our soul and focus on service as theology.
The U.S. is where I live. It is far from perfect, but it is where I am by happenstance of life. I am not going to let this sorry excuse for a President that we have to steal the aspirational – if unfulfilled – ideals of this Country. I will resist with every ounce of my body to see to it that he does not perverse the ideals of the United States into a warp sense of conceited ego-centric ‘me first’ nationalism.
#RESIST
We must build our public square on civil dialogue – an article I wish I had written
Two weeks after the mid-term elections, I have not had the ‘aha’ to write a new blog posting.
I did run across this article this morning in America Magazine that is very much the posting I wish I would have written.
Can we reclaim civility and decency in the public square? I hope – I pray – and I will act to do so… Easy? No. But indispensable if we are going to reclaim decorum and shape a new way of doing governance that invites discourse, manages disagreement, and respects all participants.
Here’s the article that appeared on America Magazine’s November 19th, 2018 edition, “We must build our public square on civil dialogue”, by Matt Malone, S.J.
We must build our public square on civil dialogue
The genius of the American founders lay in their ability to design institutions that would call forth the best in a fallen humanity while containing the worst. The separation of powers in the U.S. Constitution, novel for its time, is a good example of this theo-political balancing act: No single person can be trusted to wield power; therefore, power must be shared among many and policed by a legal system of checks and balances. Yet our founders also recognized that the U.S. Constitution is but one part of a larger whole called the American political economy. As I have previously noted in this space, while the United States does have a single document called “The Constitution,” with an uppercase T and C, the American system also presumes nonconstitutional values and customs that are just as vital, if not more vital to the health of our democracy.
Among these indispensable customs are decorum and civility in public argument, which largely distinguish a polity from a mere mob. A presupposition of our political economy is that reasonable people can and do disagree about important public matters and that they will do so through spirited yet civil public argument. Americans have not always been civil or decorous with one another, of course; but until recently this was the minimal expectation, and when one failed to meet it, some social penalty was often applied.
Yet the words of the previous paragraph now seem as quaint as a telegram. The public discourse has devolved to such an extent that the value of civility itself is now openly questioned as often as its conventions are routinely violated. “You talk about somebody that’s a loser,” President Trump recently said about a journalist. “She doesn’t know what the hell she’s doing…. But she’s very nasty. And she shouldn’t be. She shouldn’t be. You’ve got to treat the White House and the office of the presidency with respect.”
That last bit is true. But the president should be treated with respect because all people should be treated with respect. That is the value that justifies civility. Embedded in the very notion of democracy, of a free and fair society, is the principle that we are all worthy of respect or none of us is. When challenged about his lack of decorum, Mr. Trump responds by telling us that he is the victim of slander and is therefore justified in employing a bombastic style. People hit him, so he hits them back, his handlers tell us. Yet that is the moral reasoning of a 12-year-old. Few parents would accept the excuse “Everybody else is doing it” from their children. So why do we accept this justification from the president? Why do some offer it in defense of his actions?
I am well aware that Mr. Trump is not the only demagogue in the country. A quick glance at my Twitter feed is enough to establish that sad fact. But Mr. Trump is the only one who happens to be president of the United States and, as such, has a greater duty than most to deploy his rhetoric with prudence, decorum and moral clarity, an extra-constitutional but nonetheless essential duty of his office, one he consistently fails to execute. While Mr. Trump is far from the only culprit in the demise of the civic discourse, he is the most visible; and, whether we like it or not, he establishes the standard for others. As we used to say growing up on Cape Cod, “a fish rots from the head.”
It is unlikely that Mr. Trump will change his ways. But we can—if we want to. I fear that too many of us, while loudly complaining about the polarization and coarseness in our public discourse, quietly rather enjoy it, even if only subconsciously. Deep down in places we don’t like to talk about, we seem to get a thrill from the politics of destruction. It makes us feel powerful, if only for a moment. Cain didn’t kill Abel, after all, over a mere difference of opinion. He killed him out of jealousy, arrogance and pride. So too do we.
Overcoming sin requires grace. Our founders knew that. They did not understand civility to be something like a social contract: We agree to treat each other a certain way; and if the other party breaks the deal, then we are released from the obligation. No, our founders understood that the duty to be civil is not rooted in social custom but in the divine command to love one another. And God didn’t say: “Since some of you are not loving one another, all bets are off.”
God doesn’t ask us, he orders us to love one another. Civility is one way we carry out that command. The task of every citizen, but especially the Christian citizen, is to testify to this divine command in all our public actions; to labor to build a public square that calls forth the best in a fallen humanity while containing the worst, a place where destructive confrontation yields to creative encounter, a place of true civil dialogue not for the sake of one but for the many.
https://www.americamagazine.org/magazine/2018/11/14/we-must-build-our-public-square-civil-dialogue
Mid-term elections, for the record
What a wild ride. And a week after the election, it is not over yet.
For the record, below are our last few weeks’ worth of Facebook postings as a reminder of what was – and to get us ready for what is to come.
You know you are a Trump supporter if…
You know you are a Trump supporter if you believe some, most, or all of the following.
(Remember, you have a choice. While the opposition is far from perfect, it is certainly more decent – and better – than Trump and his ex-Republicans useful idiots. #VOTE!)
Muslims are terrorists.
Mexicans are rapists.
It is ok to grab women by the pussy.
It is fine to bash the disabled.
Gays are not ok.
Blacks better should know their place.
Jews are too powerful.
Journalist are the enemy of the people.
Transgenders should not exist.
There are many “good actors” in the KKK and similar organizations.
Sports figure should have limited freedom of speech in the ballfield.
The tax cuts are helping the average American.
We don’t need insurance to cover pre existing conditions.
Deregulating the big banks will not lead to another financial scam/collapse necessitating a bail out like back in 2009.
Public education can be fixed only by dismantling it.
Climate change does not matter.
Putin is a friend we can not criticize.
North Korea, the Philippine, and Poland have strong leaders worth praising and emulating.
Most African and Latin American countries are shit holes.
Canada is not our friend and deserve a tariff war.
Saudi Arabia is our friends simply because they buy arms from us, even though women have very few rights and they can murder American journalists.
Ted Cruz father was involved in the assassination of JFK.
Obama was not born in the USA.
Puerto Rico does not deserve to be treated as part of the USA.
Making abortion illegal at any time is of paramount importance without regards to the unintended consequences or the willingness to welcome the baby with insurance, child care, and early childhood education.
Voter fraud is in the millions.
It is ok to make voting more difficult, including instituting a rule that you must vote in every election or be removed from the rolls.
It is ok for a candidate for governor simultaneously be in charge of regulating the elections.
It is ok for the President to consistently lie, be divisive, and make America small –AND call himself a “Nationalist”.
It is ok for the President to keep his tax return secret.
And – before someone posts a similar list from Obama or the Democrats as a response to this post – remember: It is Trump who is the President now; and it is the Republicans that are in power….
It is time to correct this insanity… #VOTE!
p.s.: Don’t assume your family and friends are voting. Encourage them to do so. Offer to drive them to the polls, to baby-sit – whatever it takes… Yes, YOUR vote makes a difference.
What to do in the face of civic and faith calamity
You wake up one morning and realize you live in a nation that came to be through genocide of a native people, built on the back of African slaves, and maintained by the cheap labor of Latinos.
You wake up the next day and realize your religion is infested with pedophiles and sexual deviants – and governed by many morally bankrupt leaders.
How do you survive that one/two punch to the gut? How do you respond to the blast of reality that challenge your core beliefs?
Should I stay or should I go? Should I stay in this country? Should I stay in this Church? How can I possibly be complicit in building a nation with rotten roots or participate in a church corrupt at the core?
How can I declare allegiance to a nation led by an amoral, divisive, cheating, lying President? How can I contribute financially to a church paying for the legal defense and princely lifestyles of criminal clerics and bishops?
Oh, how to respond to this convergence of malice in civics and faith?
We Catholics have to each wrestle with this catastrophic moment in history and in our lifetime in ways that make sense to us as individuals – lest we become hopelessly depressed or “comfortably numb” (as the Pink Floyd song says) to the point of paralysis.
Some will walk away – literally or figuratively. Many will feel rightfully disgusted with the current state of affairs and withdraw from participating civically or in the Church.
Both this country and our Church are imperfect, incomplete, and dysfunctional. Of that there is no doubt.
You can certainly detach yourself from the gutter politics of the moment and turn your back to the horrors going on in the Church. You can certainly simply live life enjoying the immediate satisfactions of the consumer and entertainment culture and society; and you can certainly live life without the Church, in your own private faith space… Ultimately, some will say “we don’t need politics or theology.”
Or you can feel emboldened by this historical challenge and commit to do your part in reclaiming the goodness embedded in many of the people of this country; and rebuilding the Church affirming the beatitudes as put into practice by so many in our Faith.
Two paradigms come to mind:
[1] Don’t let the perfect get in the way of the good; and,
[2] Do everything as if all depends on you knowing it all depends on God.
Pragmatically, functionally, and logistically this means two simple things:
[1] Vote in elections.
[2] Do service with the poor.
Yes, your vote counts. And yes, your service makes a difference.
Convincing friends to vote to end this presidency and supporting your favorite Catholic charity working with the poor and/or immigrant are simple things we can do. Today. Everyday. Without much fuzz. Without long winded debates.
It is not a perfect solution. It will not end all the malice. But it will certainly move the needle. It will certainly matter – personally and for the common good… Even a little. And that is o.k. Tomorrow will be another day.
Don’t despair. Keep the Faith. Pray. Act.
Why vote? Trump.
Voting in November matters because it is possibly the last chance we get to stop Trump.
Make no mistake about it. If the Trump Party and the Republican Party remains in control of the House of Representatives and the Senate, it is highly unlikely that Trump will be defeated in 2020.
The Trump Party and the Republican Party have demonstrated that most of their members are willing to accomodate indecency and divisiveness at the top (Trump) and seismic shifts in historic American values (insulting the press, shattering diplomatic traditions, etc.) to achieve certain pragmatic policy goals; i.e.: stacking the courts with conservatives, appointing their choice to the Supreme Court, and deregulating certain parts of government requirements and changing the tax code to expedite short term corporate profits.
If you are o.k. with the direction Trump is taking this country with these policy shifts and can tolerate his demeanor and approach to leadership, there is no argument that will cause you to consider voting against him. But, if you are uneasy about his leadership style, and confused with his erratic approach to diplomacy and economic policy, I hope you will consider stopping his march to a new America where decit rules, Presidential power goes unchecked, and resulting totalitarianism becomes inevitable.
And, if you are disgusted with this man’s behaviour – present and past – and are weary of his ability to do right for most Americans, then please vote.
Know that you will be tempted not to vote. Many will tell you it is not worth it. You will hear that the system is rigged. Some will argue that Democrats are no better than – and are as corrupt as – Republicans. Plus, “Trump is not on the ballot anyway”, they will say… And you may feel tempted to feel comfortably numb seeing certain economic indicators improving – a few even for yourself… So, why vote?
If you give in to these temptations not to vote, it will be a sad day in America. If you will be one of nearly 1/2 of registered voters that chooses to stay home and not vote, let it be on your conscience.
We’ve had recent election so close that literally had a handful of additional folks voted it could have changed the result. We are talking less than 1% difference between winner and loser… The old adage that ‘every vote counts’ has never been more true. Every vote counts.
One last plea. Making the personal commitment to vote is only a first step. Getting others to do the same is just as important. Your own family; your friends; your acquaintances; your coworker. They need to hear that you will be voting.
You do not need to be like the preacher standing at the corner yelling that you must be saved. (Though that is not a bad idea!) But, certainly you have personal influence on certain folks that care about you and will be impressed with your decision. Don’t assume for a minute you don’t! People care about others. People care about you… Good friends don’t let voters stay home!
#RESIST
The President just called a woman a dog – and that’s ok with his supporters
The President of the United States called a woman a dog last week – and it is already old news. And, his supporters did not flinch, did not care, they gave it no importance.
The President of the United States revoked the security clearance of a past high U.S. government official last week for the simple reason that the ex-official was voicing opposition to the President.
The President of the United States last week renewed his attack on the media, again calling the media “the enemy of the State.”
These three lowlights are indicative of the new world in which we live in these United States. We have us a President who is not only perceptually different in behavior from past Presidents, having introduced a level of lewdness, crassness, and right out insulting and lying that we had simply never seen; but also taking unilateral measures to silence his individual detractors and destabilize institutions that may oppose him.
No surprise coming from a man who for years advanced the false narrative that a recent President was not a U.S. citizen, called Mexicans rapists, insulted Muslims, degraded Black football players and so much more.
We now know this man. We know what he is like. We know what he stands for. He is simply a selfish, self-centered individual who to ensure his personal riches is willing to destabilize this Nation, degrade the Office of the Presidency, and create division and chaos among Americans.
He has created a cult of personality bought into by a sizeable portion of voters that will be with him regardless of what he does. These voters simply do not care about his insults and degradation of others, nor do they care where his destabilizing of the government may lead, and they are o.k. with him realigning the world order to have the U.S. and Russia become allies – indeed, many are o.k. with Russian having helped get him elected… They are hearing what they want to hear; they are seeing what they want to see. They are all saying: “So what if we are on the road to an authoritarian State or the world does not like us? Our 401(k)s are doing just fine; unemployment is down; and we are sticking it to the them with tariffs and such. We are winning!”
Such are his followers. Such are the good Americans that are so gullible as to believe this bad reality t.v. character of a President.
While we certainly need to push for bringing him down through legal and procedural means – be it the Mueller investigation or impeachment – the most effective and efficient way to bring him down is to political handicap him. And, politically handicapping this President can be done only one way. And only the American people can do it. It is called VOTING. If this coming November there is a true ‘blue wave’ of Democrats elected to the House and Senate, we can stop this madness. Nothing else will do it. No investigation, no court can guarantee the dismantling of this President’s craziness. Only having the House of Representatives and the Senate in the hands of the opposition will put a lid on his warped policies for two years until we vote him out of office directly.
If this sounds like I am ‘preaching to the choir’, I am. I am not expecting to change the minds of his foot-soldiers nor stop his State Media from spewing propaganda.
I am simply imploring everyone who is sick of this man to get out and vote. To get others to vote. To volunteer to go door-knocking. To get your old aunt and young nephew to register in time to be eligible to vote this November. To talk to your faith community to make sure we have buses to take people to the polls. To do what it takes to #RESIST and #VOTE.
If not you, then who? If not now, then when?
The cost of comfort in the time of Trump
The economy is humming. The stock market is doing fine. Near zero functional unemployment. Few Americans are at risk of war worldwide. Crime is down throughout the U.S.A. We are enjoying sports, entertainment, and travel is easier than ever… The affluent is doing just fine, thank you. And doing better.
Yet there is a lurking dark side to this lifestyle that is conveniently not discussed, excused away, or simply dispelled as guilt trips. Much of this darkness has been with us a long time – if only we are willing to admit it. But this administration under the leadership of Donald J. Trump has exasperated things, for sure.
We the affluent are certainly reaping the benefits of past exploitations, historical societal sins, and a financial system that is structured to perpetually enrich the rich. Some of us choose to accommodate the guilt caused by this knowing by engaging in charity and jumping through philosophical calisthenics that justify our actions. And we muddle through the shackles of success.
After all, we came from nothing, we tell ourselves. We were children refugees who came to America and struggled for years to fulfill the American Dream. We got an education. We had the ranch house and the yard. Been there, done that, bought the t-shirt… We have navigated the established American culture with a passion. We have succeeded.
All along we remained politically engaged, trusting a system that generally works, but whose militarism and excessive consumerism never felt quite right. We learned about great men (and a few women) whose caricature in the history books we found easy to embrace: Our Founding Father, Honest Abe, FDR, MLK, and many others. We bought into globalization, diversity, and equality. We were lulled into the mindset that the price of freedom is massive military strength and the inherent excess and imbalance of the free market. We thought we had moved beyond the racial ugliness of past centuries when we elected our first Black President. We accepted his capitulation to the international monetary powers when they were bailed out rather than brought to justice after the Great Recession… It is all for the greater good, so we seemed to say to ourselves. At least – we would further tell ourselves – there is a semblance (if imaginary) of process, governance, prudence, and decency at the top leadership.
And then Trump happened.
Hell bent on dismantling the established post WWII world order and turning back the historical clock on evolving cultural norms, he unleashed an anger and vile hate in those that felt they had been done wrong over the last decades. He coupled this with an unholy alliance with the most powerful and a commitment to deregulate and redo the tax system to facilitate their exponential wealth creation.
And as if that was not bad enough, he did this by spewing lewd, insulting, intimidating, hurtful, self-centered, self-congratulatory comments through Tweets and other means. He did this while displaying a personality more akin to authoritarian dictatorial strong man than that of a democratically elected president.
Trump is riding the wave of the inevitable success of post Great Recession economic improvements, the winding down of military conflicts throughout the world, and the relative internal calm in the U.S., claiming it all as his success. Instead of riding this wave of success and building on it, he is taking draconian and short-sided policies that may very well lead to meteoric wealth growth for some – including himself and his family empire – but cause immediate real damage to many, the environment, and international stability.
Both on policy and personality this man is tearing America apart, devolving it to a mean-spirited state of affairs, pinning neighbors against neighbors, and instituting lying, crassness, and crudeness as a successful leadership style.
I want no part of this man’s America.
Yet my 401k is not doing too bad. The Braves are competing in the NL East again. Hollywood continues churning out awesome movies. And I am off to travel again.
Thus, here I am. Reconciling living a life of affluence in a Country led by a leadership that I totally disagree with… Maybe I can’t have my cake and eat it too. Maybe the perfect nation-state does not exist and we just gotta put up with this lunacy, and turn our focus to personal and family wellbeing, enjoy the moment, and look the other way.
Except I can’t.
We have what could be our last chance to stem the tide of Trumpism in America this November. We can reclaim sanity in our governance. We can bring back a balanced dialogue where people actually engage and disagree civically, and reach consensus for the greater good.
Keep it simply: Vote Democrat. Don’t overthink it. This man and his cronies gotta go.
And if in doing so my 401K is damaged a bit, the uber-rich has to pay more taxes, and industries are regulated to protect the environment, that’s ok too. That is a small price to pay for reclaiming decency and sanity in our world.
#RESIST VOTE IN NOVEMBER. REGISTER OTHERS!
Forget collusion… This is treason!
Can the case be made that Trump’s actions constitute treason?
Don’t go there, some will say. They will say that route would be “outlandish, unnecessary, and counterproductive”. Yet, some of what Trump is doing sure smells like intentional acts against the United States. Key among these:
[1] Realignment with Russia and away from Europe and North America
- Russia is the USA’s enemy. It is their intent to destroy the American Empire. Canada and Mexico are our friends. They want a powerful, democratic USA. Putin, instead, would like to see an American system controlled by a puppet oligarchy. Putin could not have scripted a more advantageous series of events to achieve this end than what Trump is doing. Trump has not critized Putin, has hinted he is ok with Russia’s annexation of Crimea, and is handing Cuba back to Russia without hesitation.
[2] Destabilizing government institutions
- American democracy is built on the trust that the government generally serves the people. We are seen that trust eroding – particularly with the President’s disparaging remarks about FBI, the dismantling of the EPA, and the shrinking of the critically important Census Bureau – because the President wants it to. If that trust is broken – if government institutions are destabilized – control is then centralized in the military and police force, responding only to the authoritarian leader.
[3] Intentionally sowing divisions
- We have a President that consistently refuses to be President of all the people. Instead, he aims to please exclusively his supporters, and actively demeans, insults, mocks, and makes fun of those that dare disagree with or criticize him. Creating a loyal, fanatic base of unquestioning supporters is an required element of a dictatorship.
[4] Discrediting the media
- This President calls some in the media “the enemy of the State.” He has set up a media empire (Fox News) that is an undistinguishable integral part of his official information and propaganda apparatus. An independent, credible, and robust media is one of the most critical safeguards against an emerging dictatorship. Trump has demonstrated he wants to destroy any media not enthusiastically with him.
In conclusion, Trump’s behavior and actions are treasonous. Pure an simple. (Not to say anything about his indecent, toxic, and vile manner of speech – which unfortunately is not grounds for impeachment, but are disgusting and unpresidential for sure.) Two more years of this insanity may very well create an irreversible situation. If his madness is not held in check at the ballot box this November, 2020 may be too late.
#RESIST BY VOTING AND REGISTERING OTHERS TO VOTE.