Dysfunction or Destruction (Continued)

Posted: January 31, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Since the Republican majority in the House of Representatives took office last January, I have pondered in this space as to whether the new majority was totally dysfunctional or totally determined to destroy our country and our democracy. Without painting everyone in the Republican party with the same broad brush, it is increasingly apparent that while the House is dysfunctional under MAGA Republican leadership, it is also bent on destroying the institutions and norms our government established and refined over the last 235 years. Taking one seemingly singular policy — immigration — it is possible to see how the MAGA crowd combines multiple issues into one large untidy package and brings the wheels of government to a grinding halt.

I will explain further in the following paragraphs, but through a supposed concern over our southern border, the MAGA Republicans controlling the House of Representatives have impacted our relations with NATO and other friends and allies; disrupted desperately needed aid to Ukraine, Israel, Gaza, Taiwan and our own border; initiated impeachment proceedings against a cabinet official; threatened the ability of the Supreme Court to interpret our laws; created the conditions for a state to physically impede federal officials from following the law; and elevated an out of government civilian to become the controlling entity on national policy. The implications for our country are too deep and disturbing to be merely the result of incompetence or dysfunction, although that certainly exists. It can only be attributed to a deliberate attempt to destroy our institutions in order to bring an autocrat to power.

Last October President Joe Biden asked Congress for 105 billion dollars for aid to Ukraine ($61.4 billion), Israel ($14,3 billion), and the southern border ($14 billion) and smaller amounts for Taiwan and humanitarian assistance in the Middle East. Republicans in the House and Senate immediately voiced their concerns over the request and it went nowhere. By the end of the year, Republicans were tying the money to policy reforms impacting our southern border. The president agreed to negotiate changes and invited the leadership of both parties in Congress to the White House to get the process started before the end of the year. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (MAGA – LA) refused to participate in any solutions that did not meet all of the (mostly impractical) demands of his caucus. In the Senate, both parties, along with Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas and key White House aids entered into intense negotiations. All parties involved agree that there is a crisis on the southern border and that significant steps must be taken to alleviate the situation. Compromises came from both sides, and although the final product is not yet public, many Republican Senators publicly applauded the deal, as did most Democrat Senators and the president. South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham declared that it was the best immigration deal in decades. The legislation seems to be moving to a vote in the Senate in the coming weeks. Money for Israel — great! Money for Ukraine — great! More money to hire significantly more Customs Border Protection (CBP) agents, asylum judges, and facilities to house migrants on the southern border — great! Unicorns and rainbows and meaningful accomplishments! Except for one thing.

Speaker Johnson (also known as “MAGA Mike”) refuses to entertain any of it. Why? Because his boss, an out of office civilian pending criminal prosecution, told him to kill it. Trump has very few, if any, issues in his retribution campaign for the presidency. The only policy issue he touts to date is immigration. He deplores the current policies and claims that we have an “open border.” He uses dystopian rhetoric and xenophobia to paint the crisis on the border as an existential threat to our security and yet, no deal. He wants to run on the issue and cannot do so if it is resolved. He does not want to give a “win” to the Democrats (even though the Republicans publicly declare that they got almost everything they want) and so the country must endure another year of crisis until he is in office. A great patriot. 

Meanwhile, no money for Ukraine. No money for Israel. No money for additional resources on the border. The MAGA Republicans’ total support of Trump includes his desire to withhold money for Ukraine. The pro-Putin wing of the party would like to see Ukraine fail. This is not a domestic issue. By preventing the United States from fulfilling its commitments to NATO, Ukraine and our friends and other allies around the world, we are sending a very clear message to the world that no country should depend on the United States for anything. This plays perfectly into the hands of Putin, Xi, Kim and the mullahs in Iran. If the United States does not stand fully with Ukraine, it is a safe bet that Xi will not expect us to stay the course with Taiwan. We will be finished as a reliable partner and supporter of democracy. The lesson for the world is that democracy does not work. Too chaotic. Too unreliable. Too dysfunctional to accomplish anything meaningful. 

Meanwhile, at the same time that Secretary Majorkas is working with the Senate to find a solution to the border crisis, he is about to be impeached by the House. No “high crimes or misdemeanors,” just that they do not like the administration’s policies. Constitutional scholars of all stripes agree that there is no basis under the Constitution or the law for such an impeachment. Only one cabinet officer in our history has been impeached and that was nearly 150 years ago. (For those curious, it was Secretary of War William Belknap in 1876 for blatant corruption. Although a majority voted to convict him in the Senate, it did not reach the required two-thirds threshold. He had already resigned.) This is just another blatant political MAGA stunt taken at Trump’s direction in order to make his two impeachments look less terrible and to further hurt our country. The Secretary is likely to be acquitted in the Senate — if they even hold a trial which is not required – but if he is removed from office, the president will appoint another person to carry out the same policies. The entire thing is blatantly ridiculous and is underway only to appease one man.

As if this were not enough, the MAGA governor of Texas, Greg Abbott is defying a Supreme Court order concerning the placement of razor wire along the border that restricts and in some cases prevents the federal CBP from doing their job. Under the Constitution, the United States has jurisdiction over immigration and the borders, not Texas. The MAGA rhetoric surrounding the issue is reminiscent of that from southern states in the 1850s. ”States’ rights” is again the issue. Governor Abbot is using the Texas National Guard to “defend” the border and to prevent the federal agents from doing their jobs. Other MAGA governors are promising to send Guard units to Texas to help them defend their “sovereignty” and Governor Abbott’s claims that “the fight is not over” and that Texas has a right to “self defense.” By that he means that state laws and policies have priority over federal law, in direct conflict with the supremacy clause of the Constitution. Great MAGA minds such as Representative Thomas Massie (KY) promote over riding the Supreme Court decision by eliminating President Biden’s border funds. In other words, he advocates solving the border crisis by defunding the DHS. Brilliant! The next steps by the governor or the president are unclear as I write, but it could easily escalate into another self-generated crisis. What is clear is that MAGA politicians are willing to go against the Constitution in order to support Trump and his ambitions. A bad sign for our future.

Taken as a whole, the House of Representatives and certain state houses around the country see that their goal is to create chaos and disruption in order to bring down our established norms and institutions in the name of one man. There are multiple severe domestic and international threats to our national security as a result. Dysfunction may be MAGA’s middle name, but such a wide spread and concerted effort can only be explained when we realize that the real point is the destruction of our norms in order to elevate an autocrat to power. 

Middle East Tinderbox

Posted: January 29, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Over the weekend, an Iranian backed militia group used an explosives laden one-way drone to attack an American military outpost on the Jordanian border near Syria and Iraq known as Tower 22. Three American service members were killed and approximately 36 were injured, some seriously. The United States has a series of small bases scattered throughout parts of Syria and Iraq. Originally, these forces were there to counter the spread of the Islamic State (ISIS). They remain in order to keep ISIS from filling a vacuum and also to counter the presence of destabilizing Iranian militias. In response to this weekend’s attack, President Joe Biden declared that the United States “will hold all those responsible to account” and that “we shall respond.” Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said that, “We will take all necessary actions to defend the United States, our troops and our interests.” In order to knowledgeably speculate as to the nature of that response, it is necessary to put the entire geo-political atmosphere into context. 

As the old ballpark selling point went, “you can’t tell the players without a score card.” So it is in the Middle East, there are a lot of different players with differing motives. Sometimes it can be hard to keep track of them all. Here are some of the key players.

On 7 October 2023 Hamas terrorists attacked Israel killing about 1200 Israelis and foreign nationals and taking roughly 240 hostages. Since then, Israel invaded Gaza to destroy Hamas and recover the hostages. To date, it is estimated that over 25,000 Gazans have died — mostly civilians. Hamas still holds about 100 Israeli hostages. The fighting continues with no clear end in sight. Indeed, the Israeli war aims are unclear beyond the mission to “destroy Hamas.” The Israeli government has yet to articulate when the war is over and what victory looks like. More specifically, what is the long term solution to reconstituting Gaza and returning its citizens to a humanitarian way of life while preserving Israel’s security? The international community, including the United States, consistently pushed for, and still persists in pushing for, a two-state solution. That is, Israel and a sovereign Palestinian state. The current Israeli government under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unequivocally rejects that idea. 

The United States and other nations continue to try and find a realistic path to establishing a peaceful and stable Palestinian state as it slowly brings Gulf states into the discussion and encourages Saudi Arabia to establish normalized relations with Israel. Recently, the Saudi national security adviser publicly declared Saudi Arabia’s determination to work with Israel as long as Israel commits to the establishment of a Palestinian state through practical steps, even if the actual formation of that state is in the future. 

Enter Iran. Iran is interested in a de-stabilized region in order to pursue its own interests. In the Iranian leadership, there is a yearning to reestablish the Persian Empire — or in current parlance, the Shia crescent that stretches from Yemen to Lebanon and includes Bahrain, Iran, western Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and Azerbaijan. (As you recall, there are two main Muslim sects — the Sunnis and the Shia. The Shia are the minority in the larger Muslim world. Most Iranians are Shia and most Saudis are Sunni.) Not coincidentally, the main Iranian backed militias include Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen. Other smaller groups exist in Iraq and Syria. 

The most important players in the region are Saudi Arabia and Iran. They are competing not only for regional dominance in a diplomatic sense, but also on religious, economic and military grounds. Add to the mix that Iran is a major ally of Russia and is supplying them with drones and missiles to use in their fight against Ukraine. Russia would encourage Iranian adventurism in order to distract the U.S. from its commitments in Eastern Europe to aid Ukraine. Additionally, Iran views Israel as an existential threat. The Hamas-Israel war creates the conditions for Iran to further inflame regional passions and to make its presence felt on the world stage by creating chaos throughout the region. While Iran claims that it does not control the militia groups surrounding Israel or creating havoc on shipping lanes around the Arabian peninsula, all evidence clearly shows that they do. Intelligence, military equipment and training all come from Iran. It may be true that Iran does not control them on a tactical or operational level (when or where to attack), but there is no doubt that Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis or any of the other groups would not be conducting attacks without the overall green light from Iran.

The United States and our allies know that Iran is the main threat to peace in the region. That said, international efforts are focused on keeping the war in Gaza contained. There is no desire on anyone’s part, and I would include Iran in that calculation, to see a wide-spread full scale war in the region. But, it is getting close. Iran and its proxies are trying to push as hard as they can to disrupt the region, the world’s supply chains and thus world economies in order to serve their own interests and to distract their citizens from the fact that their own economy is in dire circumstances. Internal issues may drive Iranian decisions as a way to also distract the many people in Iran, primarily under the leadership of women and girls, that are pushing back against the theocracy and its oppressive measures. 

Since 7 October 2023, the numbers of attacks on U.S. military forces in Iraq and Syria have steadily increased. The attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and Arabian Sea are also steadily increasing. The president ordered significant U.S. naval and air forces into the region to keep the Gaza war contained. It is not in the international community’s interest to see a major war in the Middle East. Those forward deployed forces have been responding to attacks on the American bases and international shipping at sea with proportional responses. Missiles and manned aircraft have attacked militia weapons production facilities, radars, launch sites and the like — both in response to attacks and, in Yemen, preemptively to prevent attacks. They are meant to deter future attacks and to warn Iran that the U.S. will respond militarily to their mischief. It is not working.

The U.S., alone or in concert with our allies that have also deployed forces to the region, must now respond directly against Iran for the attack on Tower 22. Iran must pay a price for their unchecked attacks. The thorny question becomes what is the right level of response and does it include a direct attack on targets in Iran? The planners in the Pentagon have been working overtime to supply the president a range of options. It is probable that economic sanctions and diplomatic measures are under consideration to warn the Iranians from further attacks. It is also highly likely that covert operations inside Iran, probably combined with cyber operations, will create some level of pain for the Iranian leadership. We can also expect some, as they say in the Pentagon, “kinetic responses”. In other words, ordnance on targets. At this point, it would be surprising to see a military attack on Iranian territory. It is conceivable, as we have done in the past, that Iranian forces at sea will be targeted. Depending on the scale, such an attack would make it clear to the Iranian leadership that there is a price to be paid for attacking Americans and it will degrade their ability to collect intelligence and/or carry out their own military actions. The hard part is to decide on a course of action that is unmistakable as to the source and that it causes real pain to the Iranians, without crossing the line into open warfare. No easy task.

There are hotheads on both sides of the equation that argue for going for the jugular. Given the circumstances in the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Western Pacific, it is dangerous to play with fire while sitting in the middle of a tinderbox that could go up in flames at any moment. A measured response is needed. It may take more than one go around. What we do know is that it will take a clear head and a steady hand on the helm to navigate these tricky waters. 

Assassinations Are Okay

Posted: January 13, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

It is easy to get caught up in all of the vile, dangerous and non-sensical pronouncements of Donald J. Trump (he recently said that Abraham Lincoln should have negotiated with the South and thereby prevented the Civil War — and if he had done so, “you probably wouldn’t even know who Abraham Lincoln was.”) The problem is that if we ignore it, or just laugh it away, we run the danger of normalizing his behavior. On the other hand, the more we talk about it, the more he does it. I am sick of the guy and wish we could focus on defining our nation’s course going forward, rather than dealing with him. Unfortunately, the reality is that he is here to stay, whether or not he gets a second term.

Sometimes, we really need to pay attention. One of those times occurred this week and it was not Trump speaking but rather his knowledgeable and experienced attorneys making what they felt was a reasoned and Constitutional argument in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. A three judge panel is hearing Trump’s appeal of a lower court decision that he does not have total immunity from prosecution for any actions that he took as president. His lawyers claim that any president has total immunity as evidenced by over 200 years of our history where no president has ever been criminally tried for actions taken while president. Which is true. Mainly because no previous president committed crimes while in office. (The relevant exception is Richard M. Nixon. He accepted a pardon which is considered an admission of guilt.)

Without getting too far down into the inner workings of the law, especially since I am not an expert, my understanding is that Trump’s attorneys are arguing that under the Constitution, a president must be impeached by the House and convicted by the Senate before he or she can be prosecuted for a crime. They base their argument on Article I, Section 3, Clause 7 of the Constitution which says:

“Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States: but the Party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law.“

In other words, they argue, no conviction in the Senate, no prosecution for a crime. Which turns the established interpretation of the clause upside down and opens up a whole can of worms over hypothetical situations where the president can literally get away with murder. The Court of Appeals and Trump’s lawyers went there.

Judge Florence Y. Pan asked Trump’s lead attorney Mr. D. John Sauer if any president could be charged for ordering SEAL Team Six (the Navy’s elite special forces unit) to assassinate a political rival. The reply by Mr. Sauer was that a president could only be tried if the House impeached him and the Senate convicted him. Without those preconditions, there was no possibility under the Constitution to prosecute him. 

This was no wild claim made during a Trump rambling campaign speech in front of his adoring followers. This was the legal argument in the U.S. Court of Appeals.

The hypotheticals cascade from there. The president could murder anyone and resign before being impeached. The president could murder a rival and then have his non-supporters in the Senate killed before he was convicted. The mind can run loose on any number of scenarios. Mr. Sauer argued that a president was immune from prosecution for all of that unless impeached and convicted in the Congress.

This is what we have reaped for putting Trump center stage.

I have no idea whether Trump or any other president would try to eliminate all political opposition through murder. What it does tell me is that should the court decide that a president is immune from prosecution for any actions while president, then Trump will use that finding to his full advantage. He will undertake all kinds of previously unimaginable activities as president if he thinks it will help him to get whatever he wants and he cannot be held accountable. 

To be clear, there are some complications to finding that a president can be prosecuted for any action taken while president. In Trump’s mind that means he can prosecute Presidents Obama and Biden should he so desire for any action of theirs that he decides was “criminal.” The Appeals Court (and likely the Supreme Court where the case could go next) will have to figure out a way to define or limit the parameters for prosecution. We must all remember as well that presidents do not prosecute people. The citizens of the United States prosecute people. Grand juries indict people. A jury of our peers hears cases involving the alleged crimes and must reach a unanimous guilty verdict. Laws must be followed. Yet, it is clear by Trump’s arguments that he thinks he is above the law and I, for one, have no doubt that should he get into the White House again, he will ignore any limits that may have constrained his predecessors.

When we worry that we spend too much time, energy and resources on thinking about Trump, remember that he thinks assassinations are okay.

Abandon The Truth And Lose Democracy

Posted: January 6, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

“Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone.”

— Joni Mitchell in “Big Yellow Taxi”

Today marks the third anniversary of the insurrection designed to keep Donald J. Trump in office. Yesterday, President Joe Biden gave a speech in Valley Forge Pennsylvania reminding all of us that the attack that day was anti-American and against all of the values that we say we stand for in our country. He also reminded us that without due diligence, it will happen again. Sadly, he is correct.

The effective propaganda campaign waged by the Insurrectionist-in-Chief and his accomplices in the U.S. House of Representatives and the right-wing media is astonishingly effective. The Washington Post made headlines this week when it announced that in a Washington Post-University of Maryland poll, twenty-five percent of Americans believe that it is “definitely” or “probably” true that the FBI instigated the assault on the Capitol. Even more astounding and dangerous to me is that in that same poll, seventy-seven percent of Trump voters are “not sure” or “definitely” believe that the FBI organized and encouraged the attack.

As we start the new year, it seems that our collective optimism that a new year can bring new and improved elements to our lives, is, I am afraid, misplaced. Apparently, the MAGA attempts to destroy our country so that a “strong man” (hint, hint) can take charge and straighten out our nation’s course are going to continue and where possible, are doubled down. Let’s start with the House of Representatives. The MAGA Republicans (essentially all of those Republicans in the House) are holding hostage a bill to provide aid to Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan and our southern border until all of their demands (which coincidentally exactly match Trump’s) are met. For good measure, they are threatening to fail to act to keep the government open when the current continuing resolution (CR) partially runs out on 19 January 2024. (The CR is in two parts for different government functions. The other runs out on 2 February,) While Republicans in the Senate negotiate with Senate Democrats and the president, the House leadership refuses to participate and Speaker Mike Johnson (MAGA-LA) supports the most extreme demands of his caucus. 

All of which ignores the fact that the president and Democrats in the House and Senate all agree that we need to strengthen the border and have asked for roughly fourteen billion dollars to hire new Custom and Border Patrol (CBP) agents and asylum judges, provide aid to border areas dealing with the influx of migrants and to take other measures to strengthen the border. This is not enough for the Republican House who demand, among other things, restricting asylum requests and detaining those seeking asylum until their case is heard (currently that could be years), building Trump’s border wall (while over-riding any environmental or historical concerns and allowing for non-negotiable rights of imminent domain to confiscate private land for the wall), rolling back current protections for immigrant minors, and they want to preclude any reforms to the immigration system such as paths to citizenship or legalizing “Dreamers” (immigrants that were brought into the country as young children and now have lived, gone to school and worked in the United States and are, for all practical purposes, Americans.) There is more in their plan codified in House Resolution 2, but you get the idea. 

In sum, the House under the leadership of a MAGA Speaker refuses to help Ukraine fight Russia, provide needed assistance to Israel and Gaza, support Taiwan against an ever increasingly aggressive China, and provide needed assistance to our own border. But of course, they do not really care about the border. It is only a cudgel to be used to campaign against Democrats in general and President Biden in particular. Or as Texas MAGA Representative Troy Nehls said this week about the president’s border proposals, “Let me tell you, I’m not willing to do too damn much right now to help a Democrat and to help Joe Biden’s approval rating.” A great American. The issue is not solving the border problems, it is winning an election.

Speaking of such, let us return to the insurrection that increasing numbers of Americans believe is either fake, or “no big deal.” The story is a familiar one but worth repeating. Trump won the Electoral College in 2016, but as you will recall, he lost the popular vote. Immediately he called “fraud” “rigged” and claimed that there were gross improprieties in the way the results were tabulated. He then put together a national commission to prove that there was voter fraud in the 2016 election. The results of the investigation? Crickets. There was no fraud. The commission quietly disbanded. In Trump world, very little is new or original so he used the same script in 2020. Only this time he lost both the popular vote and the Electoral College. As president he tried to marshal all the resources at his command to upend the results and remain in office. When those efforts failed to work, he instigated an insurrection and gave “aid” and “comfort to the enemies” of the United States. 

Here is the through line. From the beginning Trump claimed that the “deep state” and “Democrats” did not want him to be president because he would fight for the “little guy.” He made that argument in 2016, again during his presidency, and in 2020. Those lined up against the little guy would do anything to keep him from becoming president again. He has been consistent over the last three years in claiming that the 2020 and 2016 elections were rigged. Any effort to debunk that claim is derided as being part of the conspiracy to keep him from office. Thus the insurrection was dialed up by the FBI, the courts are against him, he is unfairly being kept from what is rightfully his (and his cult followers) and on and on and on. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, a continuing spiral. Everything is rigged and you, the common person, are getting screwed because you are not getting what you deserve and I will give it to you. When someone is in the cult, it all makes sense. Swallowing wholesale the idea that the establishment does not want Trump in power results in everything else that happens to him make sense. It is not his fault, it is the deep state out to get him. For true believers (and there are millions, but there are also politicians that don’t buy any of that junk but see a path to their own power — more despicable than the believers) it all makes sense.

Very dangerous.

Which leads us to the Supreme Court agreeing to hear Trump’s appeal of the Colorado court’s decision to invoke the 14th Amendment, Section 3 finding that he was part of an insurrection against the United States and therefore ineligible to hold office. 

For a minute, I have to pause. Which one of us would ever think that it was necessary to go to court to stop a major U.S. political party candidate from running for president after instigating an insurrection? The mere thought of it is absurd. In my mind it would be inconceivable that anyone that tried to overthrow the government would be a leading candidate for president. Or at least it would have been for most of my life. I used to think about some folks in our country and their actions and say “this is not who we are” as a nation. Now, given that millions of people, knowing all of the facts, still support a man that tried to overthrow our government, I am beginning to wonder. Maybe this is who we are as a nation.

My own view is that the Supreme Court will find a technicality to keep Trump on the ballot without actually addressing whether or not he fomented an insurrection and subsequently gave aid and comfort to the insurrectionists. If that happens, then we have lost our way as a nation. Even now, Trump calls the insurrectionists “patriots” and “political hostages.” He vows to pardon them and have government officials apologize to them. He promises revenge and retribution to get even with his perceived enemies. 

Let’s quickly review the facts. More than 140 police officers were injured that day. To date 1,240 individuals have been charged with federal crimes relating to that day, 452 of them for assaulting law enforcement officers and roughly 900 have been convicted in a trial or pleaded guilty to their crimes. For 187 minutes Trump sat on his butt and refused efforts as Commander-in-Chief to take action to stop it, which in my professional career constitutes a gross negligence of duty. Obviously his oath to “preserve, protect and defend” the Constitution means nothing to him. This man has no socially redeeming value to our country. And yet, he has a chance of being elected our president and becoming a “dictator” on day one, as he publicly promised. 

Some people are upset that the courts may decide that Trump is ineligible to run for president. Let the voters decide at the ballot box, they say. I say why? He has already proven that he will not accept the results of any election unless he wins in a landslide. He has tried since 2015 to actively undermine our democracy. He led a coup for goodness sake! What makes anyone think that he will follow any rules, regulations or “guardrails”? He will not. He does not deserve to run for president much less to serve. Is it undemocratic to disallow Barak Obama or George W. Bush from running? They would be popular candidates today and many people would vote for them. They cannot of course, because the Constitution says that they cannot. The same Constitution applies to Trump. I am tired of him getting special consideration that you or I would not get. Frankly, I am just tired. The man is ruining our country, wholly aided and abetted by weak people in the Republican MAGA party that are literally physically afraid of him or that have sold their souls for a smidgeon of power.

Too many people think that “it can’t happen here.” All of the evidence is right in front of our faces. It can happen here. It is happening here. There are forces at work to destroy our country in order to rebuild it in their image of a white, “Christian,” male dominated society where the “right people” dictate to the rest of us as to how to live our lives. Trump just happens to be their standard bearer. Stopping him will put a crimp in their plans but it will not stop their efforts when a new Trumpian figure is in place. The bulk of the Republican party no longer is the party of small government, state’s rights and limited spending. They still talk that game but their actions show that really they want a large monolithic government that dictates the life choices, health care, education, even what books to read for our fellow citizens. It is their way or the highway. Otherwise you and I are “vermin” “poisoning the blood” of America. Believe what they tell you.

For 246 years we have had a pretty good ride as a democratic republic that values the freedom of individuals. Ours is not a perfect union, but throughout our history we strived “to form a more perfect union.” We sure will miss it if we lose it.