Dear America,
Now that J.D. Vance has been nominated as a vice presidential candidate, the prospect of the long term decay of democracy in our country is in the offing. There is no point in reiterating the reasons why except to say this one thing, which I have said over and over again for decades: on election day, the American people get what they deserve. And I'm afraid that what we deserve is corrupt, intellectually-dishonest liars. But there is a point in discussing what we could do to avert such a fate. Unfortunately, it appears to be in the hands of only one person to chose that course. Joe Biden persists in accommodating his ego instead of the American destiny and its democracy, which he fulminates over and over again to be his primary concern. Unfortunately, at least on this point Joe Biden is an intellectually-dishonest liar, and his claims of necessity for his second term make him corrupt as well in light of his preference for narcissism over the fate of his country.
I have no idea whether Biden is suffering nascent dementia or simple, sinful pride, but what difference does it make. Whether Biden is just entertaining his own selfishness or he is incipiently deranged, he is unwilling to admit his failing faculties, which puts his conceit in a class of conceit occupied by only one other person I can think of at the moment: Ruth Bader Ginsburg, better known as RBG. Both RBG and JRB refuse to limit their self-interests and egotism despite the imminent risks we face as a nation for their failure. In RBG's case, the fruition of her self-indulgence in refusing to resign from the Supreme Court even though she was slowly but surely dying of cancer came in the form of Mitch McConnell and his fellow Republican hypocrites forestalling appointment of her replacement until Donald Trump assumed the presidency. (I never say that he was elected because the only thing he won was the electoral college.) The only difference between then and now is that JRB is facing the Trump disaster from the presidency rather than RBG facing it from the bench. I fear that if Biden doesn't step down from the nomination of the Democratic Party for the presidency of this country in the immediate future, not just he, but whomever the party might nominate in his stead if he ultimately comes to his senses, will succumb in November to a maleficent team of unabashed Machiavellians who will usher into this country a new medieval descent that could last a long, long time. Both Trump and Vance claim that the 2020 election was fixed, and they are already prepping the political atmosphere to reiterate that claim should they lose in 2024. If no one, that is, if the Democratic candidate for president doesn't make a concerted, competent, cogent counterclaim soon, the malefactors will have created a perhaps insurmountable advantage going into the election; they will have created faux-deniability that their supporters--what Hillary Clinton denominated a "basket of deplorables"--will jam their tongues into their cheeks and disingenuously insist that it is so.
You should understand a couple of things at this point. First, I have voted for Republicans in my life, albeit rarely. I voted for Francis Sargent for governor of Massachusetts and for Ed Brooke for its Senator back in the seventies. I am not a "yellow-dog Democrat," though I must admit that I have trouble seeing merit in Republicans given their proclivities relative to candor and honesty. Second, though it is not out of "yellow dog-ness," I will vote Democratic in the presidential election this year even if the party does run an old yellow dog because, as I have told my children over and over again, I cannot tolerate liars, which at this point in history is tantamount to swearing off Republicans completely. Third, the false piety of Trump and Vance is not just dangerous, it is disgusting. It gives all Republicans who are misguided in my opinion, but noble and sincere in their erroneous beliefs a bad name, and it diminishes us, America, in the eyes of the world's leaders and their people. Mind you, I care not a fig how we are regarded as a matter of self-esteem maintenance. But we may need those leaders and their people some day, and if we abandon them as Trump and Vance say they will in large part, they will abandon us in response. We are not alone in the world now, but with Trump and Vance in office, we might become so...except for tyrants like Orban, Xe and Putin.
Trump will do what he did last time if he gets into office again. He won't drain the swamp. He will just populate it with his own sycophant alligators. He won't defend liberty for all. He'll promulgate power for his evangelical, reactionary constituency at the expense of the liberty of the rest of us. In fact, the new Republican mantra is freedom for all...of us. Subjugation for everyone else and their freedoms. We are on the verge of a new dark age, and only JRB can save us...but not trying to save us himself.
Your friend,
Mike
Now that J.D. Vance has been nominated as a vice presidential candidate, the prospect of the long term decay of democracy in our country is in the offing. There is no point in reiterating the reasons why except to say this one thing, which I have said over and over again for decades: on election day, the American people get what they deserve. And I'm afraid that what we deserve is corrupt, intellectually-dishonest liars. But there is a point in discussing what we could do to avert such a fate. Unfortunately, it appears to be in the hands of only one person to chose that course. Joe Biden persists in accommodating his ego instead of the American destiny and its democracy, which he fulminates over and over again to be his primary concern. Unfortunately, at least on this point Joe Biden is an intellectually-dishonest liar, and his claims of necessity for his second term make him corrupt as well in light of his preference for narcissism over the fate of his country.
I have no idea whether Biden is suffering nascent dementia or simple, sinful pride, but what difference does it make. Whether Biden is just entertaining his own selfishness or he is incipiently deranged, he is unwilling to admit his failing faculties, which puts his conceit in a class of conceit occupied by only one other person I can think of at the moment: Ruth Bader Ginsburg, better known as RBG. Both RBG and JRB refuse to limit their self-interests and egotism despite the imminent risks we face as a nation for their failure. In RBG's case, the fruition of her self-indulgence in refusing to resign from the Supreme Court even though she was slowly but surely dying of cancer came in the form of Mitch McConnell and his fellow Republican hypocrites forestalling appointment of her replacement until Donald Trump assumed the presidency. (I never say that he was elected because the only thing he won was the electoral college.) The only difference between then and now is that JRB is facing the Trump disaster from the presidency rather than RBG facing it from the bench. I fear that if Biden doesn't step down from the nomination of the Democratic Party for the presidency of this country in the immediate future, not just he, but whomever the party might nominate in his stead if he ultimately comes to his senses, will succumb in November to a maleficent team of unabashed Machiavellians who will usher into this country a new medieval descent that could last a long, long time. Both Trump and Vance claim that the 2020 election was fixed, and they are already prepping the political atmosphere to reiterate that claim should they lose in 2024. If no one, that is, if the Democratic candidate for president doesn't make a concerted, competent, cogent counterclaim soon, the malefactors will have created a perhaps insurmountable advantage going into the election; they will have created faux-deniability that their supporters--what Hillary Clinton denominated a "basket of deplorables"--will jam their tongues into their cheeks and disingenuously insist that it is so.
You should understand a couple of things at this point. First, I have voted for Republicans in my life, albeit rarely. I voted for Francis Sargent for governor of Massachusetts and for Ed Brooke for its Senator back in the seventies. I am not a "yellow-dog Democrat," though I must admit that I have trouble seeing merit in Republicans given their proclivities relative to candor and honesty. Second, though it is not out of "yellow dog-ness," I will vote Democratic in the presidential election this year even if the party does run an old yellow dog because, as I have told my children over and over again, I cannot tolerate liars, which at this point in history is tantamount to swearing off Republicans completely. Third, the false piety of Trump and Vance is not just dangerous, it is disgusting. It gives all Republicans who are misguided in my opinion, but noble and sincere in their erroneous beliefs a bad name, and it diminishes us, America, in the eyes of the world's leaders and their people. Mind you, I care not a fig how we are regarded as a matter of self-esteem maintenance. But we may need those leaders and their people some day, and if we abandon them as Trump and Vance say they will in large part, they will abandon us in response. We are not alone in the world now, but with Trump and Vance in office, we might become so...except for tyrants like Orban, Xe and Putin.
Trump will do what he did last time if he gets into office again. He won't drain the swamp. He will just populate it with his own sycophant alligators. He won't defend liberty for all. He'll promulgate power for his evangelical, reactionary constituency at the expense of the liberty of the rest of us. In fact, the new Republican mantra is freedom for all...of us. Subjugation for everyone else and their freedoms. We are on the verge of a new dark age, and only JRB can save us...but not trying to save us himself.
Your friend,
Mike
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