Dear America,
Each time Trump commits another outrageous act I think that the Republican Party will balk and some resistance will eventuate. But before Zelensky met with Trump, Lindsey Graham publicly confessed to have warned him, "Don't take the bait!" which Graham apparently knew would be forthcoming. My point is that Graham knew that Trump was up to something intended to subjugate and discredit Zelensky, but not only did he do nothing to avert that tactical attack on a both political and moral ally's leader, when it was done he reproached Zelensky for succumbing and prescribed Zelensky's resignation as the recourse. And I remember that during Trump's first term when immigration became Trump's rallying cry, Trump exhorted congress to come up with a legislative proposal to reform the immigration process and he would sign it without condition. So a week later, Graham and Democratic Illinois Senator Durban brought a bipartisan proposal to Trump publicly, but not only did Trump refuse to sign it, he demanded more funding for his vaunted border wall in any new proposal they might bring him. Despite that betrayal of trust and lack of integrity, before long Graham was down at Mar-a-lago playing golf with the hypocrite-in-chief, rendering himself the deputy chief hypocrite. I mention Graham and his apostasy--I seem to recall him declaiming during his own campaign for the Republican presidential nomination that Trump was unfit for office because he did this sort of thing--because Trump seems to have so thoroughly subjugated and suborned his party that while they have majorities in both houses, Trump is essentially a dictator, but still, I have deluded myself into thinking that the Republican Party might rise to the Trump occasion. Silly me.
The list of his malignant deeds includes such things as his recent touting of a plan he maintains in his empty head to turn part of the Palestinian homeland, the Gaza Strip, into an eponymously named resort for the rich and famous. He apparently sees no conflict of interest in usurping a foreign land, use our nation's resources along with those of other nations to glorify himself by building a monument to his own avarice and vast egotism at the expense of an already oppressed people. And this pathological vanity wasn't sufficient; he had to post an AI produced picture of himself and Israel's version of Trump, Benjamin Netanyahu sunbathing, apparently without shirts though not revealing either one of their pot bellies and Michelin Man physiques, on a beach bearing Trump's name. Before Trump, the only human being on earth I could have imagined doing such an audaciously, unabashedly a conceited thing without any shame at all was Trump's idol, Vladimir Putin. Well, maybe Victor Orban or Zelensky's predecessor, the ousted and exiled ex-president Petro Poroshenko, might hold a candle to Trump for abject moral bankruptcy, but to call that a dubious distinction would be an understatement. As far as corruption of spirit is concerned, I don't believe that even Putin can compete with Trump: one more American distinction. But listing Trump's hypocrisies and betrayals of American values thoroughly would be taxing to the point of redundancy. I say without hesitation, Trump is not only a bad president, he is a bad human being...yet 77 million of us voted for him and tens of millions still approve of him and his performance as president, mostly Republicans, which precipitates this thought in my mind.
If the Republican Party and its members are this morally vacuous and undiscerning, what does the future of a government controlled by them portend? Given the most profound threat constituted by Trump's megalomania...that he might not leave the White House when his second term is over...what can we hope for in 2028? Will Trump succeed in suborning his party into repealing the 22nd amendment? Will he just skip the formality and send another "militia" to the capital compel congress to anoint him president for life? Will he just order Pete Hegseth to send troops over to the capitol to ensure that it gets done?
Some of you no doubt feel that all this consternation is just alarmism. You think it couldn't happen here, but remember this. Before Putin's ascension to absolute power, Boris Yeltsin put him in position to usurp power out of pure naiveté. Yeltsin was a drunk and a buffoon, but he meant well, and as far as I can recall, he never intended to be a dictator or to see a dictator take control, but the Russian people voted to install one despite his good intentions. I fear that our electorate could do the same thing to us.
Your friend,
Mike
Each time Trump commits another outrageous act I think that the Republican Party will balk and some resistance will eventuate. But before Zelensky met with Trump, Lindsey Graham publicly confessed to have warned him, "Don't take the bait!" which Graham apparently knew would be forthcoming. My point is that Graham knew that Trump was up to something intended to subjugate and discredit Zelensky, but not only did he do nothing to avert that tactical attack on a both political and moral ally's leader, when it was done he reproached Zelensky for succumbing and prescribed Zelensky's resignation as the recourse. And I remember that during Trump's first term when immigration became Trump's rallying cry, Trump exhorted congress to come up with a legislative proposal to reform the immigration process and he would sign it without condition. So a week later, Graham and Democratic Illinois Senator Durban brought a bipartisan proposal to Trump publicly, but not only did Trump refuse to sign it, he demanded more funding for his vaunted border wall in any new proposal they might bring him. Despite that betrayal of trust and lack of integrity, before long Graham was down at Mar-a-lago playing golf with the hypocrite-in-chief, rendering himself the deputy chief hypocrite. I mention Graham and his apostasy--I seem to recall him declaiming during his own campaign for the Republican presidential nomination that Trump was unfit for office because he did this sort of thing--because Trump seems to have so thoroughly subjugated and suborned his party that while they have majorities in both houses, Trump is essentially a dictator, but still, I have deluded myself into thinking that the Republican Party might rise to the Trump occasion. Silly me.
The list of his malignant deeds includes such things as his recent touting of a plan he maintains in his empty head to turn part of the Palestinian homeland, the Gaza Strip, into an eponymously named resort for the rich and famous. He apparently sees no conflict of interest in usurping a foreign land, use our nation's resources along with those of other nations to glorify himself by building a monument to his own avarice and vast egotism at the expense of an already oppressed people. And this pathological vanity wasn't sufficient; he had to post an AI produced picture of himself and Israel's version of Trump, Benjamin Netanyahu sunbathing, apparently without shirts though not revealing either one of their pot bellies and Michelin Man physiques, on a beach bearing Trump's name. Before Trump, the only human being on earth I could have imagined doing such an audaciously, unabashedly a conceited thing without any shame at all was Trump's idol, Vladimir Putin. Well, maybe Victor Orban or Zelensky's predecessor, the ousted and exiled ex-president Petro Poroshenko, might hold a candle to Trump for abject moral bankruptcy, but to call that a dubious distinction would be an understatement. As far as corruption of spirit is concerned, I don't believe that even Putin can compete with Trump: one more American distinction. But listing Trump's hypocrisies and betrayals of American values thoroughly would be taxing to the point of redundancy. I say without hesitation, Trump is not only a bad president, he is a bad human being...yet 77 million of us voted for him and tens of millions still approve of him and his performance as president, mostly Republicans, which precipitates this thought in my mind.
If the Republican Party and its members are this morally vacuous and undiscerning, what does the future of a government controlled by them portend? Given the most profound threat constituted by Trump's megalomania...that he might not leave the White House when his second term is over...what can we hope for in 2028? Will Trump succeed in suborning his party into repealing the 22nd amendment? Will he just skip the formality and send another "militia" to the capital compel congress to anoint him president for life? Will he just order Pete Hegseth to send troops over to the capitol to ensure that it gets done?
Some of you no doubt feel that all this consternation is just alarmism. You think it couldn't happen here, but remember this. Before Putin's ascension to absolute power, Boris Yeltsin put him in position to usurp power out of pure naiveté. Yeltsin was a drunk and a buffoon, but he meant well, and as far as I can recall, he never intended to be a dictator or to see a dictator take control, but the Russian people voted to install one despite his good intentions. I fear that our electorate could do the same thing to us.
Your friend,
Mike
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