All of my adult life I have closely followed politics. And I have always been a Democrat. I have also always known that politicians on both sides of the aisle would oftentimes spin and stretch the truth to the maximum point possible without, in their opinion, crossing the boundary and entering the territory of a lie. And if that did not work in helping them to achieve their goal, far too many times, they would actually resort to lying. Even though I always knew this, I found it relatively easy to have a certain amount of respect for them.
I held this respect because of a deep seated patriotic love for America indwelled in me and the overpowering feeling that all politicians harbored this same feeling; but they were doing something about it. They became elected officials so that they could actually serve our country. For that reason, I held a certain degree of approbation for them and respected them even more. I thought that no matter how much Democrats and Republicans fought about the issues and the path forward that America should take that they had a pre-established line in the sand drawn which they would never cross for personal gain, Party or anything else. I especially held the Oval Office and its occupant in high esteem and I believed that these politicians did too. Enter the era of Mr. Donald John Trump.
The election of Mr. Trump ripped away my rose colored glasses and all of the perceptions that I had of the honor, dedication and desire to serve their country and a cause bigger than themselves that I had of these politicians and revealed the soft and repulsive underbelly of the corruption, selfishness, personal ambition and greed that exists there. All of the honorableness and pomp and circumstance seem somehow all feigned by these so called representatives of the American people. I could not help but to, after all of this time, feel extremely naive. That is not to say that my opinion of politicians post-Trump should be applied to all politicians, but with what is happening in congress now, given the complete abdication of their checks-and-balances responsibilities and the rubberstamping of everything – even those things that are wrong – that Mr. Trump does, that opinion definitely applies to far too many of them.
Mr. Trump has brought our country and the Oval Office down to the lowest level – one must hope and pray that it can go no lower, possible. He has brought high level Russian officials and photographers into this office while at the same time banning the American press and photographers and he has allowed crowds of people to surround the Oval Office desk and listen while one of his devoted followers made a long and rambling speech that included profanity. He has literally stood beside Russian President Vladimir Putin, supported him and disparaged American intelligence agencies as the world watched, he has regularly trashed our allies and supported strongmen and despots around the world, and he seems to be content in heading an administration that is plagued with endless scandals.
The same Republicans who ranted and raved about avoiding an increase in the deficit at all costs now remain silent as the deficit has soared under the watch of Mr. Trump and the current Republican-led congress. They passed a tax cut that they said would help middle income and lower income Americans. But instead, it put millions of dollars into the pockets of corporations and the top 1% of Americans and left middle income and lower income Americans with the crumbs off the table. To make matters worse, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell now says that the deficit is ‘not a Republican problem’. He says that the problem is the entitlement programs and so he has called for a reduction in the Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid programs to address America’s deficit problem.
Ever since Mr. Trump was elected he has relentlessly worked to divide Americans and pit them against one another. He seems to be completely focused on his own best interest first and then, maybe – as long as it does not negatively impact his own interest, on the interests of America and the American people. He wants to “Make America Great Again”! He wants it to be ‘Trump’s America’! And although voter suppression is rampant and voters around the country are being disenfranchised at a phenomenal pace he doesn’t seem to care. To be succinct about Mr. Trump’s feelings about this situation I will paraphrase his response to a question that Leslie Stahl asked him. When she asked him about how he felt about having mimicked Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, the victim who accused then Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her, Mr. Trump said, “it doesn’t matter, we won.” His apparent thoughts about the above mentioned voter suppression and disenfranchisements? To paraphrase him, “it doesn’t matter, we need to win.”
The sad part right now is that Mr. Trump is winning. He is winning at pitting us against one another and blinding far too many of us through our anger and rage into accepting change in America that defies everything that Americans have stood for from our very beginning and still stand for now. Change that makes America look more like the countries of those strongmen and despots that he seems to hold in such high esteem. He is winning at making America ‘Trump’s America’!
The results of the November 2018 elections will tell all Americans how the majority – depending on the success of voter suppression, perhaps not the unadulterated majority – of Americans feel and which path forward they want America to take. Our democracy is being threatened from inside and outside of America. As an American, the right to vote is a critical and intricate element in the foundation that supports our democracy. Let’s not just stand by and watch these attacks happen. Instead, let’s do everything that we can legally and without violence to assure that they will fail!
We can do this through our vote. Because we know and we know that they know that our vote is our power, that is even more reason why we must fight through all attempts at voter suppression and disenfranchisement! That is why we must not allow Mr. Trump, the Republican-led congress or anyone or anything else to frustrate us to the point where we just give up and don’t vote! Let’s be sure to keep our eyes on the prize, focus on our power, show up at the polls in November and vote. Your vote counts! So whether you are a Democrat, Republican or Independent always remember, your vote is the most important one of all…unless you don’t use it!
Eulus Dennis – author, Operation Rubik’s Cube and Living Between The Line