Mr. Trump and the spineless Republican-led congress are working twenty-four seven to rob Americans of all hope and any confidence that they have left in our democracy and the American system of governance. This congress is well aware of what Mr. Trump is doing to the American people and the American way of life and yet they still sit back and heartlessly watch because they want to press forward with the Republican agenda. They would rather count the number of judges that they are able to confirm than to rescue the American people from the slaughterhouse tactics that Mr. Trump is perpetrating upon them! It appears that as far as congress is concerned, for all intents and purposes, our plight is meaningless to them. They are treating this whole nightmarish scenario like some kind of a cruel Darwinian game that will ultimately culminate in the survival of the fittest… so don’t look for any help.
They are not even moved to action by the despot-like tactics that Mr. Trump is using against former and current career government employees who are, without a doubt, patriots and who have served this country selflessly and with honor! The most recent victim of these Trumpian tactics is former CIA Director John Brennan. Mr. Trump unilaterally revoked Director Brennan’s security clearance. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Speaker Paul Ryan have cowed to Mr. Trump and abdicated all but a feeble appearance of leadership to him. As a result, the Republican-led congress has become reprobate and due to the lack of genuine leadership by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Speaker Paul Ryan, far too many patriotic Republicans throughout America continue to support this poor excuse of a congress, which is filled with pseudo statesmen who claim to represent them. Whether these elected officials are doing it explicitly or tacitly, they are helping Mr. Trump in his effort to destroy America; and they know it!
Senate Majority Leader McConnell let Americans know exactly who he is and what he is all about when he refused for 293 days, the longest nomination process in the history of Supreme Court nominations, to hold confirmation hearings on President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland. Senator McConnell blatantly lied about why he refused to hold these hearings and shamelessly denied judge Merrick Garland, who was well respected on both sides of the isle, the opportunity to become a Supreme Court Justice. And he did this for strictly partisan reasons. He was holding out hope that a Republican would be elected president in the 2016 elections and that Republicans could then put a person on the court that would be further to the right than was judge Garland. His plan worked and the recently confirmed Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, who was nominated by Mr. Trump, was the fortunate beneficiary of his unyielding tenacity.
I don’t know about you but I am hard-pressed to continue to believe that those senators and representatives that Americans voted for to look out for the best interest of America and to represent them and their thoughts really care even in the slightest about them, their concerns and needs or what they think. Instead, they are locked in on their prospects for personal gain, loyalty to their party, Mr. Trump, big money donors and getting reelected; although not necessarily in that order. As a regular American citizen it is extremely hurtful and hard for me to understand why everyone in power is sitting by and allowing Mr. Trump to do the terrible things that he is doing without even trying to place checks on him. Congress has the power to do this yet they are doing absolutely nothing! Well, they are not always doing absolutely nothing; in many cases they are actually enabling him.
What is happening to us in this country?! What has become of statesmanship and leadership?! What has become of that instilled human element in all Americans, and especially our elected officials and leaders, to always treat others, whether they are friend or adversary, with that inalienable dignity and respect that they were born with; that degree of dignity and respect that they are not required to earn?! Is it no longer there?! And if that is the case, is this the place that we have allowed Mr. Trump to lead us to without us and those that we elected to represent us making any effort whatsoever to prevent it from happening?! Is this where we really want to be?! God help us if it is!
Even though Mr. Trump and his minions are doing everything in their power to tear down and discredit Special Counsel Mueller and his team, I still completely trust them. I believe that they will get to the bottom of what happened with Mr. Trump and his campaign and what took place with regards to the Russian meddling in our 2016 elections. But it is taking soooooo long and Mr. Trump is continuing to ride roughshod over the American people and do damage to America that will be extremely hard to completely recover from if not impossible to recover from.
Still, Americans must continue to support those true patriots who are working to bring out the truth about what happen in 2016 to put Mr. Trump in office and to determine whether or not he is indeed a legitimate U.S. president who was elected without the aid of a foreign adversary. That notwithstanding, those patriots must realize that the American people are hurting and struggling to understand why Mr. Trump is being allowed to do the things that he is doing unchecked by those in power who can do something to halt or at least mitigate, the damage that he is doing to our country. Most Americans likely believe that they already realize this and empathize with us. Along with that empathy, however, they must move to correct this problem as quickly as possible without jeopardizing the Mueller investigation or putting America in a position that will force Americans to give Mr. Trump a free pass. He and all of those who assisted him must be held to account if they colluded with Russia in any way or committed any other criminal acts.
Mr. Trump is becoming more bold each time that he sends up a trial balloon and finds that his supposed overseers are too timid to challenge him even when he and they know that he is way out of line and abusing his power. And each time that this happens he moves what is supposed to be an immoveable Rubicon just a little further from favoring and protecting America and the American people as the Founders intended it to do, to favoring and protecting Mr. Donald John Trump, which completely subverts the spirit and intent of why it was established in the first place. When will our elected officials step up and address this problem? Will they wait until it is too late?
Will they be like the frog in the pot of cool water that was brought ever so slowly to a boil and by the time that it realized that it was going to be dinner or have all of its parts that were its very life ripped out and replaced with stuffing, it was too late to do anything about its situation. The point is not whether it would wind up as dinner or be stuffed by a taxidermist and placed in a museum or on someone’s mantel, the point is that its life was over! Will we wait so long that when we decide to finally put a stop to Mr. Trump’s antics, democracy as we now know it will be over? That’s a scary thought! All the more reason why all voting-age Americans should seriously contemplate what is happening now and get informed, stay informed and vote in the 2018, 2020 elections and beyond.
Your vote does count and you can make a difference. 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