A new year has arrived and Mr. Trump is even worse than he was for the nearly two years prior to its arrival. He is worse even if only because he has been in office for almost two years and has learned absolutely nothing. He is still spouting words of hatred, divisiveness, discouragement and most of all, the “I” word. And that word is “I”: I have done this and I have done that, only I can fix it…and on and on. Oh yeah, and the “m” word too: My generals, my economy, my base, my beautiful Twitter account…and, again, on and on. Every so often he tosses in the other “m” word like what has he (can also be she or they) done for me? Mr. Trump wants the universe to revolve around him! He cares nothing about anyone else and is not interested in taking care of America’s business and leading all of the American people. He wants to lead only those Americans who voted for him. As freshman Utah Senator Mitt Romney said in his op-ed in the Washington Post, [Mr. Donald Trump] has not risen to the mantle of the office.
Mr. Trump – at times when being covered by the media, says disturbing and frightening things with a sincere (at least as sincere as is possible after one takes into consideration that he is a serial liar and his word is worthless) expression on his face. It is next to impossible to tell when he is actually being genuine: to tell the unadulterated truth might be something that is beyond his ability to do. But whether or not he is being sincere when he says those things, time and time again many of them have proven to be destabilizing to America, the American people, America’s allies and the rest of the world. This is not horrible because Mr. Trump is a Republican, it is horrible because of the terrible and possibly irreparable damage that it is doing to all of those just mentioned. The damage would be just as terrible if the president were a Democrat or Independent. And those who have the power to mitigate the damage would be derelict of duty if they allowed such behavior to go on unchecked just as they are with Mr. Trump right now!
It is extremely hard to be an optimist and remain hopeful when someone with the character of a Mr. Donald J. Trump is your leader. It is made even harder when those who are supposed to be preventing that someone from operating in a helter-skelter manner and leading their followers over a cliff refuse to perform their sworn duty and opt to play politics instead. But to remain optimistic is exactly what the American people must do. Yet while we remain optimistic and hopeful, we must also stand up and fight back! If those whom we have elected to speak truth to power refuse to do so we the people must do it ourselves! We must let all of those elected officials know that we will neither condone nor tolerate their week-kneed, mealy-mouthed response to a coequal branch of government for which they are supposed to be the checks and balances ingredient! We must let them know that if they do not do their jobs, there will be consequences!
So let’s be optimistic and hopeful but let’s also get informed, stay informed and roll up our sleeves and get to work. Let’s not let America continue to devolve. Let’s keep her great!
Eulus Dennis – author, Operation Rubik’s Cube and Living Between The Line