Trump’s America is slowly but steadily making “progress on regression” – a.k.a. Make America Great Again (MAGA). Trump supporters are working hard and tirelessly to take America back to the “good ole days” as defined by the former The Donald J. Trump of the United States of America and his followers. In my opinion, Mr. Trump’s followers can easily be subdivided into two distinct categories; heartfelt followers and sycophants. Here, I will identify “heartfelt followers” as those Americans who honestly believe that the 2020 election was stolen from Mr. Trump. I will identify “sycophants” as those Americans who are his toadies and who willing carry his water. They are the ones who help him to keep his current followers convinced that he is still the legitimate president and convert prospective new followers. These sycophants are comprised mostly of federal, state and local elected officials.
It is pretty easy to identify the first category of Mr. Trump’s followers but it is much harder to identify the second category; “sycophants.” These sycophants know without a doubt that Mr. Trump’s “Big Lie” that the 2020 election was stolen from him is nothing more than a hoax but they go along with it because they are seeking to gain an advantage. It is harder to identify them because they do not want to be readily identifiable to the American people overall because this would have a negative impact on the advantage they are seeking to gain. Instead, when it is convenient, they want to be readily identifiable as Trump followers and/or sycophants only to the Republican base. Then, when it not convenient to be identified as such, they want to be opaque and, perhaps, be identified simply as a Trump follower because they agree with his policies but not the man. And still in other cases – when they think that the red meat Republican base is not watching, deny being a Trump follower at all.
Many of the Trump followers – in particular the sycophants, are sitting elected officials who are just desperate to keep their jobs and hold on to power. They hate what Mr. Trump is doing and what he represents but they choose to sacrifice their principles and ignore their oath of office in these desperate attempts to remain in office. They forget that the reason that we the people placed our trust in them and put them there in the first place was because we believed that they would put America first and protect her and the American people against all enemies, foreign and domestic. It appears more so with each passing day that we were wrong. Although President Joe Biden has been in office for almost 21 months now there are still those- including Virginia Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who believe that he is not America’s legitimate president. They believe that Donald J. Trump is.
It is not hard to understand why many Americans are frustrated and fearful about where America is headed. We watched Mr. Trump thumb his nose at the law during the four years while he was in office and now, we have watched him do the same thing again during the almost 21 months that he has been out of office. Every day we continue to hear about how no one is above the law; yet, Mr. Trump remains to be held to account. It is likely that by now all Americans know that the wheels of justice turn slowly for rich folks that the system is trying to hold accountable for something that they have allegedly done. But the only time that this occurs for people of color and other poor folks without power and money is when you are trying to get innocent folks who were falsely imprisoned out of jail. The regular lamentations about how terrible the things are that Mr. Trump has done and how Republicans should grow a backbone and step up and condemn him for them have long ago grown stale; especially when he continues to flaunt his wrongdoing on the world stage still without consequences.
As Americans, we deserve better. We deserve to have our system of justice work the same for all Americans. And yes, this includes Mr. Trump even if he is the former The Donald J. Trump of the United States of America. But Americans are not strangers to a system of justice that does not work the same for all Americans. The system has never worked the same for the rich and powerful and the poor and powerless. As obviously wrong as it is, preference has always been given to the rich and powerful. But the system has never been known to willingly completely fail. With the situation with Mr. Trump, it is on a fast track to complete failure if he is not held to account and is allowed to continue his outrageous antics while continuing to thumb his nose at the law.
I mentioned earlier in this article that Trump has followers and that those followers can be subdivided into two distinct categories, “heartfelt followers” and “sycophants”. I further said that the sycophants were comprised mostly of federal, state and local elected officials. What I did not mention was that there are others in this category who are nominated and confirmed to the highest judicial level in our country, the Supreme Court, by some of those federal level elected officials. These justices are tasked with making the final decisions on cases that have been argued in the lower-level federal district courts and appellate courts, yet remain unresolved. The Supreme Court is the virtual glue that holds together the actual “rule of law” in America. It is the fundamental foundation for the rule of law without which rule of law would be unable to stand. That is why the great majority of the public must believe that the Supreme Court is an apolitical institution and that its decisions are fair, just and based strictly on the law.
Unfortunately, that is not the case right now. Polls indicate that trust in the Supreme Court has fallen by at least 22 points over the past two years and is at its lowest ever approval rating. The preponderance of Americans believe that the Supreme Court is definitely political and many believe that it is little more than an extension of the Republican Party. The Court has earned this reputation through its rulings lately by overturning longstanding precedence, with the crown jewel being Roe vs. Wade, simply due to the appointment of new justices to the Court that gave the rightwing a supermajority. The Supreme Court just begun its new session in October this year and plans to hear at least three very key cases – Merrill v. Milligan, Sackett v. EPA and Moore v. Harper – that can have a major impact on the Voting Rights Act, clean water standards and whether or not the “independent state legislature” theory will be established as the law of the land, respectively. Based on its resent decisions, it is hard to determine what the Court will do. It seems to be impervious to public opinion and determined to implement the rightwing Republican agenda.
Time is fleeting, America. Our elected officials must act if we intend to keep our republic and democracy. And right now, the Democratic Party and those Republicans who want to keep our republic and our democracy don’t appear to be acting with the urgency which this situation demands. Mr. Trump must be held to account! This does not mean that he absolutely must be found guilty. But if the evidence determines that he is guilty then he must be held to account via a legitimate and fair trial. Further, if the evidence determines that he is guilty and he is not held accountable then this will only embolden him and he will do even worse things. There will be no limit to how far Mr. Trump will go except for the limit that he places on himself…good luck with that!
We must put pressure on our elected officials and keep it there to represent us, the voters who put them in office, and not themselves. If they don’t do what we elected them to do then we must exercise our power through our collective vote – this November and in future elections, and remove them from office. No matter how bleak the situation may appear to be right now, know that we can do this! So always remember, whether you are a Democrat, Republican or Independent, 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