VOTE! VOTE! VOTE!
In the 2024 presidential election…
Like your life depends upon it…
It does!
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson is pathetic! He is second in line to the presidency in the presidential order of succession and he couldn’t even bring himself to denounce the rhetoric of Donald J. Trump and members of his family who blamed Democrats for the attempted assignation of Trump. His response to the anchor of This Week, George Stephanopoulos, when asked if he supports the following statement by Eric Trump was contemptable: “They impeached him twice. They went after his Supreme Court justices. They weaponized the entire legal system.. And then, guys, they tried to kill him. They tried to kill him, And it’s because the Democratic Party, they can’t do anything right.”
According to ABC News, here is Speaker Johnson’s response. “I think what they’re alluding to is what we’ve all been saying. They have got to turn the rhetoric down.” [He added, I] “didn’t hear all the comments.” He Continued, “For years now the leading Democrats in this country, the – the highly – highest elected officials and the current nominee for president have gone out and said that Donald Trump is a threat to democracy. … It’s absolute nonsense. And they have incited dangerous people to do dangerous things.” …”We need to all look at these things in full context. What they’re referring to, though, is the absolute open attacks that have been engaged by Democrats against President Trump since the day he came down that golden escalator in 2016.”
The This Week anchor continued to push back, ‘“I don’t know what more context you need, Stephanopoulos responded, reading the quote from Eric Trump.”’ According to ABC News Speaker Johnson then responded, “George, I’m not going to parse the language what people say at rallies. I could give you pages and pages of crazy comments by the leading Democrats in this country. That’s not what this is about. We have talked about the greatest collection of challenges that this country is facing, probably since World War II, maybe the Civil War.”
There were a few more pitiful excuses that Speaker Johnson offered in his response but the gist of what he said is captured in the preceding paragraphs. To give ABC News full credit, virtually all the information in those paragraphs, beginning with the Eric Trump quote, was taken verbatim from their recent article entitled, “Johnson punts on GOP rhetoric, 2020 election outcome.” I chose this method of presenting this information to you so that you would get the full impact of how Speaker Johnson, the person who is second in line to the presidency, responded in the event that you did not read this ABC News article. His response was ludicrous!
If you are not familiar with Speaker Johnson and his record in congress, especially over the past few years, you should become familiar with them. They will help you to better understand why you should be sure to vote in the 2024 presidential election and encourage your friends and neighbors to do the same. Democrats need a sweep to be sure that America will remain a Democracy. Trump does not hide the fact that he admires and respects strongmen around the world and he has said that he wants to be a dictator… but just for one day. He has talked about suspending the Constitution and, even now, talks about giving police officers “one day, just one day” to be “rough, real rough” with those who he believes have broken the law. And based on Trump’s record for lying, the “one day” rhetoric is meaningless. It is pablum and gaslighting of the American people at its worst!
The Republican Party as we know it no longer exists. It has been taken over root and branch by Donald J. Trump and is now the Trump Republican Party. There are members in Trump’s Republican Party who pine for the pre-Trump Grand Ole Party and, though they know that it no longer exists, use it as cover for their cowardice as leaders. They say things like “I want to keep my voice in the Republican Party” – one can only hope that they are referring to the pre-Trump Party, and provide other pitiful excuses even though the American democracy is at stake.
These Republicans are spineless and travel in whichever direction the wind or current carries them. Being spineless does not necessarily mean that they are bad people. But it does mean that they should not be leaders! True leadership roles have no room for those with mollusk characteristics that will allow them the ability to ooze through the slightest crack in the wall then morph into any convenient shape when on the other side of it! America needs leaders who “in times of challenge and controversy” stand on principles and truth and uphold the Constitution, not those who exhibit mollusk characteristics during these times to manufacture “moments of comfort and convenience for themselves!”
Donald J. Trump, the former The Donald J. Trump of the United States of America, has Republicans froze with fear. A few brave Republicans, a trickle of men but mostly women, have avoided this fear. They have stepped up, stood up to Trump and said, no more; we will no longer tolerate your lies, hate-mongering and distain for the truth and rule of law. These Republicans have resolved to work with Democrats to save democracy while looking forward toward the future and the opportunity to forge a healthy Republication Party built on the foundation of the one that they lost to Trump: To establish a new Republican Party that will foster, once again, a healthy two-Party system.
To those Republicans who are cowards who put forward excuses to not stand up to Donald Trump and failed to stand with these brave Republican women… and trickle of men; shame on you! Election day 2024 is less than a month away but there is still time for you to step up, uphold your oath of office, and be the leaders that you were elected to be. So, I leave you with these words of Thomas Payne to encourage you and inspire you to do the right thing. “Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.”
We, the American people, have the power to remove those from office who are unwilling to undergo the fatigue of supporting freedom; that power is in each person’s vote! Do not waste your power by not getting out to vote, not picking one of the candidates for president on the ballot, writing in a name for president, or leaving the top of the ticket blank! Every vote matters! 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, M2: Street Cop To Top Cop, Operation Rubik’s Cube, and Living Between The Line