The primary season is now three states in and the clear frontrunner for the Democratic nomination is Senator Bernie Sanders. In fact, he is the only primary candidate to ever win the popular vote in all three states. Iowa, new Hampshire and just this Saturday, Nevada. So is the DNC falling in line behind him? Ha! Not even close.
There is a full on attack on Bernie from not the republicans, not the Russians, not trump, not wall street, but the democratic establishment. Yes, you read that right. Top democrats and the left leaning media outlets are in super duper attack mode.
He’s being called mean, unelectable, divisive, too far left, radical, etc. They are calling him everything but the frontrunner. Why? Because they are terrified that he will win. This argument that he is unelectable against trump is nonsense. It is a scare tactic put out by the establishment to try to manipulate you into thinking he can’t win so you vote for someone else. But in reality, it’s all just bullshit. Because all you have to do is go vote. That’s it! Go vote. You see, when the electorate is made up of almost 60% Democratic leaning voters, 100% participation would ensure a win every time. All you have to do is vote.
Now about his bad reputation for being mean or divisive. He’s not. Just because he talks loud and looks like the grumpy old man from down the street, he is quite the opposite. Grumpy old men don’t stay in politics for almost 40 years with the same message of fighting for the working class. They don’t stay consistent in their quest for making sure social and economic inequality get abolished. They just don’t. Bernie is a caring man that sees the good in all of us and what this country could be with the right ideas and leadership.
Remember, all you have to do is vote. Tune out the the idea that he is wrong for America. He is “the guy”. And they know it. That’s why they are fighting so hard against him. Not Me, Us.
As the Senate trial of the impeachment of Donald J Trump goes on, one looming question remains to be asked. Are we a country that cares about right and wrong anymore? It seems as if this has become lost among all of the partisan bickering and ideological division that has overtaken our country. We are barreling down an icy highway at 100 miles per hour with no traction or steering. And frankly, I’m scared for our country.
The prosecution team has finished presenting their arguments for why Trump needs to be removed from office. He has formally been impeached in the House of Representatives. He is only the third president in United States history to have been impeached. It is the Senates job to decide whether or not to now remove him from office.
Despite numerous amendments proposed by the Democrats to introduce new evidence and witnesses, the republican majority has voted them all down. Curiously, they have done so despite not being shy to participate in interviews for every major news outlet to complain that the prosecution has failed to offer any new information.
It is becoming increasingly clear that no matter whether any new information is introduced, such as the audio of trump telling Lev Parnas to remove Ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, or the numerous videos of trump soliciting help from foreign governments to investigate his political rivals, the republican majority in the Senate has their mind made up already.
Which brings us back to the question, Do we as a country care about right and wrong anymore? Maybe I can lay this out in such a way that maybe, just maybe, we can have an honest and reasonable discussion about what this impeachment is really all about.
Lets make this simple. Forget for the next few minutes that you identify with a particular political party. Forget who you want to win the upcoming election in November. Forget where you live and which god you worship. Just sit there and think about one very simple thing. Do you care about right and wrong?
It is undisputed, even by the defense team for the President, that he actively solicited the help of a foreign government to damage the credibility of his political rival in an attempt to win the next election. Ask yourself. Is this right or is this wrong? Are we as a country willing to now allow our politicians to solicit foreign governments to influence our elections? Are we willing to allow them to basically cheat us out of our votes thus destroying our democratic elections? I believe the overwhelming majority of people would agree that this is wrong.
The President has actively obstructed congress during this impeachment investigation by ordering the State Department and all other relevant government entities to ignore congressional subpoenas and requests and has banned current and former administration officials from testifying. There are a couple “right and wrong” questions here. The first is is it right or wrong for any person under investigation to be able to ignore subpoenas and requests for documents relevant to the investigation? Would that fly in any court of law around the country for a normal citizen? Second, is it right or wrong for the President of the United States to actively block attempts to be investigated by Congress? Do innocent people behave this way?
Our republic consists of three co-equal branches of government. They all have very specific jobs. But what the founders wanted to make sure is that each equal branch was able to keep the other two branches in check and within the law. Is it right or wrong to have checks and balances or should one branch be more powerful than the other two?
Ok, you can put your partisan hats back on. I hope you can read these questions again and again and be honest about your answers. It is critical that we demand that our country lives by a code. That code is to always try to do the right thing, even if it hurts, doesn’t feel good or is unpopular. We cannot survive as a country unless we do. We cannot expect to have order unless we do. We can only expect chaos and unrest.
As Americans, we are expected to set the example for the rest of the world. Yes, that sometimes becomes a burden and doesn’t always seem fair. But it is the right thing to do. We are currently allowing the President of the United States to consciously Not do the right thing. We are allowing it. We aren’t talking about Joe Blow at work or your neighbor or the guy in your town that owns two gas stations. This is the President of the United States. The most powerful and most recognizable political figure in the the world. The face of our nation. The representative of these United States that everyone around the world sees. And make no mistake. The world sees him Not doing the right thing. Is it right or wrong that we allow any President to act this way? I think we all know the answer to that.
Well here we are again. It’s the silly season where, for the most part, we the voters get to chose the candidate that we would like to destroy our lives one bad decision at a time. Well, It isn’t really that bad, is it? Worse yet we have to endure another several months of bad blood and back and forth banter with people of opposing views. Our friends, our family and acquaintances. But how did we end up so divided?
We’ve never lived in a time in the modern era of such great social and political divide. Or have we? Let us not forget the civil rights era of the 60’s and before. Those were tough times. With all due respect, today’s climate is probably worse.
People today are showing signs of being severely brainwashed and bamboozled into not having any trust in anything anymore. From claims of fake news to the theory that all politicians are corrupt to just plain not believing the word of their closest friend, today’s climate has become toxic. The influence of trump’s relentless attack on the truth coupled with the media’s willingness to cover every tweet, video and soundbite has the very uneducated American public confused.
Don’t misunderstand me. There are very smart people here. So when I say uneducated I am talking about the populace’s unwillingness to stay abreast of current events. Sadly, many folks have no clue how our government works, how laws are created, or even the very functions of the three branches of government. The current impeachment trial that is gong on right now has shown the level of ignorance that has become a cancer in the public. Most can’t explain why this tool was included in the constitution by the founding fathers. They don’t understand it’s importance and they certainly don’t understand the weight and gravity of having to use it.
I had a conversation with a coworker and he was telling me that he doesn’t trust the word of climate scientists. He also doesn’t trust many politicians. And pile onto that, he doesn’t trust any media. I looked at him and said “Wow. I bet if I told you 2 + 2 = 4, you’d be skeptical.” He was silent for a minute. But the look on his face suggested that in his mind, he was actually questioning if 2 + 2 actually equaled 4!
How did we get here? How is it that we have allowed a part of our society to become enamored with a President that is a proven pathological liar? When did the Republican party decide that they were ok with an unprecedented level of hypocrisy? And with such behavior, why does 23% of the voting population still support it? It’s hard to imagine. It’s also something that the rest of the world sees and is questioning also.
Trump currently has 17 sexual assault and rape allegations against him. Yet the evangelical right has shown him overwhelming support. Why? Could it be that he claims to be pro-life? Wait. He can’t be pro-life. He’s letting American allies get slaughtered in Syria right now to accommodate his Russian boss. That doesn’t sound pro-life to me. And that certainly doesn’t sound christian.
I almost feel like we have somehow went to bed one night and woke up in bizarro world. A world where everything is backwards and upside down. It’s disturbing how divided we are and how easily we have become that way. Understanding that our owners want an uneducated populace is the first step to healing. We are many. They are few. Yet we struggle to breathe under their thumb and go so far as to do their bidding for them. Arguments about whether or not it’s ok for people to have to go bankrupt trying to pay medical bills should not be happening. Yet it does.
We are never going to all agree on the same things. But we have to be willing to accept the good with the bad in a fair and honest debate. Maybe in order to do that, we have to agree on what our society tolerates from our elected officials. I would suspect that political parties aside, nobody wants to be associated with a pathological liar, a rapist, a swindler and a con man. Nobody. Maybe we should start there. Then we can begin the healing.