I hate writing
about this stuff.
But I have to get
it out of my brain. I have to cleanse my soul.
The political climate
of 2025 is the oddest I have ever lived through. Likely the oddest since the 1860s
when the failures of the Missouri Compromise came to a head in the election of
1860. For those young children who will not be taught about the Civil War because
it paints America in a bad light, 13 states, basically the southern half of the
United States split from the country over the issues of slavery. They wanted to
continue the practice of one person literally owning another person.
In an opinion piece
on the Civil War Give Peace A Chance: Avoid the Carnage Of War dated
7/1/12, historian David Goldfield points out several issues that seem to apply
as much today as in the 1850s and 1860s.
“Our government
governs best from the center and depends upon compromise. By 1861, however, the
Bible had replaced the Constitution as the arbiter of public policy,…”
“In 1858, when
Abraham Lincoln ran for the U.S. Senate in Illinois as the Republican
candidate, the party cited "The Two Despotisms — Catholicism and Slavery —
Their Union and Identity. Self-righteousness eroded the vital center of
American politics.”
[One could frame
the argument that the immigrants / refugees from Latin America today pose a
second wave of a “Catholic Invasion,,” the first being the 1 million Irish Catholics
in the 1850s fleeing the potato famine. Catholicism of course a great threat to
the predominance of Protestantism in the United States. And of course the rise
of Islamic refugees fleeing desots and chaos in the Middle East.]
But I have wandered
off topic here, sort of.
These are undoubtedly
troubled times. There is the strange mixture of the cult of personality
surrounding Donald Trump and this doubling down by the extreme Right currently holding
sway in Congress and the Supreme Court seeking to return the nation to the
1950s – before the Civil Rights Movement, Gay Liberation, Women’s Lib. The “Good
Old Days” before we began questioning the way history was portrayed.
It strikes me so
funny that the United States was formed to separate ourselves from the whims of
one person [i.e. the British Monarch – I say person because although George the
III was currently in power, there would be queens again as the monarch.] and
yet he whole Republican establishment and “Conservative” movement seems willing
to follow the whims of this one person. One can’t help but wonder what will
happen when President Trump is no longer in office. I mean his term will expire
and he is Constitutionally barred from running again – not that that will deter
him or sone other from attempting it. And the man is 79 years old, he’s [probably]
not going to live forever.
But for the first
time in my life, I am truly scared for my country.
Since it is now
almost a capital offence to disagree politically, I have taken to hiding my
truest opinions. My social media account only hints at the deep despair and
fear I am feeling for this nation.
I am greatly
concerned that the damage that the Make America Great Again [MAGA] movement is
and will inflict on this nation by the President’s bypass of Congress via
Executive Order and by his packed Supreme Court carrying the water for an shift
from Moderatism to Ultra-Conservativism will take decades to undo.
This fiscal damage
will likely never be undone. Besides the continuing shift of wealth to the
super rich [despite claims that “we do not redistribute wealth” by some], the additional
deficit spending and addition to the national debt will continue to erode the confidence
in the United States and the dollar. I am sure China is very ready and
perfectly willing to become the new monetary center for the world for the rest
of the 21st century.
I let all of this
get to me a couple of days ago. I am [was] reading Miles Taylor’s 2023 book Blowback:
A Warning to Save Democracy from Trump's Revenge. Taylor pretty much
calls the playbook that the President is running to centralize power in the
Executive or more specifically the Presidency. I knew from Bob Woodward’s Fear:
Trump In the White House that Mr. Trump would not repeat the mistakes of
his first term. His first priority would be assigning people who were loyal to
[or too scared to oppose] Donald J. Trump. Not the Constitution, not God and
Country, not the Republican Party. He would want absolute Yes Men anywhere he
could place them. And lo and behold…
The passage of the President’s
budget [aka “One Big Beautiful Bill” or “One Big Fuck You To the Common Man”]
was the straw that broke me. I am not [currently] in need of Medicaid or SNAP
assistance but the withdrawal of $ 700 billion dollars in funding to those programs [scheduled to not take place
until after the 2026 midterms of course] is going to be devastating to the
states. Adding 3 trillion to the debt which is currently at 100% of GDP is not going
to be healthy for our economy in the long run.
But most people aren’t
looking a year or two or ten into the future. They’re concerned with gas and
food prices today. They want to feel that someone is doing something about people
crossing into America illegally – except Congress actually fixing he
immigration policy. They want to think that erasing DEI and LBTGQ alphabet soup
and “whitewashing” history will somehow swing America back into being a majority
white and God-Fearing Christian nation again.
Of course that’s
not going to happen. But of course, just like the 1960s, old white men continue
to try and legislate away, compartmentalize, and marginalize what they do not
understand. Stuff the toothpaste back into the tube.
It’s been over 65
years – three generations and some change – since John F. Kennedy announced that
the torch has been passed. It’s been a little over 30 years since the Boomers
took over the White House [Joe Biden was actually a war baby born in 1942 but
close enough]. I don’t see anyone of my generation who seems ready to or that I
would want to be in charge. Ted
Cruz? Ha ha ha ha ha ha!
Mom says that her grandparents
expressed it, I heard Grandpap lament it [every time I see two men kissing on
TV or see a commercial for pubis shavers / groomers, I feel Grandpap roll in
his grave] and I guess it’s just my turn to say it. We are living in the end
times.
But I do not think
e are on the verge of the Second Coming of Christ. I think we ae watching the
slow decline of the American … Era? The American Republic? I think our time as
the world’s leader is coming to a close.
And the saddest
thing is we will do it to ourselves. Through alienating our closest allies and
trading partners and possibly even withdrawing from our military alliances
[NATO and SEATO]. We made Canada mad. CANADA! The most polite nation in the
world! Even if we do not withdraw from those alliances, we have done
immeasurable harm to decades of respect and trust between nations and trading
partners that may never be fully healed.
I’m sure I’ll have
more to say even if I don’t think anybody is listening.
Remember this is
just my opinion and it’s worth what you paid for it.
