What Americans Must Not Compromise in a Settlement of the Ukraine War

Anything less than securing the agreement of Russia to withdraw from all Ukrainian territory under the control of the Ukrainian government when the nation was recognized by the United Nations and the United States would be a betrayal of Ukraine, and of our own values and principles as Americans.  Trump's peace proposal, which shows incredible ignorance of who we are as a nation, as well as of Ukraine's long history and struggle for independence, is an embarassment to the United States.  What President of the United States has ever been as ignorant of our own history and our own values as this deadbeat has been?  

Is history so difficult for some Americans that they can't remember what happened even from a few years ago?  Trump counts on Americans being ignorant of history, and bored with the details, so he can say whatever he wants to say and be believed.  I believe that it was Adolf Hitler, in Mein Kampf,  who stated that the "masses" are ignorant and they have short memories.  Do we need to be reminded that it was Russia that began this aggression against Ukraine, first by seizing the Kerch Peninsula and the Crimea, and then by invading, bombing, launching drones and then heading out to conquer and hold the Donbas, an area that has been part of Ukraine, even during its days as a province of the Soviet Union, and under the Czars. 

What should be acceptable to the United States, as conditions of peace in Ukraine, is pretty simple.  The nation's sovereignty should be respected, and its territory restored.  The Donbas, the Crimea, and any other area occupied by Russia needs to go back to Ukrainian sovereignty.  Russia owes Ukraine whatever amount of money is required to repair its infrastructure damage, and the damage to residences and businesses bombed by planes or drones, and a reasonable reparations for military losses.  

We cannot betray the sovereignty and rights of the Ukrainian people.  That includes allowing them to decide whether they want to  join NATO and if they do, then the United States leads the way in welcoming them in.  The Europeans are outraged, rightly so, over Trump's proposal, and they correctly see that as a betrayal of them as well as Ukraine.  I doubt the Europeans ever thought that Americans would elect a President who is as blatantly and willfully ignorant of history and his own country's Constitution as this one is.  

Jealous of Obama, Trump is Still Gaslighting in an Attempt to Win the Nobel Peace Prize

There are too many places where the Trump administration, during all of the time he has been in office, has fallen short of the achievements of the Obama Administration to even begin a discussion on that subject.  It is clear that Trump is seething because President Obama is revered and respected, and we are up to a full 61% of the American people who completely and totally disapprove of the job he is doing, while some of the best, most lauded polls are showing his job approval rating hovering around 36%.  Those are both records, since the polls have been keeping track of it.  He's the worst in history, but we already knew that.  

Maybe he thinks that Russia holds the cards and Ukraine should be lucky to come out with some of its independence and autonomy as a nation, if not all of what they have earned.  Well, I doubt that the Nobel committee would see selling out a fellow democracy that modelled its constitution after the United States as worthy of a prize.  Frankly, I think they'd call it a betrayal, at best, and capitulation at worst.  

Trump's insistence that Ukraine's leaders have not acknowledged their gratefulness for the help they have been given by the United States is one of the single most ridiculous, ignorant, and impeachable statements that have come out of his mouth since he first became President in 2016, and given the garbage he has spewed during that time, that's saying a lot.  I don't think any President of the United States has sunk to the level of dishonesty, outright lying, deceit and lack of integrity that this man has shown in such a short time.  

And the contempt he has for his own supporters, who buy this crap, is obvious.  He thinks that they are so stupid that he can just say that something is true, and presto!  They believe it.  

And they are.  Stupid.  

But We Wait For Fellow Americans to Wake Up

I have only seen two members of Congress, well, three now, all Republicans, who have been willing to put their political career on the line to oppose this demagogue.  One is Liz Cheney.  Disagree with her politics, but she made the sacrifice that no Democrat has yet been willing to make.  Two is Adam Kinzinger.  He has shifted his conservative politics, to a point where he's the kind of Republican who was willing to work across the aisle and understood how constitutional democracy works.  They made their mark and it was valuable in pointing out the reality of what we are dealing with in the case of the sitting President.  

It remains to be seen whether Marjorie Taylor Greene will follow through with her threat to resign from Congress.  I'd never support her with a vote, or even an acknowledgement of agreement with her politics, but she is taking a huge risk, maybe for her own personal ambition, to catch the falling crown, but the attention she has focused on the corrupt demagogue in the White House and how evil he is has been part of what has contributed to his fall in the polls.  

It shouldn't be a risk for Democrats to step up and start pulling the bricks out of the facade.  Representative Al Green, of Texas, who was once my Congressman, has filed articles of impeachment, and so has Shri Thanedar of Michigan.  It's time for those in Trump's opposition, regardless of party affiliation, support those efforts by constantly calling, badgering, lobbying and putting political pressure on house members to support the articles.  These marches and rallies need to lead somewhere, for the purpose of educating and motivating like minded people, and then putting pressure on Republicans to open their eyes, wake up and toss him out.  

Just a couple of Republican votes could get Johnson out of the Speaker's chair, replaced with Jeffries, and then, impeach and remove both Trump and Vance.  I know most of my friends think this is an impossible dream, but I'm thinking about it as those words from the song in Man of La Mancha run through my head.  

I'll let that thought carry me for a while.

 

Trump's Peace Plan for Ukraine Gives Russia Everything Putin Wants

There is a pathway to peace in Ukraine that the United States should broker, and support wholeheartedly.  It's not the one being pushed by Trump and his sycophants in the state department, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio.  

Here's the simple version.  Russia gets out.  Withdraws.  Signs a treaty with Ukraine, verified by the UN to never attack militarily again, and pays for the damage.  Ukraine then is free to do as it pleases as it continues to develop into a constitutional democracy.  If it wants to join NATO, it can.  If it wants to continue to be Russia's chief food supplier, so be it.  

Ukraine and its people have a long history about which most Americans are completely uninformed.  The fact that it has finally come out from the oppression of Russia, in several different forms from Czarist monarchy to communism to current fascist oligarchy is remarkable.  It's the kind of "nation building" that hard line conservative Americans have supported since the Second World War, and of which we got a small taste and experience in Korea and Vietnam. 

The isolationist attitude that conservatives have toward the rest of the world and the arrogance with which they project their version of American "patriotism" doesn't work in the real world, and is an unrealistic foreign policy approach that is dangerous to the United States and its people.  Politicians who promote it should be subject to getting voted out of office for being at odds with American values and ideals, and Trump supporters should be at the top of that list.  

I am continuously writing to my Democratic house and senate members to encourage their full support for Ukraine, and their willingness to stop any negotiations or treaties which do not achieve this objective.  I encourage readers to do the same.  Call your senator today, and find out if the Democrats have the backbone and fortitude to stand against what Trump is trying to do to help his good buddy Vladimir Putin.  

Don't Think That This Small-Minded, Spiteful, Insufferable Pettiness Isn't a Reflection on the United States of America

It's been a long time since I've considered using the term "stupid idiot" in either conversation, or in my writing and expressing my thoughts.  Free speech gives us a lot of latitude, but restraint can sometimes be a sign of a level of intelligence, self-respect and simple courtesy.  Then there are times when something happens, and we are left without words to express the depth of our feelings about it.  

That's where I am right now.  

Where else could I be, after seeing the President of the United States publicly declare that the crowd at his funeral will be a lot larger than the one Dick Cheney got at his.  The fact that this man actually uttered these words is irrefutable proof that every criticism of him, every bad word spoken about him, every word spoken that was critical of his total lack of character and morality has been right on target. 

He is a stupid idiot.  And so is every American citizen who voted for him either time he ran for President.  We are a nation of half-witted dumb-asses, or at least, half of us are.  We have not always had some of the best and brightest individuals in our country find their way into the White House, and maybe that's due to some unique quirks in our history.  But we've never, until now, elected someone who bears no resemblance at all to competent, effective leadership.  Or whose character and person is so lacking in human character that it has, indeed, become a national embarassment, and a detriment to his ability to serve.

And the fact that enough Americans used their popular sovereignty, and cast a ballot to put him back in as President, makes them as bottomlessly stupid, ignorant and petty as he is. It takes some serious mental illness and a measure of insanity for a human being to step so far out of the boundaries of normal behavior, understanding the kind of character that is expected of the nation's President to publicly whine about the size of the crowd at Dick Cheney's funeral, and claim his own will be larger.    

This is the man who holds the nuclear codes in his hands, people.  

No Comparison Between Dick Cheney and Donald Trump

Donald Trump is no Dick Cheney.  

I was not a fan of Dick Cheney, not at any point in his political career.  The man who served both Bush Presidencies bears a measure of responsibility for the colossal failures of both, particularly those of Dubya, under who he served as Vice-President, and for whose failed policies he was responsible.  The economy tanked, Bush made a muddled mess of a war that should have been quick, cut and dried, and which took place under false pretenses.  And most of that is on Cheney.  

Cheney was a hard line right winger, not a man of the people.  He wasn't exactly easy to get along with, and he was a politician, not a humanitarian.  I wasn't invited to attend his funeral, and wouldn't have gone if I had been, simply because he wouldn't have been someone for whom I'd make an effort to honor his life at his passing.  To those who knew him, he may have seemed to be a "good man," and I'm not going to question those personal perspectives.  My way of paying my respects is to acknowledge his passing, out of respect for the office he held, and that's that.  

But Cheney, by any standard of measurement, was certainly a much better person than the sitting President, by a long shot.  

There Are Consequences We All Must Suffer For the Breakdown of the Support for Constitutional Democracy

And the words that keep tumbling out of the man's mouth, and off his fingertips, every day, show us how big a mistake it was to ever elect him to public office, and how we must all bear the responsibility, and suffer the consequences, because we have somehow created circumstances which allowed America's most stupid idiot to become its President.  Or, which allowed the most stupid idiots in America to have control of the political steering wheel, overcoming the safeguards of a free press and an educated electorate and allowing ignorance to reign.  

Not only did we elect the politicians who support this madness, a sad and costly departure from warnings given to us from as far back as Washington's Farewell Address, but we also elected other politicians who don't seem to have the same convictions, fortitude, or courage that those among the American people who see and have responded to what is happening are now exhibiting.  

We need a whole lot more Jasmine Crocketts and Mark Kellys, and Eric Swalwells, who will, like governors Gavin Newsom and J. B. Pritzker, get right in Trump's face and take his fragile ego down.  He's backed down, in Illinois and in California, we've beaten him.  The Texas National Guard, which never actually set foot in the city of Chicago, has gone back to Texas defeated and disoriented and demoralized. And bankrupt. That's what happens when this guy uses things.  They burn up during the process. 

The threats that come out of this man's mouth are signs of his weakness, his inept incompetence and lack of any sort of emotional strength or common sense.  They are indications of his complete and total moral bankruptcy, and of his absolutely horrific lack of any sense of humanity or decency, which are necessities for serving in the Presidency.  

The integrity, decency, humanity of those who have now become his opposition, a group which should include almost all of the American people, but which sadly only numbers somewhere around 60% of us, if we still believe polls and trust their ability to truly gauge the national will, binds us to support the Constitution's means of making a change in office for the benefit of the American people.  We are not like the British parliament, which can call for elections when it is clear that the coalition government isn't working.  So we have to depend on the most partisan and politically ineffective and morally bankrupt Congress that we've ever had to do its job, follow through on their responsibility to impeach him on any of dozens of felony charges for the crimes he's committed, and then vote to remove him from office.  

Every senator or representative that stands in the way of doing this is fighting against American values, the American Republic, American Constitutional Democracy and popular sovereignty, "We, the people."  

  

We're At One of Those "Never Before in Our HIstory" Moments

It's been 46 years since I walked across the stage of my university graduation and received a Bachelor's Degree with a major in American History, minors in English and Biblical Studies, and went by the education college office the following morning to pick up a teacher's certificate.  I had already been hired by the school district where I did my student teaching and was anxiously awaiting, maybe for the first time I can remember, the first day of school.  

The next 25 years or so, spent in a classroom with high school students, and with college students when I taught as an adjunct at a junior college, were learning experiences.  I've approached and learned about American history, and taught it, along with 8th grade Constitution classes and 12th grade Civics classes, to an uncountable number of students at this point.  I can count, among my former students, three district attorneys, about a dozen municipal department managers, two members of the House, three members of the state legislature, one federal appeals court justice and more than a dozen who are also teaching middle or high school social studies.  

I've studied and taught the subject from every angle.  I've collected, from students, as part of their daily class work, thousands of newspaper and media articles and posts about current events, with their evaluation and interpretation of how they see things.  When the opportunity presented itself, about eight years into my career, I went back to graduate school and earned a Master's degree.  It's not bragging for me to say I'm an expert in the subject.  

I can also say that I've seen an awful lot.  I'm old fashioned enough to have spent my mornings at the kitchen table with a light breakfast, a cup of coffee and the daily newspaper.  And as the internet has become more prominent, that morning news feed includes reading from the New York Times and The Washington Post.  Sure, there are people who have seen and studied and observed more than me, but not very many.  And I make this point to put what I'm going to say in context.  

The Dignity of the Presidency is Gone

We are facing a real critical crisis with a President of the United States who is not only completely unqualified to serve in office, but whose behavior indicates that it is a real danger to this country for him to be in such a position of power.  

Regardless of the politics, and I find it difficult to characterize how Trump handles the Presidency as "political" in nature. the chief executive of the United States of America is our representative face to the world.  And occupying it, allegedly elected by the people, is a man whose pettiness, vengefullness and whose airing of personal grievances in a regular stream of social media posts on a daily basis is a colossal embarassment to the country.  

I cannot recall a President who acts like a fifth grader with vengeful, hateful, name-calling, threats and insults hurled at people who make him angry because his ego cannot handle opposition.  This, in and of itself, is personally and emotionally disqualifying.  His words and the manner in which he treats anyone who gets his negative attention is a sign of a level of immaturity and emotional instability which goes beyond simply making him look foolish.  It makes questioning his sanity legitimate.  His crude and disrespectful behavior is a sign of a high level of personal loathing and lack of self-respect, along with ignorance of the kind of manners expected of someone holding such high office.  

It's a sign that he lacks any leadership quality whatsoever, something I don't believe we have ever seen in anyone who has served as President of the United States, at least not recently.  

The fact that an individual who lacks any sort of self-respect could get elected President of the United States is a sign of a serious problem we have among the American people.  It means we have an unacceptably high level of ignorance among our population, not only when it comes to personal decorum, protocol, and simple manners, but it is also a sign that the level of ignorance and apathy that exists when it comes to understanding, appreciating and paying the kind of respect to our government and its principles is also unacceptably and dangerously high.  

His open mockery of a disabled reporter during his first run for the White House should have been enough to cost him the Presidency.  That moment should have been the point at which a mature, well educated, democratic-appreciating population should have said "No! We won't have that kind of crude disrespect and bigotry in our White House!"  

Mounting Disrespect and Disdain For American Values Characterizes Trump's Presidency

No one who assaults the Constitution and its principles like Trump has done should be handed any kind of leadership role in the government.  There were plenty of atttempts, during Trump's first term, to circumvent Constitutional authority, bypass the rule of law and turn the Presidency into a dictatorship.  But there was also resistance to it.  Still, we saw a President break the law in ways that we've never seen before in our history.  Stolen classified documents.  Giving legitimacy and credibility to murderous dictators who oppress and starve their own people. 

What he did with regard to the early aid we were giving to Ukraine was, of course, one of the reasons he was impeached.  That's just pure corruption, using appropriated tax dollars like it was his own personal bank account.  But no American who participates in an insurrection against their own government can call themselves a patriot, and frankly, I call them traitors.  We've speculated for years about the possibility of a worst case scenario occurring with a power hungry President using the powers of the office for personal gain, but we have never seen it before now.  

The use of the Presidency to get personal revenge against perceived enemies is an absolutely unacceptable practice which should also lead to impeachment and removal.  We have had former Presidents play political games, and attempt to use the power of the office for their own political advantage, but we have never seen anything like this.  This is the worst case scenario ever imagined by George Washington when he warned Americans about the dangers of partisanship in his Farewell Address.  

The abuse of political power, permitted by the slimmest of Republican congressional majorities, is also unprecedented.  We tend to think that those who reach the White House have done so with a combination of political experience, astute observation of the world, with a measure of discernment and consideration that is an asset to a job that has public service as its main objective, a reasonable educational background along with some personal and professional expertise and success in the private sector.  The complicated nature of the job requires the ability to listen to advice, recognize specific talents and qualities in individuals who are chosen to be advisors, and the humility to recognize the fact that the success or failure of a Presidency depends on the quality and integrity of those advisors, because no one person can have the expertise in every area necessary to manage the nation.  

Trump has none of that.  He seems to conduct his policy off the top of his head as he goes, citing populist mythology and conspiracy theories as fact, and then blaming everyone else when what he does naturally fails because he is basing his actions on false information.  His "shoot from the hip" approach, leaving the Constitution and its separation of powers in the dust, has cost the taxpayers of this country trillions, yes, trillions of dollars.  

Are We Looking at an Unforseen Constitutional Flaw?  

The Constitution is based on popular sovereignty, so the failure to hold this man accountable rests with we, the people.  But we are putting up with it.  At least, no one seems to be putting the kind of pressure necessary to get Congress to act anywhere that it has been effective.  I think we are well inside the danger zone at this point, and we need to get him out of the White House now.  The balance of powers, so carefully constructed by the founders, did not forsee a corrupt Supreme Court, or a political party so bent on control that it would fail beyond capacity to protect the Constitution and the American Republic. 

And that means that the cleanup of this mess is left to we, the people.  

Frankly, the manner in which partisan politics operates means that essentially, there is really no effective opposition party in elected office.  Sorry, that's a hard reality for some people to swallow, but it is the truth.  The kind of courage, boldness and risk that will be necessary to save this country from being stymied in some kind of paralysis that lets this travesty go on and on has not yet showed itself among any of the elected members of Congress.  There have been some, in the federal judiciary, who have moved ahead with some measure of boldness, and maybe there might be just enough of that to keep the creeping ignorance at bay, I don't know.  

If the Constitution were being followed and, in fact, had worked the way it should, then there would have been several relatively easy avenues to rid ourselves of what is not only a completely inept, incompetent, failed President, who is mentally unbalanced and emotionally crippled, but who is a danger to the country because of the nuclear capability and the kind of power that goes with it.  The impeachment and removal route would be one way, though Republicans are part of the attac on American values, and I don't know if the political pressure on them could ever be intense enough to get them to do the right thing.  Having him declared mentally incompetent would be another, but they have control of that, too.  

This Will Take Long Term Solutions

I sincerely hope we have not lost our last opportunities to stop this slide toward fascist dictatorship.  Yeah, I know, those are becoming meaningless, overused words.  But we keep talking about  the upcoming midterm elections as perhaps the last chance to save our democracy.  We had control of Congress for two years, along with a Democratic President in the White House from 2021 to 2023, and the party that is supposed to be the opposition did virtually nothing to put any measure in place that showed they believed Trump was indeed a threat to democracy.  And I mean nothing.  

A couple of weeks ago, I heard James Carville--and I'm not necessarily a fan of his--talk about what Democrats must do if and when we get back into the White House with a Congressional majority.  He is advocating for packing the Supreme Court to neutralize the conservative majority in order to get court rulings that protect the Constitution from exactly the kind of stuff they've been doing.  

Great idea, James.  Where were you when the progressive Democrats were pushing this very risky, but bold idea back in 2021?  If we'd done that then, requiring the breaking of the ridiculously undemocratic Senate Filibuster, we would not be here now.  We could have put a court majority in place that would have overturned their ridiculous Presidential immunity rulings, that would have overturned Citizens United, which has allowed elections to be flooded with corporate money and no accountability.  A side benefit would have been to save Roe.  And any one of the justices had the authority to overtule the stonewalling going on which prevented the Justice Department from prosecuting crimes Trump committed that would have disqualified him from running again, and if they did what they should have done, sent him to prison..  

And that would just be a starting point, if we ever get that chance again.  America is becoming a third world country when it comes to the security of our elections.  Are we going to require UN investigation and supervision in order to conduct free and fair elections?  Because Trump's faction of the Republican party is laying plans to make sure Democrats don't get a house majority in the midterms, and I, once again, do not see any Democrat doong anything except whine about it. 

Who's minding the store?  Once again, it will have to be we, the people.  

This November's elections just gave us a taste of what political victory can look like with some fresh ideas, fresh faces and a little boldness and initiative.  We need leaders who are willing to stand up for Constitutional Democracy, even if it is at the expense of their political job.  So let's start vetting our candidates and finding, and electing, those who are not status quo game players, but patriotic Americans committed to public service.

If The Thought That Trump's Involvement With Epstein is "The Thing" We've Been Waiting For, Get Ready to Be Disappointed

I really wish all the hype and speculation about the Epstein files would be the silver bullet that Democrats and the Trump opposition has been waiting for to bring him down.  Frankly, I wish the gross incompetence he showed when he completely botched his first term in office would have been enough to convince a majority of Americans that a moral degenerate, egomaniac, psychopath should not be allowed anywhere near the White House.  But our country is neither as educated or sophisticated as it likes to think that it is, and we frankly do not have an electorate capable of understanding how elections and Constitutional democracy go hand in hand.  

Trump and his apologists, which include some lovely criminals like Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller, among other thugs and assorted human refuse, have been working for more than a decade to make his record of association with Epstein go away.  Not an easy job, considering the number of people involved who were eyewitnesses and the written documentation that was kept.  They were willing to wait, and bide their time until Epstein came under the direct custody of the justice department, and attorney general Bill Barr, to knock him off and make it look like suicide, or to help him succeed with the job when he failed the first time.  They've erased or made things disappear for the entire time that it has been an issue, and when Democrats got control of Congress and the Presidency in 2021, they thought they'd had it.  

Who knew that Merrick Garland and the justice department appointed by President Biden would do so little about it?  I'm still furious over that whole set of absolute fiascos of total disregard of the rule of law. So my guess is that what's left of the files will be underwhelming, as far as their ability to produce any kind of real reaction.  And they pulled that off right under the Democratic leadership in Washington's nose. 

Surely we do not expect any moral outrage over this from the leadership of those in the conservative Evangelical political right.  If conservative Christian pastors, church leaders and televangelists who praise Jesus with uplifted hands weren't phased by Trump's immoral adultery, felony convictions, sexual deviance and worldly image before, they aren't going to be upset by his shenanigans with Epstein.  Heck, if Epstein hadn't "committed suicide," he'd be made either the head of Trump's Christian advisory board,  or Secretary of the Treasury.  

Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House, and self-professed conservative, Evangelical, doesn't appear to be bothered by any of Trump's gross immorality, but is willing to help cover it up, which makes him just as guilty.  If he's not bothered by this, I wouldn't expect any Trump supporters, no matter how Christian they might claim to be, will be upset enough to want him out of office.  Republican right wing Christians already think that the country is going to hell in a handbasket.  It appears that they are willing to join in and help it move along to its destination much more quickly.  

And so the remaining question is whether or not this will bother enough of the Trump opposition, and enough Democrats, for them to be willing to put some of their own political careers on the line to save the country from the reputation of having a chief executive who rapes children.  Himming and hawing, and trying to discuss a plan is going to get them run over by a mob demanding justice.  

So will this make enough of our political leadership disturbed,, sickened and enraged enough to actually do something about it.  That's the bottom line question.  

Frankly, I don't think there's going to be enough there to do the trick.   So tell me I'm wrong.

Poised on the Brink of a Knockout Punch, Democratic Senate Leadership Throws in the Towel

I used to think that there might actually come a day when this country would get its politics together, wake up to what is being done to it politically, and unite behind the leadership of the Democratic party to throw out the fascists and set up an era of peace and restoration that would last at least as long as the Roosevelt restoration did.  With November's election results, polling data that shows the Trump administration has lost way more ground than they can afford, the growing momentum behind the marches and protests under the "No Kings"banner, signs that the government shutdown was putting tremendous pressure on the GOP with some members of both the House and Senate ready to back down and make a deal, that old line political gamesmanship from out of a time when negotiation and give and take actually worked raised its ugly head among Senate Democrats and edged eight of them out of line into capitulation.  

Instead of holding their ground on the one thing they had claimed was worth fighting to keep, they buckled under pressure from somewhere, and threw in the towel.  I have to hold myself back from writing words that I might regret, feeling betrayed as I am right now, and lost.  Trump, squirming and bucking and showing signs that he was going to have to find a way to cut and run without looking like he was cutting and running was given a beautifully wrapped gift by these eight Democrats who still, after nine years of his rhetoric and actions, don't seem to see that he's a threat to American democracy. 

What they seem to see is that their own political career, and preserving their own political power by holding on to their Senate seat, is more important than representing the people who put them there in the first place.  And that is going to lead us to the disaster we all know has been coming for at least a year. 

We've gotten so used to this modus operandi of our party leadership that the apologists and little Mary Sunshines were out early, trying to find ways to explain away what can't be explained away.  The mixed messages are frustrating and baffling.  Trump is, all at once, the greatest threat to democracy in all of American history, and yet, well, to these eight Senators, maybe they're not on board with that and he's just another corrupt Republican politician, oh, well, huh?  

Everything that the marches and protests, and last Tuesday's elections, and the pressure on the Republicans because of the shutdown had gained up to this point has been lost.  We've gone from heartfelt and enthusiastic talk just a week ago that the Senate might realistically be in play in the midterms, to greater uncertainty about even being able to win a House majority, after this fiasco.  It's quite possible that we not only won't get control of either house in the mid-terms now, but we very likely may have just handed Trump a third term, or at least, helped the Republican nominee to the White House in 2028.  

At 68 years of age, I have to look at this practically now.  I'm not sure I'll ever see the America we once had under a constitutional democracy.  I was hoping that we'd gain enough seats in the upcoming midterm to end his agenda and stop any further damage, though I didn't see impeachment and removal as a possibility,but a faint hope. I was hoping we'd field a strong candidate in 2028 who could give us a couple of years of solid congressional majorities to undo and repair the damage done by Trump. At this point, I don't think we'll see any of that.  I don't think Democrats are done with their old line political negotiation and if this keeps up, we're going to lose the midterms in 2026, and the Presidency in 2028. 

He's going to steal it, we all know that.  With this kind of leadership, they're just going to sit around, complain about it and let him have it.  No one with the power to stop it is going to step up and do it. 

So it seems, I'll have to plan to live out the rest of my days in a fascist dictatorship.  It may simply require devoting all my energy to figuring out how to survive.  My health isn't great, and now I don't think I can count on getting all of the social security and medicare benefits I worked for all of my life.  That will definitely shorten what days I have left, if we get to that point while I'm still around.  

I'm not bragging here, but I discovered that I spent somewhere around $2,000 on the 2024 election, mostly on the Presidential race, but I gave a good chunk to the DNC, and to candidates running in places like Wisconsin, Michigan and a nice sum to Beto O'Rourke's group working in Texas.  I've stopped doing that for now. David Hogg's group is on to something worth the support. So is O'Rourke. So is Bernie Sanders, God bless his heart.  But I've kind of lost my enthusiasm at this point. Why waste the money and the time, when we will have some Senators or members of Congress just give in like this?  We'll have evidence in hand of how he's going to steal the election but no one is going to do anything about it.  So why bother? It's not much, but putting that in savings might be critical for survival at some point.   

This is how they've made me feel.  And here's something else to consider, after working up all this momentum, and having things finally start to point in our direction, how many others have been utterly discouraged by these eight Senators who will never experience anything out here like we are going to go through?  We can't afford this.  

And it damn well better change.  

 

Conservative Evangelicalism Has Always Been Out of Step with Christian Theology, Doctrine, Practice and the Values of Jesus

The reason that the conservative, Evangelical, Christian nationalist-influenced branch of the American church that has been infiltrated and blended with right wing extremism does not appear to be following the principles of the Christian gospel, as preached and taught by the life of Jesus the Christ, is that it is not now, nor has it ever been, Christian.  

They are not seeking to evangelize the "lost," by those words meaning to convert individuals to the Christian gospel who are not now Christian.  They are seeking to expand their political and economic power, and advance an ideology that is identifiably anti-Christian in its characteristic self-ambition, ego driven activity.  It is pseudo-Christian in that it infiltrates churches and Christian institutions with its worldview ideology that looks and sounds a lot like historic, traditional Christian faith and practice.  But those are just trappings.  On the whole, the denominations and groups that make up what we call "Conservative Evangelicalism" in this country today, mainly the fundamentalists among the Baptists and non-denominational groups, and the tongue-talkers and faith healers among the Pentecostal/Charismatic branch of the church are not now, nor have they ever been, "orthodox" Christians, by term definition. 

They are using political power to advance their agenda, identified clearly as the Project 2025 plan written by the Heritage Foundation.  Lauren Boebert, in one of her recent political campaigns, articulated the aims of this plan well, inadvertently, perhaps, when she said, "the government isn't supposed to tell the church what to do, the church is supposed to tell the government what to do."  

To anyone who has taken an eighth grade constitution class, that statement rings alarms bells for how unconstitutional, and ignorant, that it is.  But to someone who has an ear for the Heritage Foundation's Christian nationalist ideology and agenda, that's exactly what they are looking for.  And they are banking on the ignorance of a lot of Americans who know nothing about their own constitution to take them seriously.  

Following the Teachings of Jesus, Like Turning the Other Cheek, "Has Gotten Us Nowhere," Says Donald Trump Jr. to Turning Point Rally

One of the more definitive statements of the pseudo-Christian cult that is subverting Christian churches in the United States by convincing them to use the secular political power of the state to advance their agenda came from the Turning Point organization, led by Charlie Kirk.  Kirk invited Donald Trump Jr. to speak at multiple events, and at one particular gathering, early in the organization's history, he spoke at a rally held in Phoenix, Arizona.  What Junior had to say  was quite revealing when it came to the anti-Christian political philosophy of MAGA Trumpism.  

"We've turned the other cheek and I understand, sort of, the biblical reference--I understand the mentality--but it's gotten us nothing.  OK?  It's gotten us nothing while we've ceded ground in every major institution in our country."  

So, from the pulpit of an Assembly of God church, a man who has had no personal connection to a church, or to any part of the Christian faith at all, at any point in his life, whose personal morality is fodder for tabloids, is telling a supposedly "Christian" audience that their lack of influence among the institutions of the United States is due to following the principles and teachings of Jesus Christ.  There's no way any conservative Evangelical remotely engaged with the political far right could have missed this statement, it was all over the secular and religious press when he made it.  

But Turning Point, and Charlie Kirk himself, are way out of the ballpark when it comes to any kind of Christian orthodoxy.  Just read what he writes, and listen to his speeches, and he says a lot of the same things Don Trump Jr. said in this particular speech.  The Turning Point website says, "We play offense with a sense of urgency to win America's culture wars."  That statement, in and of itself, is theologically and doctrinally anti-Christian, and unsupportable by any biblical standard of interpretation.  Looking at the lineup of speakers who appeared with Don Jr. at that November 19, 2021 rally,  including the now morally disgraced Madison Cawthorn and Matt Gaetz, there's not one that brings a reputation of credible Christian faith and practice to the table.  Not one.  

The "culture war" is a straw man.  Winning it is not, in any way, the mission and purpose of Christianity or the church.  In fact, to focus on something like that, rather than on the evangelistic message of the Christian gospel is counter to the core values of Christian faith, as they are supported by the biblical text.  Jesus gave the church it's purpose in Matthew 28:18-20, as "go, preach, baptize, teach," which means to transform individual lives, not reform culture. That's a demonic abberration of the Christian gospel. It is, as the apostle Jude says in his epistle, verse 4, a "licentious intrusion" into the church.  

Christian Orthodoxy is Based on a Historical and Contextual Interpretation of the New Testament

There are several books out on the market now that do an excellent job of showing how the pseudo-Christianity that forms the core of the Christian nationalism that the Heritage Foundation and other groups, churches and denominations in the conservative, Evangelical political right, is not anything close to "orthodox Christian" theology and doctrine, based on a biblical interpretation that considers the recorded words and ministry actions of Jesus as the filter through which any interpretation of any other part of the New Testament, and the whole Old Testament, must be interpreted.  I particularly recommend Brian Kaylor's "The Bible According to Christian Nationalists," along with John Fugelsang's "Separation of Church and Hate," as primary discussions on the places where Christian nationalism and the culture warriors fall well outside Biblical orthodoxy.  

In Christian theology, Jesus, the itinerant rabbi who led twelve disciples during a three-year ministry that took place mostly in the northern Jewish province of Galilee, is the divine son of God, whose purpose was to come into the world, and clearly reveal God's existence and person, for the purpose of redeeming his human creation from its fallen and sinful condition.  So it stands to reason that the life and teaching of Jesus, the only record of which is recorded in the four gospel accounts of the New Testament, would stand as the most authoritative and accurate source of theology and doctrine of the Christian church that formed around the belief that Jesus is the Christ, or the Messianic savior of Old Testament prophecy.  

The 1963 Baptist Faith and Message states it clearly and succinctly.  "Jesus is the criterion by which all other scripture is to be interpreted."  

And that's exactly why the right wing political movement, known as the "Conservative Resurgence" in the Southern Baptist Convention, removed that statement after gaining control of the denomination's executive committee and officer positions.  It does not fit with the pseudo-Christian political aims of the religious right.  The "Conservative Resurgence", a fundamentalist takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention that started in 1979, was aimed at the political influence and use of the denomination, not doctrinal reform.  That's why one of the two leaders of the takeover, Paul Pressler, a Republican activist and Texas Appeals Court Judge, was involved.  

Conservative Evangelicalism, in either its fundamentalist or Pentecostal form, doesn't accept the superior authority of the revelation of God brought by Jesus.  They hold to a doctrine that they call "The Inerrancy and Infallibility of the Scripture," coupled with declarations of belief and interpretation that the Bible's inspiration is both "plenary," meaning all of the canon is inspired, and "verbal," meaning that the very words themselves are also inspired directly by God.  They believe that the text of the canon, which, from an Evangelical perspective is the sixty-six books of the Protestant Bible, not the Catholic Bible with the included Apocrypha, is "without error in its original manuscripts."  

Infallibility simply means that every part of the Bible can stand alone in revealing "truth," in a "verse by verse" kind of way.  

Both of these assertions are fallacies.  We do not have the original autographs of the New Testament.  Those crumbled into dust centuries ago.  And the manuscript copies that we do have, the earliest fragments dating to perhaps 500 years after their original writing, but most of the text at least 900 years later, have enough variants to show that the transmission of the text was not one hundred percent accurate.  

But interpreting the Bible in a "verse by verse" manner is the biggest fallacy of fundamentalist and evangelical doctrine.  Jesus made an authoritative statement on the interpretation of what was references as "scripture" in his day, which was the Law and the Prophets, and laid claim to being the complete fulfillment of both [Matthew 5:17-18].  So the whole of the Christian gospel is contained in the words and the ministry of Jesus.  Everything else, some of it written by eyewitnesses, most written by the early convert from Judaism, the Apostle Paul, is commentary which must be compared to, and filtered through the lens of what Jesus said and did, in order to understand correctly.  It cannot be interpreted "verse by verse." as a stand alone statement of gospel truth. 

And that is the doctrinal and theological error that has misled conservative Evangelicals, along with some other Christian groups, into believing the deception that their mission and purpose is to use political power to gain influence in the world.  And don't let them fool you.  It's been pretty clear that the conservative, political-religious right wing in the United States hasn't been after winning "the culture wars."  They are after the money they can suck out of those they have convinced that this is their goal.  From Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, to Charlie Kirk, all of the false apostles of the far right who have led their churches and followers to follow this intrusive licentuousness, as the Apostle Jude calls it, have made themselves rich off of it.  

Winning the culture wars is not the purpose of the Christian gospel or the church.  The church's mission, identified  from the very words of Jesus himself, is to "go, preach the gospel, and baptize those who are spiritually transformed by it."  Trying to fight a culture war is the result of the kind of "licentious intrusion" that the Apostle Jude warns about in his epistle [Jude v. 4].  

Biblical Christianity Is Not About "Winning Culture Wars," It's About a Personal Faith and Lifestyle Rooted in the Christian Gospel  

The Christian gospel, which begins with the Beatitudes, Matthew 5:1-11, not the Ten Commandments, was not intended to convert nations or national rulers into imposing its principles on their people.  From the very beginning, it was aimed at the conversion and transformation of the human soul, something intended to inspire the human spirit, and bring spiritual unity among people who were all created, according to the Old Testament narrative, "in the image of God."   

The Christian conversion experience doesn't impose the moral principles of faith practice by force, or by law, but by personal conviction.  The transformation recognizes the free will of every human being, and the intended result of the Christian community that is formed, the "Ecclesia," the gathered ones who have this spiritual conversion experience in common, is to reflect these values for the benefit of others.  Christian communities see their purpose as lifting up, not tearing down, at least, theoretically, when they understand their mission and purpose they do.  

They also understand another core principle of the Christian gospel, soul freedom.  Each individual is accountable as they stand before God.  With regard to all of the other human beings that surround them in their life, their only responsibility is to "love your neighbor as you love yourself."  Jesus put boundaries on these relationships, saying, "Do not judge so that you will not be judged.  For in the way you judge, you will be judged, and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you..  Why do you look at that speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your eye.?" [Matthew 7:1-3, NASB] 

Christian nationalism sets the Christian church up as the judge over the rest of the nation, and it doesn't win approval or support by letting people make their own choices out of conviction, and out of their own soul freedom.  It makes choices for all people based on the faulty premise that its leaders are not subject to the same standard of measure that those over whom they have control are subject.  We've seen how this works throughout all of the history of the Christian church, when it became allied with the state, and corrupted by the same kind of worldly power those in the MAGA movement, and among Christian nationalists, now seek.  

Why This Must Be Opposed at the Ballot Box

My soul bears the scars of the decades in which I grew up in a conservative, Evangelical church.  I really missed out on a lot of social development, potential friendships and good relationships, by the arrogance and hatefulness that I had developed toward people I judged not to be Christian like I was.  I could not see this in myself, until, while in college, at a university affiliated with an Evangelical denomination, I was exposed to this Christian doctrine that was so different than what I had grown up with, and which opened my mind up to see human beings as equally valuable and unique.  

I've spent a lot of time swimming against the stream, trying to be an influence for what is increasingly seen as "creeping liberalism" in both politics and in the church, and discovered that most people who call themselves Christian and spend several hours a week in a church are simply not capable of loving their neighbor if they perceive that neighbor has compassion toward anyone who isn't in their own ideal plane.  The roots of racism, discrimination, and the "culture war" can be found in this country's conservative, "Evangelical" churches, and I put that term in quotes because what they are evangelizing isn't biblical Christianity.  

I tried to stay in and be a catalyst for change.  There were a few churches left in the Southern Baptist Convention, after the political takeover, who asserted their independence and autonomy, and didn't fall to the fundamentalist, right wing political influencers.  In some ways, they benefitted from being labelled "liberal," or "progressive," because they still attract people from churches who are fleeing the Heritage Foundation's influence and all-consuming presence.  But of course, eventually they had to cut all ties with the denomination, to preserve their own integrity.  It's not a small number, either, there are about 1,800 such congregations, formerly Southern Baptists, who stuck with their convictions and with the Christian gospel against the right wing political assault, and are thriving.  

What is really comes down to is the first amendment.  The Constitution separates the church from the state, from the church's side, protecting the free exercise of religion, and from the state's side, forbidding any establishment of religion.  Christian nationalism, the Heritage Foundation, MAGA Trumpism and Turning Point are all opposed to the Constitution on this principle.  A little bit of Constitutional knowledge, and a little bit of education, can correct this error.