The past three weeks have brought a cataract of bad political news. I'm 66 years old, have observed politics since I was 10 or 11 years old because of the interest of my West Virginia-born parents, working class Americans who built their family by hard work and lived by and believed in values like honesty, integrity and trust, interdependent friendships and a sense of community support, and were true patriots. My father was a World War II Navy veteran, who volunteered upon graduating from college as a chemistry major, trained as an air conditioning mechanic and spent the war servicing equipment on cruisers and battleships in the Pacific. My mother worked to support him and the family, as a hotel desk clerk, housekeeper, and as my sister and I were growing up, a child care worker. They were Democrats, and they passed those values on to their children.
It's been beyond appalling, over these past weeks, to see where things have been headed. The Supreme Court's declaration that the President of the United States, by example one former one they want to protect in particular, is above the law and immune from criminal prosecution while performinng official acts related to the Presidency has left me absolutely dumbfounded. Any reasonably educated and politically estute American should also have been horrified and troubled by this ruling. This is a consequence of some past apathy that permitted the appointment of three justices who lied during their hearings in the judiciary committee. The value of honesty and integrity took a hit on this one.
The debate performance of President Biden opened the door to a partial cave-in of support from his own party. This has also been an appalling development, especially four months out from the election and less than a month from the nominating convention. With the other side working as hard as they can to make it difficult to vote, and on ways and means to overturn votes they don't like, to have something like this happen is potentially disastrous. The media hasn't left it alone. And today, a tweet from Jake Tapper, of CNN, left me as angry at a reporter as I've been in a long time, hinting that some "high Democratic party officials are already preparing for a Trump presidency."
Is the media conceding this as well, based on their own misinformation, or on their corporate ownership's instructions? Are they trying to get on Trump's good side before he gets in there again?
Also today, we learn that Aileen Cannon, the unqualified occupant of the federal bench in Florida appointed by Trump, in the event that he would need a favor at some point that she could provide, has blithely dismissed the document theft case against Trump, not on the merits, which may include evidence of unauthorized disclosure of the contents of those documents to certain foreign governments, but on a technicality related to the appointment of a special prosecutor. A few media sources, from a legal perspective, have said that her motion "doesn't hold Constitutional merit," so it may be likely that the appeals court would give the case to someone else, but it will not go to trial in any kind of a timely way.
On top of that, we are seeing a media making "both sides" responsible for the assassination attempt on the ex-president in Pennsylvania yesterday and attempting to put the blame on Democrats and their political rhetoric. We've lost, somewhere along the way, our free press. Let's not forget who incited the insurrection against the Capitol on Janary 6, 2020 that took the lives of five people. The Democrats were not responsible for any of that violent political rhetoric, nor have they been the ones calling for civil war and threatening violence if the election does not go their way.
Perhaps the only good news is that Trump chose an equally irreputable and deplorable individual as a running mate.
Folks, this is all gross injustice. It's not coincidental. This country is headed for chaos. The enforcement of the law has been taken away from us. Our constitutional rights are next. And we better wake up now, stand up and do whatever we can do to make sure this country remains a Constitutional democracy under the rule of law.
A Call to Step Forward Now!
Here's what I'm asking.
Whether this has all been orchesstrated somewhere, or it does happen to be a series of random occurrences, the time is short and the options we have at our disposal are a major and massive show of support for the President's re-election. It is unfathomable, given the seriousness with which our party leadership has taken the Trump threat, that anyone in that group is preparing for a Trump presidency, conceding that American democracy is over. They need to hear from us in massive numbers.
And if there is anyone still not convinced that the direction we must now go, to support President Biden and assure his re-election, along with Democratic majorities in both Houses, is not the way to go, please step aside, and keep your opinions to yourself. We'll appreciate your vote, if you're still a Democrat, but if you're not going to be supportive, please be silent.
Get online, use social media, go to the call-in shows. I've watched, this week, as the bad news piled up, so did the line of callers waiting to get on the local political talk shows that are run by progressives. I've managed to get into a few conservative shows, and get some digs in before getting cut off, especially those aimed at a local audience. And it may be old fashioned, but letters to the editor still get printed in a lot of newspapers.
Technology has helped in many ways, so those who live in blue states can help the phone bank and calling efforts of Democrats in battleground states. I've made so many phone calls to people in Wisconsin that the algorithms on my social media are full of Wisconsin ads. The DNC sends frequent texts of opportunities to help. So please do!
I've been blogging on politics here since 2020. I'm not after money, or a viral post or a huge audience. I want to help Democrats win political office. We've built up a monthly readership of between 2,000 and 3,000 people. And I will continue to blog, pointing out aspects of this abberation that should get people's attention. I've had people tell me that reading some of what I've written, especially about how this has corrupted the conservative church in America, has helped them see the light, so to speak.
Whatever you are committing to do, it must be now! Are you with me? We must put a stop to this slide toward despotism. It's time. We can wait no longer.
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