Better to beat Trump at the polls than open the cookie jar for him again

By Mike Weland

It is time to end this national delusion built on lies called MAGA, to burst the bubble of the multitudes who still believe that Donald Trump offers anything that will in any way Make America Great Again. Quite the contrary. As during our nation’s Civil War, those now claiming disaffection are among the most affluent and coddled groups in history to have ever claimed oppression, the privileged demanding reparations from those theirs have long held in subjugation, alarmed once again at the prospect of losing “privileges” no man has a right to claim, the privileges of superiority.

The time is now, because in 155 days, our nation faces for only the second time in its history an election to answer once again the question whether a nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal, can long endure.

We are not simply voting for the next president or to fill the offices or answer the questions on our ballots, we will be deciding the fate of our government … whether we will continue to follow the precepts of the U.S. Constitution, the foundation of perhaps the fairest and most enlightened government yet formed by the hand of man and bequeathed to a nation, or if we will instead give in to the ego of a con man twice impeached, 34 time and counting convicted felon whose only guiding principal is self aggrandizement.

Though wrong, the south at least had a reason for their discontent leading up to the election of 1860. Here’s what a group of South Carolina’s leaders wrote in their state’s declaration of secession:

“The anti-slavery Republican Party will control the national government soon; this new government will ignore the Constitution and attack slavery; at that point, the national government will become the enemy of the slaveholding states. On the 4th day of March next, this party will take possession of the Government. It has announced that the South shall be excluded from the common territory, that the judicial tribunals shall be made sectional, and that a war must be waged against slavery until it shall cease throughout the United States. The guaranties of the Constitution will then no longer exist; the equal rights of the States will be lost. The slaveholding States will no longer have the power of self-government, or self-protection, and the Federal Government will have become their enemy …”

Compare that to how a small group of far-right Idaho legislators with far too much influence reacted Friday to the latest insufferable affront heaped on the Cult of MAGA by Trump’s unanimous conviction May 30 by a jury of his peers following trial conducted in accordance with the laws of the State of New York:

“Yesterday was one of the most shameful days in American history,” the Idaho Freedom Caucus proclaimed in a press release with the headline, “An Appeal to Heaven,” “A leftist prosecutor using Biden’s DOJ fabricated charges, along with a liberal judge, are aiming to jail the Republican presidential nominee. This weaponization of government destroys our justice system and is being driven by Democrats’ desire to imprison their political opponent because he might win again. Radical Democrats will do anything to hold power. If they can do this to a former president, imagine what they’ll do to you. Trump is only guilty of leading in the 2024 polls and threatening Washington’s entrenched power.”

Every word false, every word a verbatim recitation of this rouge political party they now swear fealty to rather than the United States Constitution they took an oath to protect and defend.

It is time all Americans take pause before it’s too late and reflect. Precisely what has Trump offered to “Make America Great Again?” When he says “again,” to what point in time is he referring that he considers great? What did he actually accomplish in his first four years? Look beyond the rhetoric to the actual effects. What’s his true legacy?

During his 2016 campaign, many were impressed by his brash, “honest” style, his making fun at the expense of others, bragging about the things women would just let men of means do, etc. It seemed like a new affront a day that would certainly have ended the aspirations of any candidate before were suddenly acceptable, at least from Trump, and his confrontational, in-your-face style was emulated and reflected by his followers and foes alike, resulting in a far less polite society. The rudeness in our civil discourse shows no sign of abating.

In declaring our southern border porous and needing a wall to keep out the brown hoards bringing drugs and crime to our communities and poisoning the blood of our nation, he both created a crisis only he could fix and an implacable enemy he could use at will to keep his base riled up. He also inflamed a resurgence of racism in our country, elevating and empowering one race at the expense of all others. For that, white supremacists are among his most steadfast and loyal supporters.

On day one of his presidency, he directed his press corps to falsely convey to the American people how great the size of his inaugural crowd after several news outlets reported correctly that there were more people at Obama’s first. He would go on to declare the press an “enemy of the people,” undermining trust and confidence in the news media, protected as essential by the first amendment, and tout those outlets that pandered to Trump, knowingly spreading his lies and many paying a heavy price.

In explaining away the obvious discrepancies between the facts and fallacies, he introduced “alternative facts,” blurring the line between truth and lies, and giving undue credence to lies at the expense of honesty. While all sides lie, none right now are so overtly and blatantly stupid about it as the “conservative” Republicans. Just go back and read again the few lines regurgitated by our Idaho Freedom Caucus.

In pandering to Evangelical Christians and choosing judges more for their right wing and religious bias than qualifications, Trump gave undue power to a single religion at the expense of all others, stripped away the rights of millions to bodily autonomy and abased further millions not conforming to that sect’s definition of “proper sexuality.” Trust in the judiciary has crumbled.

Instead of serving justice, the two impeachment inquiries Trump endured emasculated the Republican sectors of the U.S. Legislature, who admitted his guilt but gave paltry excuses and kicked the can down the road solely to avoid offending Trump’s red-hat followers … and so greatly freed the former president the inconveniences of a tricameral system of checks and balances. With many of the more radical Republicans little but sycophants and shills for Trump, the U.S. Legislative branch remains ineffective, destructive and dysfunctional, even with a sitting president who understands the wisdom of checks and balances and how the legislature should work.

Trump’s often bizarre and ludicrous responses to issues of science and technology not only cost the unnecessary loss of thousands of U.S. lives during a pandemic, but diminished trust and confidence in learning and education. His leadership encouraged the proliferation of quackery and an untoward scorn toward the scientists and institutions on the front line of the fight, their Herculean efforts diminished by those convinced to ignore their guidance in contempt for infringing on their freedoms. And then they point to their own maskless dead as proof of their skepticism.

His response to Joe Biden’s indisputable 2020 victory led him to dispute anyway, and in every available venue, only to be repudiated in every challenge he brought. So he incited insurrection against his own government eroding trust and confidence in the foundational privilege bestowed upon we, the people, by our constitution, our right to vote.

Failing to concede his defeat, failing to hand over the reins of power, Trump has used his wealth and the millions of MAGA gullible to demean and belittle a far better man and president than he ever was or will be — Just compare the two … one is trying to convince the U.S. Supreme Court that it’s impossible to do the job of president without blanket immunity for crimes committed, something no other president has argued, and one doing a very fair job without immunity and dogged at each step by the sharp-tongued calumny of what has to be the largest and most powerful cult that’s ever darkened a nation.

Trump’s actions undermine trust and confidence in the very office he seeks to again hold, but that’s okay — he runs not to serve the American people or the national interest, but to join that clique of strongman dictators he so admires.

None of the specious accomplishments he so heartily pats his own back for and which are lauded with such gusto by those of his cult can atone for the destruction he’s already inflicted on our constitution, and what he promises for his second term, if elected, only adds insult to injury; dictator for a day, a “unified Reich,” the promise of doing away with civil service protections so he can dole out rewards and punishments with impunity and surround himself with sycophants and yes men. To use “his” Department of Justice and other agencies to elicit retribution for the sins committed against him, such as convicting him for crimes he committed despite his insistence that he is above the law.

He will work to finish dismantling the constitution and do his best to turn America’s loyalty to the party, because the party is Trump. He will deport the millions of illegals in our country … and it’s safe to assume he’s not referring only to immigrants, but as with all who would be tyrants, to those who oppose him.

That’s no vision of freedom, not my idea of an America made great. But it is all too possible.

Far, far better to beat him at the polls in November and contend one more time with his petulant wrath than to open the cookie jar to him once again.