Wednesday, March 22, 2017

We Don't Need a 'Different Kind of President' - We Need a Different President

Enough.

Enough talking about how Trump is a 'different kind of President'. Enough making excuses for his unacceptable behavior. Enough saying he should be 'taken seriously but not literally'.

Do you hear what you are saying, you idiots?

You are saying that it's OK for the President of the United States to lie.

And it's our job to deal with it and try to figure it out somehow.

That is crazy talk, my friends.

This is not a question of Democrat or Republican, of left or right. To be honest, Donald Trump could have just as easily been a Democratic candidate. For most of his life, his political leanings (as well as his party registration) have been aligned with the Democratic party. His personal life certainly has not hewed to what would be considered traditional conservative values, to say the least. And many of his earliest stated positions are not typically Republican either - on trade, on international relations, on health care, on Social Security and Medicare.

So, no, we're not talking Democrat or Republican here. We're talking a dangerous authoritarian demagogue that has managed to weasel, bluster and lie his way into the most powerful office in the world.

Simply put, we have a liar as President of the United States.

I suppose you could call that a 'different kind of President'.

Barely two months in, and he has already insulted and damaged our relationship with our closest allies (Great Britain, NATO), telegraphed support and approval to some of the world's most despotic and dangerous rulers (Putin, Duterte), and provoked an unstable and volatile adversary (North Korea). He is so completely unfit for office that there is a serious likelihood that he could get us into a nuclear confrontation. Like many autocrats, he adores the trappings and public display of military power (although avoided military service of his own).  He wanted to parade tanks down Pennslylvania Avenue at his inauguration. He has said that "we have nukes - why don't we use them?"

Unfortunately, it seems that the Republican party is so invested in their agenda that they don't care what he does as long as he signs what they want him to sign. Removing him from office, even though they would still retain a Republican president, would damage their ability to move legislation with the speed that they need to enact all the pet projects that a balanced government with any input from Democrats whatsoever would prevent or at least mitigate - privatizing Social Security and Medicare, eliminating the Department of Education, the EPA, neutering the Department of Labor and the FDA, selling off federal lands, doing away with any regulatory protections from pollution, poisons, workplace regulations, etc., that could possibly hamper corporate profits, eliminating consumer finance protections against predatory lending policies, giving religious views of corporations priority over women's right to healthcare and family planning of their choosing (to name only a few.)

This is their once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and you can bet they are not going to kill the Goose that lays the Golden Eggs. They get the Golden Eggs, and we get the Goose.

And this is happening in only two months of this Residency.

He must go.

Before he destroys American democracy. Before the worst-case scenario, which was unthinkable for any previous American president, but a possibility now - nuclear war.

Enough. We don't need a 'different kind of President'. We need a different President.

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