If you are a MAGA member, then your mind may have already shut down because you have been given labels to describe me that allow you to ignore what I say. I encourage you to take an intellectual risk and consider the alternatives to a Trump presidency.
I am not a socialist. I am not a communist. I am not a fascist. And I am a former American Government teacher, so I know what those ideologies buttress, and I do not accept any of them.
I am a supporter of democracy and a limited and overseen capitalistic system of economics. I believe when the people speak, that is as close to “gospel” as a secular liberal state can generate. That is what we are, or have been, a secular liberal form of government. Simply put, before the USA, there were only two types of governments.
One type required you to be born into a ruling family, so leadership was a birthright, and the other was the strongman type, where some member of the group gathered an army and simply took over the government. In both types, what the people wanted was irrelevant. The king or emperor or ruler mandated what was right in terms of civil liberties, religion, taxes, etc. People were born to a certain class and remained in that class their entire lives. Kings ruled by right. No one questioned whether the king was the king or had the right to rule. He just did, or she if the autocrat was a queen.
Imagine, in that context, that a group of scholars decided to try letting the people rule. No one was born to power. No one had an inherited right to power. The only route to power was through the votes of the citizens. Anyone could be a congressman or a President based on the vote and the will of the people.
Connected with that was the conscious elimination of the kinds of things kings and emperors imposed. There could not be a state religion; in fact, the government must be neutral when it comes to religion. Everyone had certain liberties as in freedom of speech, right to a fair and speedy trial, court time if there was a risk of punishment (due process), freedom of the press so that the press could keep the citizens informed of the doings of the leader so that when the people voted they were knowledgeable.
In time, all people born in America had those rights, including Black people and women, though Black males were allowed to vote before women could. All that is the context that occurs in an election. It is time for the people to speak. To declare by vote what they support and oppose. There was a mutual understanding that the winners would be gracious and the losers would be civil and support the winner. It was a democracy.
We fought a civil war to determine that all people were free of slavery and that all people had rights and could vote. Though there were some in the South and elsewhere who never really understood that it is the law of the land via the Constitution. Those folks continued to make decisions based on pocketbooks rather than ideology and prejudice based on race. They lost. But they just went underground.
Given all that as context, we inherit Donald Trump. His first act at the end of his first term was to question the election outcome. He filed 61 court cases claiming the election was rigged or stolen. He lost every single one of those cases because he could produce no evidence supporting his claim. He was sued, as was Fox News, for lying and slandering voting tabulation companies. Both he and Fox lost those cases, and Fox had to admit that they lied. Then he campaigned on the “great lie” that he should be president but was somehow cheated out of it. In other words, the people spoke, and he could not accept or support the outcome. He was special. And he believed his specialness qualified him to be a ruler, not a president, He banished from government everyone who, via the freedom of speech, expressed their disdain of his leadership. He promoted new laws to make voting much more difficult and suppress the vote. He argued that the states should make decisions regarding education and abortion, but if states decided in ways he did not like, he would overturn the state’s decision as in sanctuary cities. He attacks institutions of higher learning, whom he characterized as brainwashing students when in fact they taught science and fact. He appointed people to Cabinet-level positions who opposed the existence of the department they were to lead. He had claimed he would bring in the best and the brightest, but recruited people not based on skill or knowledge or expertise but on their loyalty to him. None of these acts were pro-American philosophy. They were all characteristic of dictatorships.
And even now, he is firing people who are critical of him. Not for incompetence or malfeasance, but lack of loyalty. That is not American. He is issuing executive orders in direct conflict with our Constitution and then ignoring court orders to stop doing so. He is acting as though Congress and the Courts have no authority to check his power. That is un-American.
His tariffs have resulted in worldwide chaos, mostly because Trump does not understand tariffs and refuses to admit he does not. He is siding with Russia over Ukraine. He is abandoning NATO and moaning that we support that organization too much, which is not factual. He is moving this nation more and more to join the dictatorial, fascist-like governments of the world while he undoes the fundamentals of freedom in our country. He does not like science because he wants rules to be based on his opinions, not facts. He is flying in the face of classic conservative politics by raising the national debt, instigating tariffs, rewarding loyalty not competency, and ignoring facts and science when in conflict with his opinions. In no way does he support the classic conservative beliefs of being pro family and family values while being pro-military and pro-civil rights. Trump has never admitted to being wrong. He cannot tolerate criticism. He dreams of sharing power with Putin and Kim Jong Un and devastating the UN, NATO, EU, and all the other organizations that are working toward world peace and improving the lives of the less fortunate. He never should have been on the ballot, as he was convicted of 34 felonies. He should be in prison.
If he empowers the billionaires at the expense of losing the support of the people he should not be surprised when the billionaires turn on him, and he will have no one to turn to for succor.
He is not right as in correct, and he is not right as in conservative. He is pro-Trump with no real ideology other than anti-democratic opinions and actions. He received less than 50% of the vote and claims a mandate. His lies are known worldwide.
He must be removed.
For this democracy, something about this man is just not right. Petty, thin-skinned, full of revenge and retribution and hatred and anger, anti-science and anti-fact, he is the worst possible model for the leader of the world’s most prominent democracy.
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