Tag: #realDonaldTrump

Posted in Politics

Not Your Father’s Republican Party anymore

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

In the immediate aftermath of the 2020 Presidential election, Democrats are celebrating and Republicans are denying and crying. The current President is pursuing his legal remedies and screaming, “fraud,” but without any evidence. Democrats are blinded by the light of the Biden/Harris ticket. But, there are issues that the U.S., not just each individual political party, has to solve before we can really move forward.

There is the issue of civility. There is a bigger issue of right-wing extremism. The current discourse between members of the two political parties is rancorous and hateful. Democrats resent the Party of Trump and the changes that have happened in his name over the last four years. Republicans seem to want a continuation of those policies, though most except his most enthusiastic cheerleaders (Lindsey Graham, anyone?) remain silent. Waiting to see what happens. It’s this writer’s opinion that the Republican Party, which I now think of as the Party of Trump, may have the more realistic view of the situation in the U.S. There are groups of right-wing extremists that are not going to go away just because Donald Trump does. Trump was a figurehead of extremism. Where there is one, there will be another.

Not only will there be another strongman, Trump is not going anywhere. Oh, he will leave the White House, but he will start his own media company and continue to disseminate right wing propaganda and fake news. The 70 million people who voted for him will swallow it all, hook, line, and sinker. There will be more conspiracy theories, started by the strongman himself, Trump. Of course, all the people who voted for Trump will believe every word even in the face of evidence to the contrary.

The Democrats have always been optimistic and hopeful. They don’t seem to see that just because Trump is gone, it does not mean Trumpism is gone. Forty-five percent of the country voted for Trump. True that it is a minority, but a large minority. Trump and his minions brought the lack of civility to the U.S. Also, Trump brought the image of a strongman into the American conversation for the first time. Joe Biden, good man that he is, is probably not going to be able to wipe that image from our consciousness nor from the Republicans‘ hopes for the future. For some reason, the GOP has made a hard right turn and has embraced the strongman image without realizing the problems that it brings along with it. Such as the demise of our democracy.

Democracy does not flourish under authoritarianism. I’m reasonably sure that the Republicans in Congress realize this and that they have made the choice to follow the Pied Piper, or the strongman in charge, anyway. Is it because they are closet racists? Surely not all of them are. But even though Donald Trump will fade into the background of national politics soon enough, another strongman will emerge. It is as inevitable as the grass growing. Once there is a perceived opening in the consciousness of a group of citizens that allows authoritarianism in, it is not easily pushed aside. There are already probable 2024 candidates waiting in the wings.

Senator Tom Cotton is one who will probably run as a populist isolationist. Senator Josh Hawley seems to be the upcoming darling of the Republican Party and has made statements exhibiting his strongman tendencies. Whether either is the personality type that can pull it off is a question yet to be answered. Don’t forget that we’ve had one reality show President. Another non-politician could certainly be waiting in the wings ready to take conservatism as far right as it is possible for it to go.

Democrats need to be prepared for this. We can’t let our party swing too far to the left since that is a recipe for the alienation of a portion of the party. Regardless of what rhetoric Republicans want to spew, Joe Biden is a centrist, which is a good thing given the current political climate. There are a number of possible Democratic Presidential candidates for 2024 waiting in the wings and many of them do not occupy a centrist position in the party but rather a progressive position. That sets us up for a 2024 election between far right and a far left candidates.

Even though the Democratic Party should give a voice to the progressives, it would be a mistake to fully embrace progressivism at this point in our political history. Such a sea change takes decades to make itself comfortable in the consciousness of people. The Republicans have been moving toward ultra-conservatism for awhile. It started decades ago with Rush Limbaugh’s TV and radio show, continued with the Tea Party, and came to fruition with the election of Trump. The Democrats don’t need to give an opening to another possibly charismatic political figure on the right who can blindside us like Trump did. The way forward is a centrist strategy to appeal to most of the people most of the time.

Posted in Non-fiction, Politics, Uncategorized

Brett Kavanaugh: Men – It’s Not About You

Posted on by

Judge Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed as the newest Justice on the Supreme Court of the United States this weekend. After Dr. Christine Ford’s testimony and Judge Kavanaugh’s follow-up testimony, I’m disgusted for many reasons. One of the reasons is that men seem to be making this issue all about them. It’s not. It’s about the victimization of women since the beginning of time.

Don’t you think we know that there are good men in the world? In fact, most men are good men. Someone, however, is attacking one out of every three women, aren’t they? But that is not the issue and if you think it is, you don’t understand the problem at all. First, the issue is that the justices on the High Court should have spotless reputations. We already had Clarence Thomas on the court who was accused of being a sexual predator by Anita Hill during his confirmation. We don’t know if he is/was or not. Now we have Brett Kavanaugh and regardless of what you may say, there is no way, now, that we will ever know if he is a sexual predator. Allow me to explain.

The explanation involves the second issue. A woman simply would not put herself through what Dr. Ford went through if there was not something to her story. She did not tell her story at 15 years of age because she was frightened. Frightened of her parents, her school, her attacker, and so many more things. She tried to put it behind her and move on. She couldn’t and went into therapy. Then, Kavanaugh was nominated for a position on the Supreme Court.

An investigation ensued or so President Trump told us. Trump not only did a disservice to Dr. Ford. He also did a disservice to Justice Kavanaugh because now, because of a sham of an investigation, we will never know if Kavanaugh is guilty or innocent or if Ford was telling the truth. This wasn’t a trial so the rules of innocent until proven guilty do not apply. A large percentage of the population will always wonder about Kavanaugh just like we wonder about Clarence Thomas. Trump could have allowed the FBI to either clear Kavanaugh’s reputation or prove that Ford was correct.

Don’t we have to wonder why he didn’t?

Posted in Non-fiction

Trump: What Are We Waiting On?

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

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Donald Trump. At this point, I cannot bring myself to say President Donald Trump. Does a President of the United States, the leader of the free world, give away classified secrets to our adversary, the Russians, because he needs to brag to make himself feel good? That’s what happened a few days ago when he met, in private, with the Russian Foreign Minister and Ambassador. It makes the job of any of our enemies so much easier. Our President has put us at risk. What does this mean for our intelligence community?

The intelligence community keeps us alive. Donald Trump has just put that in jeopardy. Do you think that the intelligence community is going to keep sharing information with the U.S.? The answer is no. They are not. We are now in more jeoprady than before our President opened his big mouth because of his bigger inferiority complex. To make this all worse, Donald Trump basically admitted what he did in a tweet.

This, in my opinion, is the worst thing Trump has done. There are other things.

Trump fired the Director of the FBI, James Comey. Comey was leading the investigation into the Russian connection to Trump’s campaign. Trump fired the man who was investigating him. Shades of Richard Nixon and Archibald Cox. Trump could be impeached just for firing the Director of the FBI. Then, he threatens the Director with the existence of tapes if Comey talks about their conversations. The President of the United States threatening someone like a common thug?

Then there is the evidence that Trump is using the Presidency for profit. When the President of China visited, Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, was seated beside him. She ended up with Chinese trademarks for her clothing line.

I have mentioned just a handful of inappropriate actions Trump has taken since his inauguration. Perhaps passing classified information to the Russians is the most dangerous and certainly the worst, but not the only egregious action he has taken.

My question is what is Congress waiting on? This man needs to be removed from office. It may already be too late now that he has passed classified secrets to the Russians. He has now put us all in danger. It is time to act. Impeachment is not enough. We are in uncharted territory. In my opinion, he is mentally incompetent and needs to be physically escorted from the White House. I don’t know who would take his place. Mike Pence, Vice-President, does not seem to be the right choice as he has been complicit with many of Trump’s actions.

What are we waiting on? Destruction of our democracy and our country, not to mention danger and our way of life?

Posted in Blog Series

Travel Florida: Weather and Hello, Mr. President

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

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Yea, I know. What in the world does my trip to my home in Florida and the Florida weather, in March, have to do with President Donald Trump? Having a home in Florida makes Donald Trump and his budget, recently sent to Congress, even more personal to me than it already was.

So when I got here, I was greeted with a chorus of, “Have you heard about the weather?” Well, no. I guess I hadn’t been paying attention. Seems there was something called a subtropical low sitting off the coast of South Carolina that could give us some trouble on my island in the sun. A little bit of a storm if it came our way. I’m, frankly, still not clear if it is coming our way or not, but the weather in Ft. Myers has been awfully hot and the Gulf is awfully warm. My answer was that tropical storms/hurricanes don’t happen in March, do they? The answer is, “Not usually.”

This wouldn’t be a tropical storm, but a subtropical storm, something I’m not very well versed in as a newcomer to this Land of the Tropics, but it would involve rain, wind, and even a storm surge. The words “storm surge” are not something a person living near the coast ever wants to hear.

This all makes me furious with our President. Being a finance person at heart (well, with part of my heart), I have studied every line of Trump’s budget. As you probably know, he wants to slash the budgets of many federal agencies and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is one of them. The agency that studies and predicts hurricanes and other tropical weather systems among many other things.

He wants to DO WHAT??? Cut its budget? You have got to be kidding me. Those were some phrases I uttered, among others, when I realized how personally this particular budgetary line item affected me all of a sudden. We simply can’t let him do that……that was my first thought. My second thought was not fit for human consumption.

NOAA’s budget hasn’t been cut yet and, hopefully, those of us on the coast will be warned in the usual manner if and when it is necessary. But, what if Congress passes Trump’s “heavy on defense spending” budget with its cuts to these vital federal agencies including, but not limited to, NOAA? What, someone tell me, is there going to be left to defend?

Certainly a rhetorical question.