Happy New Year (?)*
Politics will likely dominate 2024 and hardly be happy. We should all hope that by this time a year from now we will have seen a renewal of our commitment to democracy. Donald Trump must be decisively defeated in his attempt to regain the presidency. He has proved beyond a shadow of doubt tht he is not only unqualified to return to the White House but that he is a dangerous demagogue with stated aspirations to rule as a dictator. His quip about being a dictator on “day one” is not a clever dysphemism. He will make the US Government an autocratic state that he can pass on to his family and his anti-democratic oligarch friends providing them with impunity to accumulate vast wealth while controlling what has actually made America great—free speech, free markets, open debate and freedom to assemble in protest. If he is able to succeed again to the presidency, you can be sure that this planet will burn and bring death and destruction to people and other living beings everywhere. You can also be sure that our already captive, commercialized press will be intimidated and further eroded by incarcerations of any remaining who are willing to speak truth to power. We must hope that incarceration is the worst they will suffer.
America is Great even as it is imperfect, run by imperfect people. Its global responsibilities are immense. Our wealth, like our democracy is fragile. The last thing our economy needs is a captured free press and a tilted free market economy. By this I mean Trump is, without a doubt, a Puppet of Putin. He was in 2016, he was in 2020 and he has said he will be when inaugurated in and beyond 2025. Putin has oppressed the Russian people for 20 years, is ruled by oligarchs, and that is what will happen to America if Trump is reelected. The libertarian thread from Ayn Rand through Charles Koch is a force in American politics that needs recognition and illumination.
The best thing for America is for responsible Republicans to stomp all over Trump’s ambition and nomination. But if he is nominated, then more than a few Republicans must send an indelible, indelicate and overwhelming message that they will actively urge fellow Republicans to vote for defeat of Trump.
Biden will not ever become a dictator! Whatever his faults, Biden is a Christian committed to the values democracy. His age is irrelevant, because our Constitution stipulates a line of succession. I don’t like Mike Johnson being in that line, but at least he may recognize a rule of laws even when he may dislike a particular law. His rhetorical excesses and libertarian tendencies aside, I hope he knows and honors how laws and leaders can be peacefully changed.
There are several books that should not ever be ignored by Republicans. First is Oath and Honor by Liz Cheney, and second, Renegade: Defending Democracy and Liberty in Our Divided Country by Adam Kitzinger. Third and Fourth are two books helping explain the role of Evangelical Christians in troubled times. Tim Alberta’s revealing The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism. and John Fea, Believe Me: The Evangelical Road to Donald Trump. If you don’t have time to read or an inclination to take these books seriously, then go to C PAN. Search for the authors last name and view recorded interviews on Book TV. In particular, the books by Alberta and Fea provide important insight into the influence of evangelical Christians on the US electorate and why the lying, misogynistic, immoral candidate, Trump, should be resoundingly defeated in November.
If Donald Trump is elected, don’t ever say that you were not warned.
- Modified after prior publication.