We Have Met the Enemy and He is Us - 2000 words on US political life in 2024

We Have Met the Enemy and He is Us - thoughts on US political life in 2024-

I write and speak widely as an advocate for people who are being denied treatment for chronic severe pain by misdirected (indeed fraudulent) US public health policy on prescription opioid pain relievers and regulation of clinicians who employ them.? But those who follow me in social media will know that I also choose to speak on other subjects, despite the discomfort that I occasionally create in people who want me to remain silent on any subject except pain.?

This posting is one of those.

I begin by reminding readers of a dictum that traces back to philosopher John Stuart Mill in 1867:

“Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing. He is not a good man who, without a protest, allows wrong to be committed in his name, and with the means which he helps to supply, because he will not trouble himself to use his mind on the subject.”

In the sense that Mill intended, I refuse to be a bad man.? I will speak out instead.? From my study of publicly available evidence, I am convinced that former US president Donald Trump is a flagrant sociopath.? I also believe no other Republican candidate at any level of government in 2024 deserves the votes of people who bother to use their brains for more than separating their ears.

I realize that what follows may be difficult reading for those who consider themselves to be politically conservative. But hang in here with me please.

Examine the evidence: Lies and more lies

-??????? According to journalistic fact checkers, while in office, Donald made at least 30,573 false or misleading claims. This pattern continued in post-election election fraud claims tested in 62 lawsuits filed and lost in 9 States and DC for lack of evidence.? There was no election “steal”, despite Trump’s demands that all Republican candidates for office should support his false claims. ?

-??????? The House Select Committee investigating the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol concluded that Donald Trump was directly involved in the efforts to overturn the 2020 election results and incited the violent insurrection.? The committee found that the central cause of the January 6th attack was "one man's fear of losing the election and willingness to try anything to remain in power.?

-??????? Trump engaged in a "multi-part conspiracy" to overturn the lawful results of the 2020 election by spreading false claims of widespread fraud and by pressuring officials, courts, Congress and his own Vice President to reject legitimate electoral college results.

-??????? Trump's intent was to remain in power despite losing the election, which the committee described as an "unparalleled attempt to obstruct the peaceful transfer of power”.? He was aided and abetted in this attempt by 139 Republican Congressmen and eight Senators who voted not to accept results of the Electoral College from Arizona and Pennsylvania. ?Arguably these legislators could be prosecuted for treason against the United States.?

-??????? Grand juries have found probable cause to believe that Trump has committed other felony offenses.

o?? In Florida under the US Espionage Act, for his improper retention of classified documents and for lying to FBI investigators about same.? Trump is charged in Georgia with attempted election.

o?? In Georgia, a 98-page indictment charges Trump and others with violating Georgia's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) law, accusing them of participating in a "criminal enterprise" to unlawfully change the election outcome. ??

Family Values?

-??????? Trump receives extensive support from Christian evangelists, despite the fact that he is a serial fornicator who has acknowledged five children by three wives – the second of whom was his mistress while he was still married to Ivana Trump.

-??????? At least 25 women have publicly accused Trump of sexual misconduct, including sexual assault and rape since the 1970s. The 2005 "Access Hollywood" tape revealed extremely lewd and misogynistic comments by Trump about groping and pursuing women for sex.

This is the man whom some consider supporting as a champion of family values? Are we sure that theor real agenda is not his support for revoking 50 years of history confirming a woman’s right to choose abortion or birth control? Or actions by his administration that rolled back nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ+ people?

-??????? In 2023, a jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation against E. Jean Carroll, awarding her $5 million in damages.? A second jury in January of this year ordered Trump to pay $83 Million dollars, including $65 million in punitive damages for calling Carroll a liar and ruining her reputation as an advice columnist.

-??????? In 2024, a New York jury found Trump guilty on all 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to hush money payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal in 2016 to suppress information about alleged sexual encounters with them.

Maya Angelou once informed us “When someone shows you who they are, we should believe them the first time.”? Trump and the party he dominates have shown us who they are and what they intend if he is elected to a second term in office.

-??????? He has promised mass deportations of millions of migrants and creation of internment camps throughout the US.

-??????? He has threatened to desert Ukraine to the tender mercies of Vladimir Putin’s aggressive invasion, and demanded that Republican legislators deny Ukraine funding for self-defense.

-??????? He intends to withdraw the US from NATO, opening the way for creation of a new Russian Empire, and invasions of Poland, Latvia and Estonia.

-??????? He will cut federal funding for schools teaching "gender ideology" or supporting transgender students.

-??????? He will pardon supporters charged for the Jan 6th Capitol attack.

-??????? He will appoint a "special prosecutor" to go after political enemies like Biden, Garland, and Wray.

-??????? He will seek to establish lifelong immunity for presidents from prosecution.

-??????? He will push "unitary executive theory" to increase power to curtail rights.

-??????? His administration will reinstate "Schedule F" to fire tens of thousands of civil servants and refuse to hire anyone who believes Biden legitimately won 2020 election

In short, Trump and his MAGA followers intend to roll back 250 years of history to make us a Nation not of laws, but of men loyal to a dictator. ?

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It is difficult to underestimate the harms that Trump and the Republican Party have acknowledged that they intend for Americans and the world at large. ?But we should not dignify this man by claiming that what he intends is unique in our history.? Americans have always been of two minds concerning who should rule them and how.

At the 1787 Constitutional Convention, Alexander Hamilton argued for having an elected monarch or president-for-life, believing an "elective monarchy" could provide stability in a fractious country.? Americans fought a civil war in the 1860s over the concept of “States Rights” – a code phrase for the rights of rich Southern land owners to found their prosperity on the institutions of slavery. Republicans were prominent among Abolitionists of that time.? Ironically,160 years later, we still see the Confederate battle flag displayed at Trump rallies as a racist symbol of rebellion, sometimes beside banners advocating for neo-Nazis.

Trump's former chief of staff John Kelly claimed that during a 2018 trip to Europe, Trump said "Hitler did a lot of good things" in reference to reviving Germany's economy -- to which Kelly strongly objected.

More recently, there was significant public support for Senator Joseph McCarthy’s persecution of fictitious “communists” in the US government and entertainment industry, during the Great Red Scare of the 1950s. The words of Republican Barry Goldwater also still ring true for some partisans:? “Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice.” ?

In the 1960s we witnessed the assassinations of John F and Bobby Kennedy, Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, coming on top the disastrous Vietnam War. 20 years of fighting Islamist terrorists in the Middle East with limited success was culminated by Trump’s unilateral declaration of withdrawal and the consequent desertion of thousands of Afghani and Iraqi translators and government troops.

Small wonder that Americans have come to view their own government with deep distrust. ?Conspiracy theories and grievances abound.

None of this is to say that the grievances of Trump true believers are entirely unfounded. But I would assert that those grievances are rather often misdirected.? Many of us are content to “let George (or Donald) do it” instead of actively participating in American public life and electing representatives who actually govern to serve our citizens rather than themselves.?

One of the hazards of representative democracy is that money talks, and big money talks loud.? Our legislators are these days largely for sale to special interests as the costs of campaigning rise.? Meanwhile, the heartland of America and our inner city communities wither from 50 years of stagnation in real wages, automation or off-shoring of formerly manual labor jobs, and ever-increasing inequality of wealth and incomes.? These outcomes are directly aggravated by Republican tax policies that favor the top 1% of income earners at the expense of those struggling to remain housed and fed at the bottom of our economic heap.?

Neither political party is immune from blame for this state of affairs.? Both have refused to tell truth to themselves or to the American people.? Truth is that we cannot indefinitely continue to live beyond our means, with ever-increasing levels of unsecured National Debt. ?

Near the top of potential problems faced by any US President, our Social Security System must soon reduce benefits paid to retired and disabled citizens, or simply collapse as yearly benefit obligations exceed current Social Security and Medicare tax receipts. ?European economies face a similar dilemma.? Lifetime social security benefits now exceed worker and employer contributions by significant margins, worldwide -- and the disparity is growing.

These issues will likely come to a head during the lifetimes of all adults who are now under 40, in a major world restructuring of debt and reductions in apparent wealth.? If handled badly, such a process could create a second Great Depression that will make the first look like a minor disturbance.?

The point I am making here is not that Donald Trump or our political or economic systems “did this to us”.? We did this to ourselves, when we refused to think clearly or beyond our own individual self-interest.? We did it to ourselves when we ignored the need for educating ourselves and our kids in history and civics and economics.?

As Walt Kelly wrote in his satirical comic strip “Pogo”, "We have met the enemy and he is us."

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, we face State and National elections in six months.? This will be the only election in US history in which the political platform for a major political party’s candidate is essentially “elect me so I can punish my opponents and keep myself out of jail.”?

This is not a time for protest votes to irrelevant third-party candidates, or left-wing rebellions against necessary changes in policy to address unsustainable levels of illegal border crossings. It is also not a time to vote for candidates who want to gerrymander their own districts and further restrict your future right to vote them out of office.?

It is instead a time to discard the predictions of the pollsters and THINK!? When you enter the voting booth, you will vote your conscience.? Will you vote your grievances against people whom you think “did it to you?”? Or will you vote to deny the most dangerous man in America (as his niece Mary Trump called him) and a platform that creates an effective American dictatorship and the domination of Europe by a Russian autocrat??

We have met the enemy – but is he not actually us?