Impeachment

As the impeachment “trial” winds down in the Senate, it has become increasingly clear that our country has lost its moral compass.  We have become a nation divided and for many, a nation that values political party over national interests. I’m not sure what we are anymore but we are no longer a Constitutional Republic.

To be clear, I think that Donald Trump is a danger to this country and desperately needs to be removed from office.  My feelings about Trump are not based on the fact that he is a Republican (which I believe he isn’t) or that he is Christian (which I also believe he isn’t) but that he is a horrible person in general who does not have the mental or emotional maturity to lead a kazoo band, to say nothing of what is supposed to be the greatest country in the world.

However, I also believe that Trump is not the problem with this country.  There have always been people like him and there always will be.  For the most part, they have remained in the shadows and over the past several years only let their presence be known via the anonymity of the internet.  Now that Trump and his kind have ascended to power in this country, it has legitimized the views of these people and they have come out of the shadows as they now have their “leader” to follow.  So, as I said, the problem is not Trump, it is the millions of people who support and defend him that give him power and legitimacy. In particular, it is the GOP which has moved so extremely to the right that they no longer understand that there are issues other than abortion, LGBT rights/marriage, immigration and “Beat the Democrats.” 

Truth, scientific facts, racism, sexual misconduct, the Constitution of the United States, none of these things seem to matter to these people.  Some the Senators and Congress Members have made statements that even if Trump’s conduct reaches the level of impeachable offenses, it does not warrant removing him from office and Trump can do whatever he wants if he feels it is in the national interest.  (Does this mean that any murderer can use the argument that they killed the person because they believed it was in the nation’s best interest and they should be acquitted?) When our elected leaders will use this type of “logic” to make their case, it is clear that there are no arguments that sane people can give that will change their minds.

I understand that many people did not like Hillary Clinton and voted for Trump because they absolutely would not vote for her.  The reasons are many, but I truly believe that most of the objections to her were thinly veiled attempts to hide the fact that many refused to vote for a woman for President.  Trump gave a voice to those that were underground and looking for a “leader”.  Someone who played to the lowest forms of the arguments for which these people could find a small morsel of their own truth in all of the garbage that Trump was spewing.

To be honest, I was not a fan of Hillary Clinton either.  However, I saw her as the lesser of two evils when it came to casting my vote for President.  It’s not that she is a woman or many of the other reasons that people gave for not voting for her.  It was that I don’t think that she is very trustworthy.  So why did I support her over Trump?  Because I was 100% sure that he was not trustworthy and was only in the race for his own self interests.

So, what do we do now that it is clear that the Senate will acquit Trump?  We rally around candidates that can beat him and his legion of GOP supporters.  In some ways, I would rather see Trump voted out of office rather than convicted in this impeachment trial and removed from office.  Once he is out of office, hopefully there will be criminal charges that can be brought and there will be a President who would not blindly pardon him.

My concern as we move closer to the next elections is with the Democratic party.  The Democrats seem to have also lost their direction.  This is evident to me by seeing the number of candidates who have jumped in the race and feel that they can beat Trump in the election.  I know it may not be how it was designed, but I believe the Democratic National Committee (DNC) needs to step in and stop this madness.  They need to get every Democrat to embrace one candidate and put everything they have behind one candidate who will rise-up and take down Trump.  I know that is what the Primaries and National Convention are for, but this is too important to wait that long.  Also, while I personally don’t have an issue with a woman or a person of color being President, I honestly believe that the candidate that is needed to beat Trump will need to be a white male because I also believe that there are many who will struggle with a woman or person of color as our President and would vote against them or refuse to vote all together, which is partly the reason that Trump won the electoral vote three years ago.

There will be a time and place for a woman and/or person of color or a LGBT candidate to be President of this once great country, but this election is too important and I think we need to take these objections off the table at this time.

I see signs and messages on social media that state “Anyone but Trump 2020.”  We have to be careful about this.  While we absolutely need to get Trump out of the White House, if we are not careful, we could be left with someone just as bad. So let’s be mindful of who we choose to lead our country back to greatness and who will be able to clean up the mess that will be left as well as how we will get McConnell and others out of their positions of power to restore sanity to this country and the world.