Know your enemy

I get it. Long time, no write. To those who actually enjoy my work (and my colleagues, who I promised a year ago that I’d be more active), I’m sorry for the silence. Sometimes you have to take a step back.

            On the other hand, for those of you who fall into fits of angst and fury whenever you see my name appear on the byline of a piece, you may want to grab something to bite down on.

            That dreaded time is upon us again. Another election season has rolled around, and it occurs to me that every 4 years or so, we get to watch the most unserious among us battle it out to elect the most corrupt and incompetent to the higher seats of power.

            Since the introduction of the festering malignancy known as Trumpism into the national bloodstream in 2015, I can only say what was already well into a downward slide hit maximum acceleration. We are now in peak Idiocracy. When you have a perfect storm of bumper sticker politics, a dumbed down, everyone-gets-a-trophy education system, and a voting populace that cares more about “winning” than actual sound governance, you have to expect disastrous results.

            The red-capped bleating of the People’s Temple of Trump promises to drive this free republic over a cliff, and most insane of all, they seem more than happy to do it, if it brings glory to their gilded toad. We are likely closer to an actual civil war than we’ve been in nearly 160 years. A cabal of idiots are now aligning to bring the latest act on stage for what can only be most accurately described as political theater, regarding our southern border and a troubling influx of illegal immigrants.

            Should our borders be secured? They should. To paraphrase the late Ronald Reagan: A nation without borders is not a nation. We have laws. If you can’t respect and follow them in your efforts to come into this nation, how are we to expect you to follow them once you’re here?

            With that said, however, the hapless GOP, a party that has been reduced to nothing more than Donald Trump’s dancing monkeys, are not the party to put on this act of handwringing and tongue-clucking. Trump had 4 years to follow through and “build the wall.” All he managed was to put patches on existing structures, and those were soon blown down by a stiff breeze!

            For him to now go out, week after week, to rehash the same, overblown lies of his first campaign is beyond pathetic. For him to do it after he attempted to bring down our government and create some Third World banana republic, where he sits on a throne and fleeces the masses for the benefit of he and his corrupt family, is beyond unconscionable.

            The same people who have been holding up the government to screech and showboat about Hunter Biden are more than willing to ignore everything done by Trump and his family. Grievance and petty revenge are on tap with the current GOP Congress, and none of it benefits the people of this nation. The dullards that still support Trump, who believe the 2020 election was stolen, even after multiple court cases and tons of evidence to the contrary, are still out there, still allowed to vote, and their sickness is only growing.

            Do they care that Trump is actively trying to kill any bipartisan deal on securing the border NOW, just so he can campaign on it later? I’m guessing they don’t, because what benefits Trump will always be best, even if it flies in the face of their own narratives. They have no firm foundation beyond serving Trump. They are incapable of rational thought, making them easy prey for an unscrupulous con artist.

            The primary season was a total bust. There were commonsense candidates in the running, but they were soon drowned out by the cult, including those cultists on stage.

            Note to any GOP candidates running now, or in the future: Stumping for Donald Trump and promising to ignore the law and our Constitution, in order to curry favor from him and his maniacal cult is an automatic disqualifier.

            Yes, I’m talking to you, Nikki Haley. You’ve already signaled that you would pardon Trump, if he’s ultimately put in prison (He will be) and you’ll release the J6 traitors, back to wreak havoc in a free society that they despise. You would benefit from a backbone transplant from Liz Cheney, but I don’t see that coming. Just know, you can’t run against Magadonia’s mango messiah and kiss his ring at the same time. So far, you’re Ted Cruz in a skirt. Do better.

            Now I say all that to get to this. Our still-young government has always been a delicate experiment, straining to remain OF the people, BY the people, and FOR the people. Can you please everyone? You cannot, but you can govern fairly and without favor. Both sides of the political “Big Two” have failed in that last regard. However, we have a constitution, if followed and applied with vigilance to detail, gives us the best chance at remaining a free people.

            Donald Trump said in 2022 that the Constitution that has served us so well, when taken in its purest form, should be terminated, or at least those parts that would benefit his quest for power. He said this, after turning his mindless cult loose on our Capitol on January 6, 2021 (Say, MAGA, how many has he bailed out, so far?). The very office he seeks to hold requires he vow to uphold what he says should be terminated. To any rational, patriotic American voter, this is an immediate disqualifier. To his cult, it doesn’t even occur to them that this is a red flag. His disdain for law and order, his abusiveness, incessant lying and feigned victimhood is a shared bond.

            We cannot allow Trump to get near the levers of power in this nation, if our ultimate goal is to actually maintain this nation and her freedoms. As the previously mentioned Liz Cheney stated, we can survive the bad governance and policy foibles of the Democrats. We cannot survive the religious fervor of the MAGA cult, forcing us into an autocracy that will be headed up by the drooping, geriatric foreign asset, Trump.

            To be clear, Trump is only a symptom. His cultists are the problem. Trump will not get his hands dirty, but he, and most chillingly, the powers that pull his strings, know that the stupidity of his cult can be, and has been weaponized against our nation.

            It is time to be proactive in defending our republic, and that ends at the ballot box. It begins by labeling Trump’s supporters, those who call themselves “MAGA,” or “Ultra-MAGA” as what they are: a subversive group, more dangerous than any outside threat.

            They are the enemies within.

            But Susan… many of Trump’s supporters are grandparents, harmless retirees and geriatrics!

            Yes, and it’s a shame to see people who have probably previously lived upstanding lives to allow themselves to be associated with domestic terrorism. They scream about burning the flag in one breath, then spit on the very cause of our flag with their support of Trump, in the next.

            My proposal is this: Keep Trump off of our ballots. He is disqualified for his actions in prompting and planning the J6 attack on our Capitol. This was clear insurrection. He and those who took part in trying to stop the certification of the 2020 election are traitors. You don’t have to like the outcome, but you have to respect the process and make better choices for your candidates, the next time. Any states challenging his inclusion on their ballots, or even considering a challenge should not only bring up his role in J6, but talk about his own words in 2022, calling to terminate the Constitution.

            Next, no one who has attempted to overthrow our government for the glory and power of one man is fit to be housed in our local jails or prisons. They’re too disruptive, their values are too far out of touch with the mainstream of this nation, and “America: Love it or leave it” needs to have real meaning for them. Put them in the Guantanamo Bay detention center, while they wait for trial, or serve out their sentence, no matter how short or long that may be. Put them on a watchlist for the rest of their lives.

            Donald Trump, himself, should be housed at Gitmo, once all of his indictments fall into place and that inevitable prison sentence is handed down. What he and his cult attempted to do on J6 is more destructive to our nation than what Osama bin Laden attempted to do to us on September 11, 2001. It is more insidious, and we are in a time of great delusion. I’ve never seen anything so corrupt and dangerous, and I fear it is more a spiritual sickness than something as simple as a lot of really stupid people banding together to crown the king of idiots.

            I walked away from the Republican Party because of Trumpism and what I saw coming. I could not allow myself to be associated with it. I am still a conservative voter. I am still very driven by my traditional Evangelical values. I have been, and am increasingly disgusted, disheartened, and repulsed by this political climate, and if those who share my feelings don’t get serious about pushing for – DEMANDING better from our candidates, we may wake up one day very soon and find out we no longer have a nation.