The Nation is rapidly approaching the mid-term elections which should serve as a referendum on the Trump Administration and the most recent experiment of one-party rule.
It is normal in a non-Presidential election year for the in-party (i.e controlling the White House) to lose Congressional seats. Over the past 21 mid-term elections, the average loss is about 30 House seats and 4 Senate seats. Should both of these things occur in 2018, President Trump would have a tough time getting anything accomplished during his last 2 years in office.
Certainly, the President and the G.O.P have, as Ricky Ricardo used to say, “a lot of ‘splainin’ to do” to a lot of people.
The Republicans used to stand for fiscal conservatism. Remember Ronald Reagan? I voted for him…twice. The Bushes got my vote a couple of times. I ran a corporate billion dollar budget; expenses must match income. Debt should be used sparingly. Etc. Economics 101.
Remember the “Tea Party” faction, the one that got current Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and a bunch of other so-called Fiscal Hawks elected?
Well, once those true-blue Republicans got their snouts into the Federal trough, they went rogue...and now fully-embrace the Trump plan of budget-deficits, ballooned National Debt and tax code revisions that amplify the wealth of the nation’s millionaires and billionaires. Not so good for Joe Sixpacks of the country…who voted for the scam.
Republicans used to berate the “tax and spend” Liberals; now, they’re the “Borrow and Spend” Conservatives. Our children and grandchildren will pay the price for their orgy of giveaways and spending. Many American voters will punish the G.O.P. for this bait-and-switch.
Trump’s ill-conceived tariff wars are not playing well in the Heartland. Farmers have lost customers. Prices for everyday items are going up. That’s going to cost Republicans a few seats. Farmers are real conservatives, not the phony ones like Trump and Ryan.
The Administration’s strategy of insulting and harassing our erstwhile allies while coddling up to dictatorial regimes (like Russia, the Phillipines, North Korea, Turkey, etc.) is going to lose favor with true patriots and military veterans.
Just this week, Trump and Company got busy making excuses for an assassination of a Washington Post journalist at the behest, and by the royal guards, of the Saudi Arabian monarch.
(Coincidentally, President Trump, virtually every day, slams the Washington Post for unflattering articles about him.)
This is what happens when America “green lights” human rights violations by erstwhile allies. Our President, who should be appalled by the murder, instead slow-walked any criticism because…the Saudis bought a huge number of jet aircraft from the U.S. Besides, the Saudis gave him a gold medal and flattered him.
(The President, while stumping for a Republican candidate in Montana, praised the guy for “body-slamming a journalist”. Gee, and one wonders why the Saudis (our Middle Eastern ally) feel comfortable torturing and dismembering a journalist who had the audacity to criticize the ruling family.)
(Update: The Saudis originally said that Khashoggi left the consulate after his meeting there. Later, they said that he got into a fistfight and accidentally died, and his body was given to a “local collaborator”. Later, they revised that story to say that rogue elements killed him inside the consulate. Today, we learn from the Saudis that Khashoggi’s murder was “premeditated”.
Duh. (And, where’s the body?)
When this fiasco was first unwrapping, U.S. Secretary of State Pompeo flew over to Saudi Arabia to help the Kingdom get its story straight. Then, the C.I.A. Director arrived to help develop the cover-up. It still stinks; everyone in the world knows what happened and why.
This steaming turd bears a strong resemblance to the sexy Stormy Daniels affair. At first, Trump denied even knowing the lady, let alone boinking her while his wife Melania was nursing their newborn child. Later, it came out that Trump had directed his attorney to pay Daniels $130,000 to keep her mouth shut. Trump denied that, too. Then, his attorney spilled the beans. Trump is now publicly calling his ex-paramour/whistleblower “Horseface”, to which she is responding, “Oh, yeah? Then why did you pay $130K to sleep with me?”
Cover-ups usually go from bad to worse.
The next thing that we can expect is for some Saudi schmo to step up to the plate for the Kingdom and confess that he planned and executed the Khashoggi murder. This will absolve the monarchy, and the “murderer”‘s family will quietly be given a couple of million dollars to keep their mouths shut. Trump can then say that the Saudi royal family is totally honorable and the U.S. can continue to sell them fighter planes and high-grade military armaments to murder political opponents in the Middle East. A Win-Win.
And, then, President Trump can move on to the next cover-up.)
America, which used to be respected all over the globe for its humanitarian, human rights, and democratic ideals, is now a laughingstock. In fact, at a recent speech before the United Nations General Assembly, our President was loudly laughed at by officials from other countries. No one ever laughed at Franklin Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, or Ronald Reagan.
Our country’s loss of prestige and respect is not going to play well with some voters in November.
Neither is the juvenile, bullying, insulting and vulgar public behavior of the President of the United States. A lot of people are fed up with Trump’s foul mouthed public comments about other nations (“shithole countries”), disparaging comments about women (“horseface”), and demeaning tweets about people who work for him, like his Attorney General (“Dumb Southerner”).
People with proper upbringing don’t talk like that in public…particularly when they are representing the people of the United States of America.
Update: Recently, 13 pipe bombs were mailed to well-known Democrats, major Democratic fundraisers, celebrities who have criticized President Trump, and media giant CNN, which has been known to bring scrutiny on the President. Yesterday, the F.B.I. arrested an avid Trump supporter for the criminal acts.
Luckily, none of the bombs exploded.
Trump blamed the debacle on inflamed political rhetoric (which he has chiefly fostered over the past 2-1/2 years), and some Fox News talking heads predictably floated the rumor that the crimes were a false-flag operation engineered by…the Democrats!)
Of course.
So, although the name of Donald Trump is not on any ballot this November, the mid-term elections are all about President Trump.
Although I have voted for candidates of both parties over the years (I am an Independent), this year I voted against any Republican on the ballot.
It’s my way of saying, “Stop enabling the Jackass!”
