The Republican Party continues full-bore with their Donald Trump obsession, and this may prove to be its downfall.
The Republicans are in the middle of their convention, and are in a feverish delirium because Donald Trump has, by the grace of God, survived an assassination attempt and has appeared before them on the convention floor, only days after, the anointed one, the man above all other men who will lead them to victory in November.
Unfortunately for the Republicans, their reality will set in once the convention is over.
Donald Trump has a slogan but no substance. Make America Great Again is a brilliant slogan, but what does it mean? Donald Trump has successfully branded the Republican Party as his own, but the Trump brand has been tarnished over the past years. That which was once thought to be gold has been revealed to only be a thin plating that has begun to peel away, revealing the base metal beneath.
They say that Donald Trump is a flawed man, but that he loves this country and that he will address all that is wrong with this country and make it right.
The problem is that calling Donald Trump a flawed man is a gross understatement of his true character. This man is immoral – he has cheated on all three of his wives. This man is unethical – he has declared bankruptcy five times, leaving others to pay off or write off his debts. This man has betrayed so many people with whom he has ever been associated, from construction subcontractors to cabinet officials to accountants to lawyers to investors to advisors. So many of his former associates have been disbarred or jailed.
They say that Donald Trump loves this country. Then why did he choose JD Vance as his vice president? JD Vance may be a good man, but he has not proven himself to be in any way qualified to be President of the United States, let alone acting as leader of the Free World. JD Vance has been a U.S. senator for less than two years. He seems barely old enough to meet the age requirement to be President.
JD Vance may have been a marine, but he was a combat correspondent, not a fighting man. JD Vance may have grown up poor and abused when he was younger, but then he was raised by his grandparents and by all accounts his life was much improved. Like many of our politicians, he obtained his law degree from Yale University. He became a venture capitalist, wrote a best-selling book about his early life, and then became a politician. JD Vance has never lived a blue-collar life.
JD Vance is not exactly privileged, like his good friend Don Jr. He may develop into more of a statesman and less of a politician if given the chance, but only time will tell. It is too soon for JD Vance to be elevated to the position that Donald Trump has raised him, and it represents a tangible danger to this country, even more so than does Kamala Harris, the Democratic Vice-President.
Of more concern is the extremely successful way that Donald Trump has been able to politicize the federal court system. This can be seen in the manner in which he has created a conservative majority in the Supreme Court that is determined to change the essence of this country away from that of being a unified nation that governs in the best interests of its citizens into a state-centric confederation that is vulnerable to corruption, facilitates corporate malfeasance, and eliminates controls over individuals, organizations, businesses that have existed for years to protect our land, our resources, and our people from abuse and injustice.
From allowing unlimited dark money to flow into our politics, to expanding the 2nd Amendment far beyond its original intent, to giving state governments the right to control women’s reproductive choices, to restricting the ability of federal agencies to regulate interstate commerce and protect our environment, this Supreme Court has blatantly favored the interests of religious zealots, the very wealthy, and large corporations at the expense of the American people.
In addition, Federal judges appointed by Donald Trump have purposely made rulings that reflect a reactionary political agenda that, at least for a time, forces this agenda onto the American people throughout the entire country.
This politicization of the federal court system has blatantly benefited Donald Trump through the actions of a Federal judge in Florida who was appointed by him, who refused to recuse herself from his documents case despite this apparent conflict of interest, who has used procedural considerations as justification to delay his case indefinitely, and who has finally dismissed his case on a highly questionable technicality put forth and supported by at least one reactionary Supreme Court justice.
Of most concern, however, is the 900-page manifesto created by the Heritage Foundation and known as Project 2025, and to a lesser extent, the Agenda 47 of Donald Trump.
To be fair, I have only read Wikipedia summaries of both documents, not the entire documents themselves. However, what I have read so far is very disturbing.
Project 2025 is intended to restructure the federal government, primarily but not exclusively, the executive branch, in order to allow a newly elected President Trump free rein to do as he sees fit. Project 2025 provides a blueprint for Donald Trump to follow. The CEO of the Heritage Foundation has stated that this represents nothing less than a second American Revolution, which will be peaceful if Democrats do not stand in the way.
Project 2025 is a blueprint to create a Christian fascist theocracy lead by Donald Trump and facilitated by conservative extremists. It is an organized wish list of all the extreme positions that have been discussed by reactionary Christian conservatives for decades. More tax breaks for the rich and for businesses, minimal regulation of business activity, empowerment of individual states to enact further restrictions of personal freedoms, weakening of the Federal government’s ability to protect our land and our citizens from exploitation and corruption, criminalization of protest and dissent, withdrawal from international alliances and the limitation or even abandonment of our treaty obligations – these are some of the objectives of Project 2025.
President Biden has been controlled by the more extreme members of the Democratic Party who have pushed an agenda of diversity, equity, and inclusion, of reparations, of unregulated borders, of tolerance of anti-social behavior, and an absence of the common sense and moderation that are critical components of a sound democracy. President Biden denies that this is so, but the actions of his administration starting from the day he assumed office is proof of this extremist philosophy and does not reflect his earlier beliefs.
Given the extremist nature of Project 2025, the concern must be that Donald Trump will be controlled by the more extreme members of the Republican Party who are advocating for a revolutionary change to our country. Given his history, Donald Trump is susceptible to flattery and has never seemed too concerned about details or ramifications. He may find the idea of leading a second American revolution to be something that proves irresistible to his ego. Common sense and moderation are as much foreign concepts to Donald Trump as they are to Joe Biden.
JD Vance as vice-president, the politization of the Supreme Court, Project 2025 – these are frightening issues that independent voters would normally be concerned about.
However, unless the Democratic Party can provide independent voters with a common sense, moderate candidate who is lucid and not beholden to the party’s extremists, Donald Trump will most certainly become our next president.
We can only hope that 2028 will bring back some sanity to our country.