(20 minute read) 8/10/2022
Since I started this the country is once again galvanized because one sorry excuse for a human being can’t man up and admit that he lost an election. I’ll write my thoughts on that at the end of this but it fits perfectly with my theme.
America the greatest!
“USA! USA! USA! We’re number 1! We’re number 1!” I have often heard the trope that America may have its problems but we’re better than any other country. Is that true? How does that claim sell to the rest of the world? Is it believable? Is it demonstrably the truth? An excellent writer that I follow, JimWright, will say at times in response to grandiose or questionable claims,
“Show your work.”[1]
Crime-ridden cities!
According to the Trump Republican Party our nation is crime-ridden with roving bands of radical leftists roaming the streets destroying all that they can get their hands on. They never stopped making these types of claims even when they oversaw the entire country. We’re a nation being invaded by brown people because our borders are completely open! Gangs of criminals are pouring in! Our nation is in crisis! It’s the Dems! It’s the radical leftists! Socialists are taking over! We’re losing our great nation!
Make America great again, again!
You would think that after 4 years of Trump being the bestest President in all the known history of mankind that things would have been fixed at least a little bit while he was in office. But I digress.
That messaging of how bad the country is doesn’t really sell a position of the United States being a stable, strong democracy to the rest of the world. The messaging from Democrats is that we are in danger of losing our Democracy to Putin, er, Trump, and his minions. What do you think? I’ll get back to this in a minute.
Unbelievers
Somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 million Americans don’t believe in our current form of government and seek to overthrow it. The problem with that previous sentence is it isn’t hyperbole.
If you don’t believe that Trump lost, you can’t believe in our form of government.
Too much? Not really. Patently not really.
We have three branches of government.[2] All three branches, the Legislative, Executive and Judicial, concluded that then President Trump lost the election and that there was no widespread voter fraud that would have altered the outcome of the election. The people picked by Trump in Trump’s own Administration checked his claims of election fraud and found them to be totally without merit.[3] Trump’s Vice President, a study in being a sycophant, knew that Trump had lost. Trump’s own kids knew that he had lost.[4] Even Trump’s campaign lawyer said that he lost.[5] Trump tried unsuccessfully to get the military involved.[6] When every attempt to thwart the result of a free and fair election in the courts failed, he planned and staged a violent coup to remain in power. He failed. Trump, along with his unindicted co-conspirators, attempted to get hundreds of Republicans across the country to submit fake electors to Congress. He failed. How is that different from any other coup attempt from a Banana Republic?
It isn’t.
Bad to the bone
Government is corrupt and not to be trusted! Government is a “swamp” that needs to be drained! Government is harmful. Our government is the problem!
Republicans have been selling this message for decades.[7] Today, through the power of social media, they have amplified their messaging. Our free press is “the enemy of the people!”[8] Has the rest of the world been immune to their messaging? Hardly. The Russians have been helping the Trump Republican Party tear down the nation and sow mistrust and division.[9] That’s what the Mueller Report concluded. Volume I of II.[10] Volume II of II.[11] The Mueller Report found that the Trump crowd was too inept to coordinate successfully with the Russians even though they tried.[12]
Christian Nationalism
Christian Nationalism is heretical to the faith.[13] Christian Nationalism is an oxymoron.[14] It is anti-other religions and those that don’t have religion. Not exactly an open, welcoming society.
The Republican Party, along with Trump’s Evangelicals, continues to denounce the perceived immorality and moral decay of our “great” nation. The evil that befalls us is due to God’s unhappiness with us. Teachers, gays, Dems, Libs, Antifa are sex traffickers grooming our children. Their enemies are pedophiles! A cabal of pedophiles is running the country! So, come to America if you’re straight, white, conservative and are the right kind of Christian.
Ignore the Lady in the Harbor’s words.
Poverty
Since I brought up the Statue of Liberty this is as good a place as any to bring up poverty. The entreaty from the inscription poem is for poor people to come here for a chance at a better life.[15] We have plenty of poor people now.[16] Goal accomplished!
Year after year, decade after decade there have been 40 million Americans, give or take a few million, living in poverty.[17] Those close to the poverty line aren’t doing much better. That figure would encompass approximately half of Americans.
There’s a big difference between being poor and living in poverty. I’ve been poor a time or two in my life. When I was in the Army and married people on welfare received more money from the government than I did. There were other times as well.
The point is that the number of poor has remained relatively stable through both Republican and Democrat administrations. Millions of men, women, children, senior, infirm, veterans and families go to bed hungry, not knowing where their next meal is coming from or whether they will continue to have a roof over their head.
We have over a half million people that are homeless in the United States of America. People from the list mentioned in the preceding paragraph. Not a complete list. I don’t have a sarcastic comment for this.
It’s too sad.
SOL QOF
When it comes to countries having the highest standard of living (SOL) and quality of life (QOF) America doesn’t even make the top 10.[18] (The third world war taking place in Europe will bring some changes to the list in coming years.)
There are lots of SOL and QOF criteria. Gross Domestic Product (GDP), wages, health care, cost of living, paid time off (including maternity leave, vacation and sick leave), housing, crime rate, gun violence, education, living conditions, basic rights, natural and living environment.
In all the various lists I checked the U. S. comes in below 10 and usually above 15. So, go USA!
We’re close to number 10!
Universal Health Care
One of the major factors in determining QOL is access to health care. Conservatives just go nuts when the subject of universal health care is brought up. The Trump Republican Party fought the Affordable Health Care Act every step of the way. They continue to fight it. My god, they opposed capping the price of insulin. These people are seriously fucked up (what do Republicans have against folks with diabetes?).
Canadians have universal health care.[19] They complain about it. It’s what people do. But they aren’t about to give it up.[20] What we have in the United States with our tens of millions people uninsured and bankruptcies due to people being unable to pay their medical expenses is what they don’t want. The leading cause of bankruptcy in America is from people not being able to pay their medical expenses.[21] Sixty-two percent. The surprise for me is that 78% of that figure had medical insurance! I can speak to that. I have one medication that I take that costs $2,000 a month and that’s with insurance. Fortunately, for me the Veterans Administration picks up the tab. Most people that take this medication aren’t so lucky. And those that can’t afford to take it at all are even less lucky.
The Trump Republican Party in Congress with Evangelical Christians’ support will fight universal healthcare with their dying breath. They have health insurance and the money it takes to pay for what isn’t covered.
They are right to life merchants of death.
Deep state
We’re supposed to be a democracy, but Trump Republicans claim that there is a “Deep State” that is really running the country.[22] The people constituting the so-called Deep State exist from administration to administration. They, not the Republican Party, kept Obama from accomplishing his goals and then immediately kept Trump from accomplishing his goals.
That seems odd, doesn’t it? Makes me wonder what their goals are. And evidently Glorious Leader Trump was unable to do anything about them either. They’re still in Power! Come to America!
We don’t know who’s running things!
More than a minute
Okay, admittedly it took more than a minute to get back to my comment about having more to say on this subject. It was more like 8 minutes ago if you have made it this far. Back towards the beginning I mentioned that Democrats’ messaging is that we’re in danger of losing our democracy. Is that hyperbole?
I’m not a Democrat. I am back to being an Independent. I’m a recovering Republican. I’m also a veteran. There were Republicans that voted against the PACT Act.[23] (This is legislation to boost health care for veterans exposed to toxins. I’m not one. But I know veterans that were.) I served from ’66 to ’70. Never saw combat. I consider myself to be patriotic. Love my country.
NOT a nationalist.[24]
We need different words
Media is inundated with extreme words and conclusions. Trump isn’t just a victim. He’s the most victimized President in all of history. Congresswoman Greene isn’t just picked on. She’s picked on worse than any member of congress has ever been picked on in all of history.[25] Those in the Trump Party just mimic their idol. What works for Trump will work for them. It’s a mic drop. The libs are owned. The opposing language is extreme as well. We’re in dire straits. The country has never faced anything like this!
Trump and his Trump Republican Party haven’t really cornered the market on having the best words.[26] But they are Olympic contenders when it comes to lying, deceit, misrepresentation and being advocates of violence. It truly is outrageous when Trump Republicans campaign on accomplishments that they voted against.[27] They lie even when the truth would serve them better. (Note that this is a characteristic of the pathological liar.)
The problem is in this time of hyperbole the Democrats, team normal Republicans and others are right. Democracy is teetering on the edge of a chasm, a word Trump struggles with. If Trump Republicans keep heading us down this path we could end up with our own conservative military helping with their coup in 2024.[28]
The rule of law is in jeopardy!
B. U. L. Y.
The Big Us Little You Trump Republican Party is for law and order except when it applies to them and especially their master Trump.
Trump really did stage a coup. He failed. That’s what the January 6, 2021 insurrection was—an attempted coup by Trump Republican Party supporters. A coup where they attacked police officers. A coup where they terrorized members of Congress.[29] A coup where they brought weapons including firearms; where people were injured and others died. Trump Republicans in both Houses of Congress and from numerous states were in on the attempt to ignore the legitimate vote of the people and install their Il Duce.[30]
They still come up short of being a terrorist organization.
2022 is their chance to make the bigs.
Hot off the press.
Witness the Trump Republican Party come-apart because the domicile of their Glorious Leader got served with a search warrant from the FBI. BTW, Christopher Wray, the man that Trump appointed, is still the head of the FBI. (Remember Trump said that he only appoints the best people.)
And now Trump Republicans are up in arms over the FBI serving a search warrant on Mar a Lago. Yet another historic first for Trump.
I had a Top Secret clearance when I served in the Army. I knew from the very first time when classified material turned up at Trump’s Mar a Lardo that there was going to be trouble for him. The man was a walking, talking security breach from the time that he took office. One of his security breaches early on was to relay classified Israeli intelligence to the Russians.[31] As soon as Trump was no longer President he had zero business carrying around or storing classified information.
Laws aren’t just for little people.
Hoist with his own petard.[32]
President Trump was President and signed into law wording that made it a felony to be in unauthorized possession of classified material.[33] His signing the law was widely reported at the time.[34] He did it because he was mad at Hillary Clinton for not being in his estimation appropriately punished for her emails. Now he is in a position to be charged under the law that he signed.
Poetic Justice.
So, here we are.
Just look at what Republicans are saying about our government today. Media is full of their comments undermining our government. Social media platforms are full of comments from the Trump cult threatening civil war and violence to anyone that isn’t them.
So that takes us back to the question. Are we number one?
What do you think?
[1] https://www.stonekettle.com/
[2] https://www.usa.gov/branches-of-government
[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NfSVI_5qU4
[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0ylMDl0qZ0
[5] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMXMaHtr218
[6] https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/top-generals-mobilized-fears-trump-wanted-military-post-election-coup-n1274059
[8] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ystuwpdu0a8
[9] https://intelligence.house.gov/social-media-content/
[10] https://www.justice.gov/storage/report_volume1.pdf
[11] https://www.justice.gov/storage/report_volume2.pdf
[12] https://news.yahoo.com/ex-trump-campaign-chairman-paul-140803308.html?soc_src=social-sh&soc_trk=tw&tsrc=twtr
[13] https://www.umc.org/en/content/what-is-christian-nationalism
[14] https://www.grammarly.com/blog/oxymoron/
[15] https://www.wonders-of-the-world.net/Statue-of-Liberty/Poem-by-Emma-Lazarus.php
[16] https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2021/demo/p60-273.html
[17] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_in_the_United_States
[18] https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/standard-of-living-by-country
[19] https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/how-canada-got-universal-health-care-and-what-the-u-s-could-learn
[20] https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/poll-canadians-are-most-proud-of-universal-medicare-1.1052929
[21] https://bankruptcyresources.org/content/what-are-top-causes-bankruptcy
[22] https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/deep-state/story?id=47086646
[23] https://www.businessinsider.com/11-republicans-voted-against-pact-act-providing-aid-for-veterans-2022-8?op=1
[24] https://grammar.yourdictionary.com/vs/patriotism-vs-nationalism-differences-made-simple
[25] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUxIYdYIGHw
[27] https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/house-republicans-tout-infrastructure-funding-voted/story?id=82429064
[28] https://www.npr.org/2021/12/3.1/1068930675/us-election-coup-january-6-military-constitution
[29] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xCwvSNgigE
[30] https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/benito-mussolini
[31] https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/5/17/15653434/israel-spy-compromised-trump-russians
[32]
https://interestingliterature.com/2020/07/hoist-with-his-own-petard-phrase-origins-meaning/
[33] https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=(title:18%20section:1924%20edition:prelim)
[34] https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-made-it-a-felony-to-mishandle-classified-documents-in-2018_n_62f3c2e9e4b0133dd5b4f229