There are so many issues for centrist and liberal citizens of the United States to be concerned about that it is difficult to know where to focus and put our energy. And clearly, our energy does matter: Look at the state of the administration’s attempt to destroy health care for millions of Americans. Not that our work is done, I’m sure there will be more cracks at the ACA. No one questions that it needs some fixing, but destruction? No.
Not only health care, but public education, environmental protections, consumer protections, rejection of the facts about climate change, foreign policy missteps… the list goes on as to what is being destroyed.
But there is one overriding area that is the most frightening: the deconstruction and demolition of democratic values. The U.S. is a democratic republic, yet we use the term democracy in a generic, somewhat inaccurate way, to describe what we believe that our Constitution and Bill of Rights represent.
The current president does not understand the principles of our government. As well, he has a disturbed personality based on narcissism, some type of attention deficit, almost illiteracy, and a total disregard for truth and facts. He cannot even cogently speak the language. As a result he and his selected cronies, many of whom change from day to day, are running roughshod over the principles on which this country was founded and continued to exist until the fateful election November 2016.
While we follow the specific issues closest to our personal concerns, we must also act on the signs of our deteriorating republic. Venezuela, Turkey, the Philippines, and other countries with formerly democratic republic-type governments are veering closer and closer to autocratic dictatorships. Here are some of their techniques: They jail or kill their opponents (remember “Lock her up,” and now that’s being revisited), repress the news (fake news, the media is the enemy of the people, etc.), ignore due process, fire government employees that aren’t “loyal” to you, and so many more actions that are happening each week not only in those countries but in a slower and less obvious slide here.
He is incompetent and unfit to lead this country, and we must do everything we can to have him impeached or removed from office as being unfit. With his party in control of so much of the government this seems unlikely, but how affiliated is he with his party? Emphasizing his unpopularity with the majority of Americans would help to stir doubts in moderate Republicans.
Judge what is being done by the administration in terms of our democratic republic and act in a responsible way to save our country.