America, What Took You So Long?

On December 10, 2018, 44 former U.S. Senators (41 men, 3 women) finally sounded the alarm on Trump — AKA, that fascist-demagogue-who-would-be-mad-king— in a “Dear Senate colleagues” letter.

The first paragraph, while courteously direct, seemed positively chilling:
“As former members of the U.S. Senate, Democrats and Republicans, it is our shared view that we are entering a dangerous period, and we feel an obligation to speak up about serious challenges to the rule of law, the Constitution, our governing institutions and our national security.”
Has it really gotten so bad that ex-public servants have to warn current occupants of The Senate that our country is entering crisis mode? Well, yeah. It has. It has gotten THAT bad. When people gasp, “America has never had a Presidency like this one,” believe them. Trump’s debacles are like TEAPOT DOME SCANDAL + WATERGATE = ANTI-DEMOCRACY to the Nth POWER.

And there is no end in sight.

Even more frightening here, is the media’s widespread lack of interest in this letter. Too many news outlets didn’t even pick up this story, or give it the attention it deserved. Kudos to The Washington Post for publishing this letter, with accompanying information, then posting it online.

Please go to your computers or libraries now, dear readers, and study this brief letter in its entirety. You really should read it. Every American should read it. Maybe then, we could all appreciate how peculiar America’s predicament really is.

Here we are, in the 21st Century, and 44 former Senators had to remind their colleagues of their sworn duties as elected officials? Think about that for a minute. Let it sink in a little. 44 Senators had to remind their colleagues of a blatantly obvious thing — that dedication to country should always supersede personal gain, political party, or selfish self-interest:
“Regardless of party affiliation, ideological leanings or geography, as former members of this great body, we urge current and future senators to be steadfast and zealous guardians of our democracy by ensuring that partisanship or self-interest not replace national interest.”
Really?

While I do applaud this call to protect our fragile democracy, I can’t help but wonder why these 44 guardians of our Constitution didn’t recognize the menace of Trumplandia before…

I mean, I’ve never held any kind of public office before, but I could easily see the clear and present dangers of a Trump Presidency as early as 2015. I began worrying and sharing my concerns in various opinion editorials (which were posted in “The Richfield Patch”) in 2016, 2017 and 2018. As 2019 looms ahead, there might be even more such op-eds. I will continue to write and post until this iconoclastic narcissist is finally removed from The Oval Office. I’m not the only citizen who feels obligated to sound the alarm through pointed communication, either.

Scholar Naomi Wolf, author of The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot, and comedian Bill Mahr, host of Real Time on HBO, also feel this obligation. Like me, they are deeply concerned about Trump’s impact on our way of life. They continue to criticize his attacks on our freedoms as much as they possibly can. They also wonder why it took so long for so many to realize POTUS #45 was such an enemy of The People.

Years from now, if America still exists as a democratic republic, historians are going to be wondering about that, too. Just why did it take so long for so many Americans to recognize The Donald as a threat to our democracy? More significantly, why did so many Republicans keep excusing anything and everything he did? Why did so many voters, pundits, talking heads, and elected officials keep defending Trump as more and more evidence continually revealed more and more criminal activity? What was really going on here?

Please allow me to explain with this silly yet pertinent analogy.

Trump never could pass the smell test. Throughout his years as a shady realtor, then as opportunistic politician, he was enveloped by a noxious odor that wouldn’t go away. When he moved into The White House, his bad smell came along with him. The Rose Garden withered as a real stink that hadn’t been there during the Obama Administration filled the stately quarters. No doubt this foul stench belonged to POTUS#45 because it accompanied him wherever he went.

But his supporters — disgruntled voters who were ignorant about the workings of government, loyal Trump staffers, and the GOP machine, in general — kept insisting there was no smell.

Even when eye witnesses reported hearing poof! noises and seeing a small toxic cloud rising from his trousers, Trump’s supporters kept insisting there was no bad smell.

No, they weren’t in denial. They were just so determined to eradicate “Obamacare,” environmental protection laws, and the liberal socialist agenda that they couldn’t stop rationalizing his bizarre tweets. They couldn’t stop exonerating his unbelievable misconduct.

They didn’t want to stop. They knew exactly what they were doing.

So driven were they to put (and keep) a Republican in The White House that they became chronic enablers of the worst kind. They began lying just as much or more than their Great Leader. Someone would ask about the pungent odor coming from the West Wing, and these politico-lemmings would spring into action. Their misplaced zeal became so absurd that their disclaimers started to sound like discarded dialogue from a bad movie script.

Here’s a typical verbal exchange that might have occurred between the perpetually confused (i.e., the majority of thoughtful Americans) and diehard Trump enablers:

Odor? What odor? I don’t smell anything!

Are you noseblind? Everybody smells it. We all smell it. What exactly is it?

OH, THAT. THAT smell. It doesn’t smell that bad.

That unmistakable scent of sulfur and old extra crispy really smells like a fart. How long has this President been farting?

The President does NOT fart. But even if he did, it wouldn’t be THAT stinky because he’s the President.

So now if the President farts, it smells like Karl Lagerfeld?

We’ll have to get back to you on that because we’re not familiar with Mr. Lagerfeld’s farts.

Let’s just focus on Trump now. Everything surrounding him still smells. Ever hear of that book Everything Trump Touches Dies? The title should have been Everything Trump Touches Dies Before, During, and After He Farts.

What about Hillary Clinton? She smells too. The National Enquirer ran a story about how she tried to kill that guy from Whitewater with her farts.

Well, her farts pale in comparison to Trump’s gas.

Hillary Clinton e-mailed her farts on her private server.

But she’s not the President. Trump is, and he’s only making America stinkier again.

The President is not farting, does not fart, and has never farted, period. His butt just stinks.

So you deny the farts, but admit he has a stinky butt? Like, that’s supposed to make us all feel better?

That’s just Trump being Trump.

No, that’s just a guy who has such a stinky butt he never should have been elected President in the first place.

Why can’t you just let Trump be Trump?

(Sigh) Many commentators in the media have denounced the “uncivil tone” that has been infiltrating our political discussions. This tone, however, isn’t as much “uncivil” as it is absurd. Really absurd. And no more dredging up that sad cliche about guilt “on both sides of the aisle.” This current political catastrophe has GOP written all over it.

Republicans put this stinkbomb in The White House, and now they’d better own up and get him out of there.

Republicans have promoted, enabled, and elected this stinkbomb to the highest office in the land. Not the Democrats. Not the Whigs. And yet now, they refuse to accept responsibility for their folly. They don’t even want to admit they created such a folly in the first place.

Wake up and smell the coffee, you toady Buttercups. Admit you made a colossal screw-up by allowing Trump to run as a Republican candidate. Then get busy and remove this accident-waiting-to-implode from office. Get going. NOW! Otherwise, this stink might never go away. And then nothing you will ever tell your children, grandchildren, or historians will make any sense…or make things right.