By V. Susan Hutchinson
There are many ways to describe the Republican Party’s total support of Donald J. Trump. None of them should be “it’s all going to be OK” or “we’ve been through this before”.
Complacency never caused change.
It is not going to be OK and we have not been through this before. It’s time for Democrats to start seriously realizing that what Trump is doing to America is far more damaging and egregious than what Richard Nixon did when he was complicit in the break-in of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate Office Building in Washington.
The Watergate investigation found ties to Nixon well after he was elected for a second term. Instead of a whistleblower coming forward from within his administration, it was investigative reporting by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein of the Washington Post and their source “Deep Throat”.
At no time during the Watergate hearings did the Republican party, or Nixon, claim it was in the best interests of the country to order the break-in. The Republican party of the 1970’s didn’t offer any defense of their president and, in fact, would have removed him from office if the process had been completed in the Senate.
They knew what he did was wrong and were willing to uphold their oaths of office instead of swearing an oath to protect him. Nixon slinked away with his tail between his legs knowing that what he did was unacceptable to everyone, including his own party.
That was when America was great. That was when we had politicians in both parties that took their oaths to uphold the Constitution seriously.
Aftermath of the Iowa Caucus
Media outlets such as the Washington Post, the New York Times, Politco, Vox and Mother Jones are trying to carry on the tradition of investigative reporting under the protection of the First Amendment; however, much of the broadcast media does nothing but bring together a bunch of talking heads who go on and on analyzing everything to death or who try to sway opinion so people will think what they are saying is absolute truth.
People need to find their own truth by looking at facts and not listening to an opinion expressed on the television.
James Carville, lead strategist on the Bill Clinton campaign, has come out and said he is “scared to death” of the November 2020 election. Carville went on to say:
“We have one moral imperative, and that’s to beat Donald Trump.”
This reflects what many people are thinking in this election year, but not really doing anything about. His comments came on the heels of the Iowa Caucus where a breakdown of the system led to manual vote counting that took several days to complete. Because of this incident there is now even more in-fighting among the candidates. And then there is CNN touting a big victory for Pete Buttigieg when the caucus results show him with only a 0.1% over Sanders.
By all means let’s lead viewers down the garden path because they know who is the best candidate to beat Donald Trump.
Misplaced Anger
People are angry about what happened with the Iowa Caucus. They are angry that their candidate is being attacked by people in their own party. They are angry that Democratic candidates are attacking each other in debates.
All this does is make Trump happy and may result in another four years for him. It’s time to transfer our anger to something that will result in the change we need to bring Democracy back.
In 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a segregated bus. Did she do it because she was tired and didn’t want to have to move? No! She did it because she was angry. Angry at the injustice of segregation. That one moment led to desegregation across the South.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led the struggle for civil rights for African Americans and other people of color. Do you think he woke up one morning and said, “I’m a little upset about not having equal rights, I think I’ll look into what can be done?”
No! He got angry and gathered other civil rights leaders together to peacefully protest across America and gave an amazing speech on August 28, 1963 on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. to motivate people to fight the good fight. His efforts led to the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The War in Vietnam polarized the country. Young men, mostly poor and African American, were drafted to fight in this unpopular war. Did they all say, “Well I guess I’ll go; I can’t ignore the draft.” No! A lot of them got angry and burned their draft cards in protest. They also knew that those who had wealth could avoid serving by asking politicians to intercede or paying off doctors to say they had medical conditions like bone spurs. And that made them even more angry.
It’s time for those who don’t want to lose democracy in America to get angry, really angry. Civil rights angry. Vietnam war angry.
It cannot be anger that will cause even more of a rift within the Democratic Party. It must be anger channeled into non-violent protests and marches intended to remind everyone what the conman in the White House has done, and will continue to do, now that his party has given him free reign to do any illegal act to get re-elected, and to retaliate against anyone who opposes him.
What happened this week with Trump’s acquittal blew the doors wide open for America to become a dictatorship with Trump “jokingly” saying he will be “President for life”.
Get Involved, Get Active, Get Angry
After everything we have learned about Trump’s corruption and attempts to manipulate the November election so he wins a second term, everyone who wants America to be the one we grew up with, the America we loved, needs to get angry. Angry enough to get out and ask, “What can I do to get my America back?”.
Stop being angry at the wrong people. If you aren’t seething at what Trump has done to this country and how the Republican Party is complicit in his actions, you haven’t been paying enough attention.
Channel your anger by getting involved at the local level with the Horry County Democratic Party (HCDP). Run for county or city council or school board and try to change the system from within. Join in protests and marches and raise your voice with others to say, to quote the 1976 film Network, “I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!”
Mostly everyone needs to GET OUT AND VOTE! We still have a Constitution that protects our right to free elections. We can only win over the corruption of our election processes by Trump and the Republicans by outnumbering them at the polls. We can win this thing even if he pulls out all the stops to get himself re-elected.
But you have to be angry enough to make it happen!
It’s time to remove the Republican party who are intent on staying in power by using any dirty trick they can so they can re-make America into their own corrupt image with a mad dictator at the helm.
