WHAT ARE WE DOING?
Snap out of it!
We all know that we’ve become Alice (no rabbit hole, no mushrooms, but that election dropped the floor out of nearly everything), living the last three years in a topsy turvy world where up is down, wrong is right, left is never right, opinion is as good as fact and history is just an opinion.
Except, science is not up for a vote, no one is above the law, and the Constitution (not the Bible) is the highest law of the land. Open to interpretation, but there are limits. The Emoluments Clause, however, is very clear, and Trump was violating that a week after his election.
We are living in that topsy turvy world partly because we have lost the will to question the unthinkable, the ridiculous. To call a spade a spade.
THE MEDIA
Lefties don’t like to question the media too much these days. Makes them appear to be in the wrong corral. But I am part of the media, and I say we have failed you. I don’t feel like I personally have, because I’ve been pretty outspoken in my spade calling, but if you’re part of something larger that is behaving badly, you have to call it out. (Hear that, Republicans?)
The media is doing better now, but it’s a bit late. Boy were we slow, and that was very damaging. We became enablers, of something we have a professional responsibility to critique. I think in the beginning the media tried to bend over backwards to show we weren’t prejudiced against this outlier president, and tried to treat him like any other president. Give him a chance. Dismiss his outrageous actions and behavior as “his style.” Big mistake. Call a spade a spade, from the get go.
The Founding Fathers understood the danger of allowing foreign governments to influence our politics, and wrote that Emoluments Clause into the Constitution. Elected and appointed officials cannot accept anything of value from a foreign entity. (Ukraine, other nations.) Similarly, paying to obtain something that could influence an election must be reported as a campaign expense. (Stormy Daniels, other women.)
THE PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITY
Lies with the liars. But those lies couldn’t stand without support, passive from the media, and from all of us, but much more importantly, with the active, full, unquestioning cooperation of the Republicans. If the Republicans on Capitol Hill had all along spoken up when they saw something wrong, we wouldn’t be in this mess.
If the Republicans would at least murmur, publically, that “that’s not true” or “that’s not right,” or “17 U.S. intelligence agencies agree that’s not what happened” or “I would have to side with 96 percent of the world’s scientists,” it would make a huge difference. But none of them, except a handful who are leaving office, have uttered a peep. They are Trump’s cult following, fearful of his career-ending revenge against any who prove “not loyal,” and without their acquiescence he cannot do the damage he has done. He learned early on that they will go along with anything, and he can do as he pleases, precedent, law and decency be damned.
THEY ARE COWARDS, BUT SO ARE WE
To kowtow to this bully, and because they are Senators and Representatives, and that means they are traitors. They took an oath to serve the people and uphold the Constitution. Politics always has been corrupt and always will be, but this is unprecedented. Unprecedented, and we say nothing beyond a whimper. We have been beaten into submission, to accept this as the new normal. We must not.
Let’s just look at one area, the military. I’m not a big fan but in a dangerous world, we need them to survive.
He spit on long-established military justice protocol, stepping in to take the side of a disgraced Navy Seal, a convicted war criminal, who slithered onto Fox News to plead his case. President Bone Spurs Draft Dodger, how dare you demand this entitled punk be given full honors and rank, despite the military justice system ruling otherwise? This president must be held accountable!
He attacked a Gold Star family (lost a son to combat) because they immigrated from one of those shoothole countries, and are Muslim. He belittled a widely-respected U.S. Senator from his own party as he lay dying from brain cancer, who suffered lifelong disability because of his years as a tortured prisoner of war. He illegally stole funds allocated by Congress to our military, to build his ridiculous wall. Where was the Republican outrage?
He defiled the years of bloody sacrifice by our troops in Syrian territory defended with our Kurd allies, by completely abandoning them to the bloodthirsty Turkish regime, and to the benefit of his buddy Putin. Have we forgotten, that Russia is our avowed enemy? This sort of thing has never been done and it makes our nation much less safe. This is immoral, irrational, treasonous behavior. Republicans?
THE SILENCE OF THE SHEEP
That’s us. How can we remain silent, or even muted? Impeachable offenses? Too many to count.
Children in concentration camp cages, a proven white supremecist as one of his closest advisors and architect of his despicable immigration policies, giving highly classified info to the Russians -- in the Oval Office, 25 credible accusations of sexual attacks, and you family values Republicans who impeached Clinton for lying about an inappropriate but consensual affair, have no comment?
Every time we hear this man’s illegal, immoral actions defended or excused, we must speak up. To not do so is to be complicit and enabling.
Charles Andrews has lived in Santa Monica for 33 years and wouldn’t live anywhere else in the world. Really. Send love and/or rebuke to him at therealmrmusic@gmail.com
