Three times a week, I receive the History News Network (HNN) newsletter. HNN is a platform for historians at George Washington University writing about current events. I spend part of every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday reading a variety of articles, essays, and opinion pieces published by them. Some of the material is really fascinating. I often get blog post ideas from these readings. 

One of these ideas came from an essay by historian George C. Herring. Herring is Alumni Professor of History Emeritus at the University of Kentucky (UK). A native of Blacksburg, Va., he received a bachelor’s degree from Roanoke College after service in the U.S. Navy. He earned both a master’s and a doctorate in History from the University of Virginia. He joined the UK faculty in 1969, and taught classes at all levels from introductory survey courses in U.S. history to graduate seminars. A leading authority on U.S. foreign relations, he is the former editor of Diplomatic History, and a past president of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations. He authored America’s Longest War: The United States and Vietnam, 1950-1975 among other books.

I cannot do justice to the words of Herring. He says what I have believed for over four years now. In essence, he describes how Donald Trump is destroying the very fabric of American democracy. While dirty politics is nothing new, Donald Trump has taken it to new (and childish) heights. He, and many of his followers, enjoy being bullies and making fun of others just for a laugh. I hope you will read what Herring has to say in his essay.

Dirty Politics, Then and Now

by George Herring

Donald Trump has brought to American politics and to the presidency a uniquely personal, combative, and mean-spirited style, honed in the cutthroat worlds of high-end real estate, finance, and show business, that relies on personal insults and denigration of foes. In the realm of dirty politics, virtually by default, he has been allowed to rewrite the rules of the game—to the enormous detriment of our country.       

To be sure, personal attacks, mudslinging, and name calling date to the beginning of this republic. “JEFFERSON—AND NO GOD,” nervous Federalists screamed in 1800 in a vain effort to thwart election of the allegedly infidel, pro-French Virginian. Andrew Jackson’s rivals had the temerity to besmirch his beloved wife, Rachel. The twin issues of slavery and secession made the election of 1860 especially ugly. Abraham Lincoln’s enemies depicted him as a “horrid looking wretch,” assaulted him with vicious racist attacks, and claimed that he favored miscegenation.  

Sometimes the mudslinging took on a lighter tone. In 1884, Democrat Grover Cleveland was rumored to have fathered a child out of wedlock, inspiring the ditty “Ma, ma, where’s my pa? Gone to the White House, ha, ha, ha.” At times, it has been downright silly. In 1944, Republicans charged that Franklin Roosevelt had wasted millions of taxpayer dollars by sending a U.S. Navy vessel back across the Pacific to rescue his dog Fala, who, allegedly, had been left on a remote island. Today’s politicians thus follow a time-honored tradition.

But there is also something new in the volume of the attacks, who is purveying them, and how they are purveyed.  The internet gives a platform to political hacks, private citizens, extremist groups, conspiracy theorists, and even foreign governments—think Russia and Iran—to spread misinformation and outright lies with little or no test for truthfulness. This has exponentially increased the amount of personal smears and rendered them more nasty.

More important is the role of the mud-slinger-in-chief. In years past, presidents have generally turned a blind eye to the antics of their zealous underlings. They have left to others the job of responding to attacks. Surprisingly, perhaps, Jackson defended his wife’s honor with words rather than dueling pistols. In another exception, FDR turned the tables on his opponents with a brilliantly sarcastic riposte pronouncing that Fala was a Scotty and his “Scotch soul” would never condone such a waste of money. “Roosevelt’s dog got Dewey’s goat” was the verdict on this incident.   

Trump is the ringmaster of today’s supercharged political circus. The role comes naturally to him. It is a part of his persona and his modus operandi. He is a master of innuendo and hyperbole. He is not troubled by moral or ethical standards, and has no more than a passing acquaintance with the truth. He delights in churning up chaos and seeks to exploit it to his advantage. He early latched on to Twitter, and he spews out with seeming impunity so many tweets that opponents are hard pressed to know how or whether to respond. Mud-slinging seems to be the one part of the job that he truly enjoys. One must grudgingly concede that he has a certain gift for it.

He ventured into dirty politics before he ran for office by taking up the notorious “birther” theory that Barack Obama was not eligible for the office he already held. In 2016, presidential candidate Trump dreamed up belittling nicknames for his primary opponents: “Low Energy Jeb” (Bush); “Little Marco” (Rubio); “Lyin’ Ted” (Cruz). He hawked the preposterous insinuation that Cruz’s father was involved in the JFK assassination. In the campaign itself, he labeled his opponent “Crooked Hillary” for her alleged misuse of government emails and led the chant “Lock Her Up.” His slurs can be blatantly racist and sexist: “Pocahontas” for Senator Elizabeth Warren, for example, and the unspeakably crude remarks directed at presidential debate anchor Megyn Kelly after she dared challenge him.   

Seeking reelection, he has picked up where he left off, shifting the low energy moniker to “Sleepy Joe” and “Slow Joe” Biden and questioning his opponent’s mental acuity. Childishly, he insulted Vice-Presidential nominee Kamala Harris by knowingly mispronouncing her first name. He launched a half-baked birther theory for her as well and piled on with a barrage of misogynist slurs: “phony Kamala,” “nasty,” “angry,” “madwoman.” The Trump family low–so far–has been the “like” (later removed) that son Eric attached to a tweet calling Harris a “whorendous pick.” Older son Don Jr.’s labeling of Biden as the “Loch Ness monster of the swamp” ranks a distant second. Junior has also hinted that Biden may be a pedophile.

It could be argued, of course, that Trump is simply being honest, that he is merely bringing into the open stuff that usually remains behind the scenes. But that is too easy. What the president of the United States says makes a difference. He demeans himself, if that matters. He demeans the office of the presidency, one of the most prestigious positions in the world. He demeans this nation in the eyes of its own citizens and the world. Actions have consequences, and Trump’s tirades can incite his followers and provoke his opponents to act similarly, revving up the already rampant divisiveness in this country, sparking hatred and violence, and even causing death, as with the killing of two people by a teenage Trump enthusiast in Kenosha, WI. “The unthinkable has become normal,” Senator Bernie Sanders has rightly noted.  

Shamelessly, the Republicans either won’t or can’t rein in their president. The only way to get rid of his toxic influence is to vote him out.   

https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/177409

Because politics can leave a bad taste in your mouth, here is some eye candy as a palate cleanser.

George Stephanopoulos said, “But away from the rituals of Washington, alongside the elation of [Donald] Trump supporters, there is deep anxiety, anger, and fear.” There is a lot of fear associated with the coming presidential election. Opponents of Donald Trump fear that if he is elected again, the United States will cease to exist as we know it. Trump will continue to sew anxiety, anger, and fear in his supporters and bring an end to this nation as we know it. His disregard for the rule of law will continue unabated if he wins and Republicans remain in control of the Senate. All norms associated with American democracy will cease to exist if we continue to be governed by a self-centered, egomaniacal tyrant wannabe. For the Republican Party, the only thing they care about is the continued accumulation of wealth and power.

If you watched any part of the Republican National Convention (RNC), you were probably struck by the expressions of fear that permeated the proceedings—namely, the fear that any failure to re-elect Donald Trump would result in the collapse of the American experiment if not the dissolution of civilization itself. Words to that effect were spoken many times; Trump himself, accepting the nomination said, “This election will decide whether we SAVE the American Dream, or whether we allow a socialist agenda to DEMOLISH our cherished destiny.” (The capitalization is original to the transcript.) Throughout the RNC, speakers argued that Trump would restore “law and order” and make America a safer country than Biden. Republicans focused more on what they call a bleak future under Democrats rather than on the record of Trump’s actions over the past four years because the record for Trump is so disastrous. There is nothing to praise, no matter how much they lie. 

There is no doubt Donald Trump plays on the fears of his audience.  He is a professional and highly-accomplished fearmonger who uses vicious and incendiary rhetoric in a pitiful attempt to generate support for his pathetic campaign. Trump will shy away from no outrageous claim to stoke the fires of terror in his followers. He majors in drama, paranoia, and conspiracy theories. He divides the world into “good guys” and “bad guys” and wants everyone to know that he alone can protect us from the “bad guys.” Trump is an egotistical, pompous, arrogant man who lacks subtlety and blurts out mistaken ideas. He is insulting, vindictive, and angry. Trump and his supporters use fear as a deliberate strategy to get religious but ignorant people to stand with the Republican Party, to get them on their mailing lists, and to motivate them to open their bank accounts and support that fear. Evangelicals and other conservatives support Trump because they want to be on the inside wielding power no matter the cost.

Democrats are struggling with their own fears. Following the Democratic National Convention’s underlying theme of unity over division, Joe Biden’s acceptance speech called on Americans to consider the gravity of this election, which he painted as one of the most consequential in history. Biden began his speech saying:

Ella Baker, a giant of the civil rights movement, left us with this wisdom: Give people light, and they will find a way. Give people light. Those are words for our time. The current president has cloaked America in darkness for much too long. Too much anger. Too much fear. Too much division. Here and now, I give you my word: If you entrust me with the presidency, I will draw on the best of us, not the worst. I will be an ally of the light, not of the darkness.

If we look at the last four years, there is so much the Republican Party should be ashamed to admit happened under their watch. There are just too many items to list, but here are some of the reasons Trump is uniquely incapable of managing crises:

• His White House is always in a state of chaos.
• He thrives on conflict.
• He values loyalty over competence.
• He distrusts expertise and experts.
• He can’t tell the truth; everything must always be “great” or “tremendous.”
• His relentless need to attack opponents renders him unable to unify the country.
• His lack of empathy for problems not personally affecting him.
• His penchant for conspiracy theorizing.
• His relentless and pathetic need for compliments and affirmation.
• His top priority is never what’s happening to the country, but instead how it makes him look; how will it affect his reelection chances.

When Trump was running for president in 2016, many warned if he were elected, he would cause disaster (some even said nuclear war), but there was another group, perhaps even larger, who said, “Sure, he’s kind of a joke, but why not give him a shot? What’s the worst that could happen?” Now we’re finding out the worst that could happen, and he still has at least four more months in office. Some might believe Republicans are right to spread fear, but I argue they aren’t it just causes instability. The same people might ask: but what about the terror of the unknown such as the fear of the economy collapsing, the lawlessness running wild, the pandemic, devastating hurricanes, rampant wildfires, other disasters on a biblical scale? Well, now we know. At the 2016 RNC, Trump proclaimed, “Nobody knows the system better than me which is why I alone can fix it.” Now, Trump finds himself in what Biden called in his DNC speech, “one of the most difficult moments America has ever faced.”  Biden pointed out we are facing: “Four historic crises. All at the same time. A perfect storm. The worst pandemic in over 100 years. The worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. The most compelling call for racial justice since the ’60s. And the undeniable realities and accelerating threats of climate change.”This doesn’t even consider the problems the United States has faced over the last three and a half years, but Trump has failed to answer the call for leadership. 

Arthur Eddington, the English astronomer, physicist, and mathematician, once said, “The pursuit of truth in science transcends national boundaries. It takes us beyond hatred and anger and fear. It is the best of us.” This is only true if you believe in science, which the Republicans seem to disregard. Conservatives throughout history have always held science in suspicion. They simply can’t deal with hard facts and truths. They prefer to use hatred, anger, and fear to get people to follow their agenda. Trump and his supporters have denied the danger of the COVID-19 pandemic. They have denied the evidence that supports the use of masks to protect others. They have denied climate change as it ravages our planet. They refuse to face the cold hard facts of science. Instead, they bring forth the worse in humanity: willful ignorance. The Ukrainian-born author and poet, Vironika Tugaleva, said, “Peace and love are just as contagious as anger and fear. Your mindset affects the people around you and perpetually changes the world. The question is what kind of world are you creating?” When we go to vote in November, we should ask ourselves what kind of world are we creating? What kind of world are we voting for? Is it a world filled with light, love, hope, and unity, or is it a world of darkness, hatred, anger, fear, and division?

Biden summed up his DNC speech by quoting Irish poet Seamus Heaney: “History says don’t hope on this side of the grave, but then once-in-a-lifetime, the longed-for tidal wave of justice can rise up and hope and history rhyme.” Biden concluded the speech saying:

This is our moment to make hope and history rhyme. With passion and purpose, let us begin — you and I together, one nation, under God — united in our love for America and united in our love for each other. For love is more powerful than hate. Hope is more powerful than fear. Light is more powerful than dark. This is our moment. This is our mission.” May history be able to say that the end of this chapter of American darkness began here, tonight, as love and hope and light join in the battle for the soul of the nation.  And this is a battle we will win, and we will do it together.  I promise you.

Will the United States vote for unity and harmony? I hope so. Or, will Americans vote for darkness, hatred, anger, fear, and division? I pray they don’t. I pray we can heal this nation. I pray we can work to end the racial strife that exists. I pray we can put an end to the homophobia that permeates this country. 

As Albert Einstein said, “Anger dwells only in the bosom of fools.” Thankfully, most Americans are not fools. Currently, the majority, nearly 53 percent, of Americans disapprove of Donald Trump. Dorothy Thompson, the “First Lady of American Journalism,” was expelled from Nazi Germany in 1934 because they considered her offensive for speaking the truth. She said, “Only when we are no longer afraid do we begin to live.” I want to end with another quote by Thompson who described Hitler in the following terms: “He is formless, almost faceless, a man whose countenance is a caricature, a man whose framework seems cartilaginous, without bones. He is inconsequent and voluble, ill poised, and insecure. He is the very prototype of the little man.” If you didn’t know this quote was from 1934 about Adolf Hitler, who does it sound like she is describing? A 2017 ABC News/Washington Post poll asked respondents: “What ONE WORD best describes your impression of Trump? Just the one word that best describes him.” Some of the most common words that respondents gave were incompetent, arrogant, idiot, egotistical, ignorant, racist, asshole, and narcissistic. The words Trump opponents use to describe him now have become much more colorful and graphic in nature, but the same sentiments are still there. We have a court jester instead of a president, and on election day, he needs to hear his own words loud and clear, “You’re Fired!”

In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, there is one brief mention of a group that has always stuck in my head: the Soulless Minions of Orthodoxy. I don’t know why it is, but the term Soulless Minions of Orthodoxy just gets stuck in my head. It’s only mentioned once in all of Star Trek history and usually goes mostly unnoticed. If the group ever “existed” in the Star Trek universe, it is only mentioned once in the episode “In the Cards” by a mad scientist named Doctor Elias Giger. Giger blamed his colleague Dr. Bathkin’s untimely death in a shuttlecraft on the “soulless minions of orthodoxy.” While Giger never explained who the group is, some fans have theorized that the “minions of orthodoxy” are those within the Federation’s scientific establishment who are unwilling to accept any challenge to their perceptions of what represents good science and bad science. 

In a way, we are fighting against our own political Soulless Minions of Orthodoxy composed of conservative politicians and the Republican Party’s religious right. The definition of conservative is, in essence, orthodoxy. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines Orthodoxy as “of, relating to, or constituting any of various conservative religious or political groups.” The first established use of the term conservative in a political context originated in 1818 with François-René de Chateaubriand during the period of Bourbon Restoration that sought to roll back the policies of the French Revolution. Historically associated with right-wing politics, the term has since been used to describe a wide range of views. There is no single set of policies regarded as conservative because the meaning of conservatism depends on what is considered traditional in a given place and time. 

Conservatism in the United States has evolved to advocate American traditions (good or bad), Christian values (mostly those perverted by evangelicals and fundamentalists), pro-business policies, opposition to trade unions, strong national defense, free trade, anti-communism, pro-individualism, and American exceptionalism. In the last few decades, the Republican Party has engaged in battles championed by the religious right over abortion, euthanasia, contraception, pornography, gambling, obscenity, state-sanctioned prayer in public schools, textbook contents (concerning creationism), LGBTQ+ rights, and sexual education. Adding in their aversion to scientific evidence (such as climate change or public health), voting rights, and intelligence, you get the present-day Republican Party. When they chose Donald Trump as their leader, they became a party opposed to the truth and reason. Last week’s Republican National Convention was a tale of a resurgent economy, a deadly virus defeated, and a benevolent and wise President who was a champion of Black Americans, and women, and a guardian of constitutional values. Yet, none of it was true, but Trump supporters will believe it because Trump and Fox News tell them. 

Recently, Tim Alberta, the chief political correspondent for POLITICO, who is described as “the most skilled political reporters of his generation,” wrote about the Republican Party’s meltdown. Alberta wrote that:

Earlier this month, while speaking via Zoom to a promising group of politically inclined high school students, I was met with an abrupt line of inquiry. “I’m sorry, but I still don’t understand,” said one young man, his pitch a blend of curiosity and exasperation. “What do Republicans believe? What does it mean to be a Republican?”

However, there was a problem when Alberta tried to answer the question. He didn’t know what today’s Republicans believe. In recent years, the GOP core beliefs of limited government, free enterprise, moral integrity, fiscal restraint, and global leadership have gone from adaptable to disposable. The lack of vision became even more apparent when last week’s Republican National Convention, which not only nominates a presidential ticket but also writes the party’s platform, chose not to write a platform this year. In good old Trump fashion, the RNC decided to copy and paste the one form 2016. Why was this the case? Simply, it’s because the Republican Party, as we knew it, no longer exists. It has become a cult of personality, wholly centered on Donald Trump. It has become the Party of Trump. The whim of Trump now defines policies and beliefs. Republican leaders in Congress have turned into puppets whose strings are tightly controlled by Trump, who runs the government in a manner more akin to a mafia boss than a president.

Every four years, political parties hold presidential nominating conventions which give occasion to assess the party’s ideas, its principles, and its vision for governing. That is what the party platform is designed to do. Recent iterations of the Republican ideology have been easy to define. Ronald Reagan’s party wanted to end communism and destroy the bureaucratic red tape of big government. George W. Bush’s party aimed to project compassion and fortitude, educating poor Americans, and treating AIDS-stricken Africans, while simultaneously confronting the advance of Islamic terrorism. However flawed the policies, however unsuccessful their execution, a tone was set from the top-down. They stood for something clearly defined, even if the party members did not always practice the platform.

If you consider the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, each is about ideas. Political parties were supposed to be about ideas. It can now be said that Donald Trump’s party is the very definition of a cult of personality. It stands for no particular ideal; it possesses no organizing principle. It represents no detailed vision for governing. Instead, the lack of a platform is now characterized by a lazy, identity-based populism that draws from the lowest common denominator. The Republican Party of Trump is all about firing up his base. It is a political wave of anger. Just look at that crazy speech by Kimberly Guilfoyle last week at the RNC. It has also become a party that shrugs responsibility for its actions or lack of actions. In the words of Trump: “It is what it is” and “I don’t take responsibility at all.”

Kellyanne Conway was recently asked about the link between a 17-year-old charged with homicide after two people were killed and another seriously wounded by gunfire amid a night of rioting in Kenosha, WI, and a Trump rally in Des Moines, IA. Kyle Rittenhouse, the suspect in the shootings, has a social media presence filled with him posing pictures of himself with weapons, posting “Blue Lives Matter,” and supporting Trump. Footage from the Des Moines rally on January 30 shows Rittenhouse feet away from the president, in the front row, to the left of the podium. He posted a TikTok video from the event. The ties to Trump’s rhetoric are clear and even backed up by Trump acolyte Tucker Carlson who said on his show, “How shocked are we that 17-year-olds with rifles decided they had to maintain order when no one else would?” However, when Conway was asked about any link, she stated the White House is “not responsible for the private conduct of people who go to rallies.”

The incident raises the question of the extent to which the inflammatory approach the president has taken towards racial tension and violence has influenced the actions of impressionable individuals at a volatile moment. While at one time even Republicans denounced white nationalist extremists and fringe right-wing militia groups, the president now praises them because they support him. One of Trump’s most dangerous supporters might be the conspiracy theorists of QAnon. The group was once a fringe phenomenon that most people could safely ignore. But in recent months, it has gone mainstream. Twitter, Facebook, and other social networks have been flooded with QAnon-related false information about Covid-19, the Black Lives Matter protests, and the 2020 election. QAnon supporters have also been trying to attach themselves to other activist causes, such as the anti-vaccine and anti-child-trafficking movements, to expand their ranks. These people are frightening to me as they believe a set of internet conspiracy theories that allege, falsely, that the world is run by a cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles who are plotting against Donald Trump while operating a global child sex-trafficking ring. The beliefs only get scarier from there. See the New York Times article on “What is QAnon?” if you want to read some genuinely chilling stuff. During a White House news conference supposedly about the coronavirus, Trump recently said that he had “heard these are people that love our country.” He continued by saying, “So, I don’t know really anything about it other than they do supposedly like me,” which appears to be enough to validate the group’s beliefs in his eyes.

The most significant problem with most Trump supporters is either willful ignorance or a total disregard for the rule of law. Willful ignorance is nothing new and has afflicted humankind for centuries. We all prefer the familiar to the unfamiliar, and many crave conformity. Some of us strive for the differences that make us a diverse nation of E. Pluribus Unum. The problem that the Republican Party is currently facing is that it cannot fix a problem they refuse to acknowledge publicly. The Lincoln Project has been very outspoken and critical of the Trump administration and has vowed to hold accountable those who violate their oaths to the Constitution and put others before Americans. But is The Lincoln Project enough to halt the insanity of the Republican Party led by Trump?

We often surround ourselves with people who think like us and share our ideals and values, so most Trump supporters only watch Fox News and refuse to watch any other news source. They do not want to hear something contrary to what they want to believe and do not want to listen to evidence that challenges what they desire to be true. In this, I am a little hypocritical because I refuse to watch Fox News. I get so angry at the lies and propaganda they espouse, so I also refused to watch the RNC last week. However, I attempt to remain objective and occasionally see commentators on CNN or MSNBC that I think become a little too hyperbolic in their commentaries, but when they report on facts, they are facts not lies and that’s the difference.

Republicans, and Trump supporters, especially, want to protect their sheltered experiences, white bread relationships, and backward ideas, values, and beliefs. They found in Trump an angry man who voiced their fears of change and allowed him to construct a world around them that makes his supporters feel safe and blinded them to valuable information, facts, and behaviors that should alarm any American. People in the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress have stayed silent when they should have spoken out or questioned Trump’s actions for fear of being criticized, rebuked, tweeted about derogatorily by Trump. Some like former chief of staff at Trump’s Department of Homeland Security, Miles Taylor, have spoken out against Trump’s dangers. Still, there are too many who are either too afraid of the president or enjoy the privileges of being in the Trump administration. Trump’s minions have overlooked threats and dangers to justice, health, and national security that should have otherwise been obvious. They have blocked out the uncomfortable realities of the profiteering and lawlessness within the Trump administration to save themselves from the hard evidence that contradicts their beliefs.

There will come a day of reckoning for the Republican Party. I hope that day will be November 3, 2020, when Democrats retake the White House and the Senate while retaining the House of Representatives. Then we can work to reclaim the judiciary. If this happens, there will be another day of reckoning in the future when historians look back on the Trump administration and the Senate under Mitch McConnell. They will be judged, and they will be found lacking. Let’s look at a few statistics that the Republican Party won’t admit are true. The United States makes up 4.25 percent of the world’s population, yet we have 24 percent of the world’s COVID-19 cases and 22 percent of COVID-19 deaths. Yet, to hear Republicans tell it, we are doing the best of any country in the world. It simply isn’t true. Cities are rioting all over the country over racial injustice, and all Trump can do is blame it on Democratic controlled city governments, which is also untrue. Furthermore, in January 2017 when Trump took office, the unemployment rate was 4.7 percent. The latest unemployment rate statistics has it at 10.2 percent. In January 2017, the GDP was $19.49 trillion. Today, the GDP is $19.41 trillion. Yet, we have the best economy according to Trump. Again, it simply isn’t true. 

While the economic numbers are largely due to the pandemic, they clearly show how badly the Trump administration has handled the situation. The Democrat controlled House of Representatives approved a $3 trillion relief package back in May. Senate Republicans and administration officials waited until the end of July to unveil a $1 trillion proposal that went nowhere because the Trump administration refused to negotiate. The administration dramatically stopped negations saying the House Democrats refused to negotiate, when they had already made numerous concessions. This was done all so that Trump could magnanimously sign four executive orders and memorandums that accomplished very little. One would give a tax holiday for workers, but they would be still required to pay those taxes in April. Another allocated FEMA relief funds to pay an extra $300 in unemployment benefits, but only for those who listed their job loss as being caused by the pandemic. A third would set a moratorium on evections, but only on a few mortgages held by the federal government. The last one is probably the only one that will deliver the results. It will continue to pause loan payments and interest on federally held student loans through the end of 2020.

It is my hope that the Republican Party will lose so badly in the 2020 election that they reassess their priorities and disavow Trump for nearly destroying the Party. More likely, the Republicans will double down on their rhetoric and claim, without any evidence, because there won’t be any, that there were massive election fraud and ballot tampering. At that point, their loyal followers, those soulless minions of Trump, will believe them. If that happens, we have to be careful, because just as the Freedom Caucus is worse than the Tea Party, the next Republican leader could be worse than Trump. Political parties seem to try to move to the extreme, not moderation when they need reform. We can only hope that if that happens, enough people will remember the horrors of the Trump years and finally begin to moderate the Party.

The ideology, whether you agreed with it or not, of the Republican Party, has been replaced with Trumpism, a cult of personality, and his followers have become soulless minions of orthodoxy believing that Trump will restore a time before liberals began to make America a better place to live and achieve the American Dream. I’m not sure if that means before 1933 when FDR became president and ushered in the New Deal or some fantasy of American conservatives analogous to the Confederacy and its Lost Cause. Regardless of political party affiliation, Americans need to wake up and realize that another four years of Trump leadership will mean the end of American democracy. Republicans need to wake up and realize that four more years of Donald Trump will be the Republican Party’s demise. Republicans could turn on Donald Trump and reestablish some semblance of the Grand Old Party, but I only see that happening if Trump loses in November. Still, suppose they continue with Donald Trump’s cult of personality. In that case, the party will implode and become Republican in name only and nothing more than a group of Soulless Minions of Trump. While the death of the Republican Party’s hate-filled ideology wouldn’t bother me, the replacement with an ideology based on anger, lies, and hatred is not what America needs. If the Republican Party continues, it needs to moderate and become a party of compassion, not something I believe will happen. 

What might be the hardest for America is when the next generation asks their parents and grandparents why they supported Donald Trump. When that day comes, I suspect there will be a lot of Americans who will rewrite their own history and say they never supported Donald Trump. Some will claim it wasn’t as bad as historians claim. There will be those who will still be Trump enthusiasts and revisionists. Still, I suspect the majority will deny they were ever a party to the destructive administration of Donald Trump.

“[Insert name of Democrat] hates America” is a trope constantly thrown around by Republicans and their pundits. While many Democrats do have concerns about the direction of the United States, I don’t think any of them hate their country. It is likely also that Republicans don’t hate the United States, but they do seem to hate all the “others” that make up American society whether they be Black, Asian, Hispanic, Gay, Women, etc. The Democratic party is one of inclusion; the Republican Party is one of exclusion. Democrats generally have positive ideology; Republicans have consistently negative ideology. The Democratic Party tells you what they stand for while the Republican Party only tells you what they are against. Republicans shroud this ideology in their allegations that Democrats are unpatriotic and hate America.

A prime example is what Tucker Carlson said about Tammy Duckworth during the opening monologue of his July 6, 2020 show: 

“Most people just ignore her. But when Duckworth does speak in public, you’re reminded what a deeply silly and unimpressive person she is.” He then added, “It’s long been considered out of bounds to question a person’s patriotism. It’s a very strong charge, and we try not ever to make it. But in the face of all of this, the conclusion can’t be avoided. These people actually hate America. There’s no longer a question about that.”

Duckworth responded on Twitter that night: “Does @TuckerCarlson want to walk a mile in my legs and then tell me whether or not I love America?” If you don’t know Duckworth’s story, on November 12, 2004, Captain Duckworth was flying a Black Hawk to her base in Iraq, roughly 50 miles north of Baghdad, when a rocket-propelled grenade hit the helicopter, taking down Duckworth and three of her crew members. All survived, but the fiery crash left Duckworth a double amputee and later the recipient of a Purple Heart. Since then, Duckworth has gone on to an impressive career, first serving in the House of Representatives after being elected from her Illinois district in 2012, and then moving up to the U.S. Senate four years later winning the seat once held by Barack Obama.

Carlson’s claim, like much of what he says, that calling a person unpatriotic is “It’s a very strong charge, and we try not ever to make it,” is completely untrue. Trump and his minions use that tired expression all the time. It’s also not new. Republicans have spent the past half-century portraying themselves as more patriotic, more committed to national security than Democrats. Richard Nixon’s victory in 1972, Ronald Reagan’s victory in 1980 and George W. Bush’s victory in 2004 (the only presidential election out of the past seven in which the Republican won the popular vote) all depended in part on posing as the candidate more prepared to confront menacing foreigners. Trump’s ongoing feud with four freshmen Democratic lawmakers, commonly referred to as “the Squad,” is a prime example as he has accused Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (Minn.), Rashida Tlaib (Mich.) and Ayanna Pressley (Mass.) of hating America. “I don’t believe the four Congresswomen are capable of loving our Country. They should apologize to America (and Israel) for the horrible (hateful) things they have said. They are destroying the Democrat Party, but are weak & insecure people who can never destroy our great Nation!” he tweeted.

Republican claims that their opponents hate America seems to have increased over the last four years, and really started gaining steam when Barack Obama became President. Obama faced constant accusations of being too deferential to foreign rulers, of being unpatriotic, and even of not being a real American. Republicans, particularly Trump, even tried to question Kamala Harris’ citizenship. I shouldn’t even have to say this, but the Fourteenth Amendment states, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside” Harris was born in in Oakland, California, clearly making her a natural born citizen. The stupidity of people is truly astounding at times, because we all know some of Trump’s supporters will believe she’s not a citizen because her parents were immigrants.

Republicans love to call their opponents unpatriotic, but now we have a president who really is unpatriotic to the point of betraying American values and interests. We don’t know the full extent of Donald Trump’s malfeasance, though more and more of it is coming out especially with the recent bipartisan Senate report from the Senate Intelligence Committee that provided the most comprehensive and thorough examination to date of how Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election, and how the Trump campaign welcomed the foreign adversary’s help. It revealed new information about contacts between Russian officials and associates of President Donald Trump during and after the campaign. What we have learned about Trump’s treasonous behavior would have had Republicans howling about treason if a Democrat had committed these acts.

The irony is that in the past few years this paranoid fantasy in which a major U.S. political party is de facto allied with an international movement hostile to American values has become true. But the party in question is the Republican Party which under Trump has effectively become part of a cross-national coalition of authoritarian white nationalists. Republicans were never the patriots they pretended to be, but at this point, they’ve pretty much crossed the line into being foreign agents. They tout they are the party of law and order, yet, they allow chaos by those who support them. Asked by a reporter about QAnon, a conspiracy group labeled a potential domestic terrorism threat by the FBI, Trump said this:

“Well, I don’t know much about the movement other than I understand they like me very much, which I appreciate. But I don’t know much about the movement. I have heard that it is gaining in popularity and from what I hear it’s — these are people that — they watch the streets of Portland — when they watch what happened in New York City in just the last six or seven months, but this was starting even four years ago when I came here. Almost four years, can you believe it?

“These are people that don’t like seeing what’s going on in places like Portland, and places like Chicago, and New York and other cities and states. And I’ve heard these are people that love our country and they just don’t like seeing it.”

For Trump, patriotism is only based on whether you like him. If you don’t, then he claims you are unpatriotic. Trump tries to crush any dissention of himself. No matter how evil, nasty, racist, misogynistic, homophobic, etc. someone is, as long as they like and support him, then they must be good people who love their country.  It’s so disgusting, it makes you want to cry.

In Joe Biden’s acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention last week, he said: 

“But while I will be a Democratic candidate, I will be an American president. I will work as hard for those who didn’t support me as I will for those who did. That’s the job of a president. To represent all of us, not just our base or our party. This is not a partisan moment. This must be an American moment.”

Later in the speech he talked about the failures of Trump: 

“Our current President has failed in his most basic duty to the nation. He has failed to protect us; he has failed to protect America. And, my fellow Americans, that is unforgivable. As president, I will make you this promise: I will protect America. I will defend us from every attack. Seen. And unseen. Always. Without exception. Every time.”

Biden is appealing to those who want to save democracy. He is appealing to compassion. He is appealing to intelligence and reason. We cannot allow the failures of Trump to continue to destroy our country for another four years. I don’t think the democratic institutions of our great republic can survive if people re-elect Donald Trump. Trump has consistently attempted to chip away at the very core of our democracy: free and fair elections. He must be defeated! 

Nearly a year ago when Nancy Pelosi announced that the House of Representatives was moving forward with an official impeachment inquiry, she quoted Thomas Paine. Reflecting the historic gravity of the moment, she repeated a line she had used before:

“Getting back to our founders, in the darkest days of the American Revolution, Thomas Paine wrote, ‘The times have found us.’ The times found them to fight for and establish our democracy. The times have found us today.” 

The times have continued to find us and beg us to save the Republic. We need Joe Biden to save/restore the Republic and usher in a new era of compassion, equality, and renewed health. I hope on January 20, 2021, we can quote the opening lines of Paine’s 1783 pamphlet, The American Crisis, “These are times that tried men’s souls, and they are over.”

When I met Brayden this week, he had a familiar anxiety on his face. It was the anxiety of a kid with a stutter, something I struggled to overcome when I was a kid too. Here's what I told him. pic.twitter.com/IIF386n2GU

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) February 7, 2020

I rarely do random posts, but I was checking my Twitter feed and came across this, and I had to share. Brayden Harrington’s speech at the DNC Convention on Thursday night was a very emotional moment, and this is a video of the moment that Joe Biden first met this kid. I don’t care what you may think of Biden, but this is a major contrast to anything I have ever seen from a President, especially the one currently in the White House. The time and compassion Biden took is astounding. The fact that Biden regularly gives kids who stutter his personal phone number is one of the most beautiful things I know. I have a post I’ve written for next week that discusses my own speech impediment, and because of having a similar issue, this really resonated with me on a deeper level. Tears streamed down my eyes as I watched Brayden’s speech, and again tears rolled down my eyes when I saw this video.

I can’t say enough how badly we need compassion and empathy in the White House. It is so important that we elect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris on November 3, 2020.

Truly there is no depths to how low Trump will go. Every time we think he can’t stoop lower; he proves us wrong. The saddest and most disturbing part of all of it is that his followers don’t seem to mind. In just the last few days, he has seemingly gone over the deep end. After months of screaming without any proof that mail-in voting would lead to voter fraud and that it will take months or years to get the results of the election if ballots are mailed in, the Postmaster General he appointed is purposely trying to slow down the mail and to top off the whole idiocy of his voter fraud claims, Trump stated in his usual incoherent speech that:

“Florida’s got a great Republican governor. And it had a great Republican governor. Two great governors. And over a long period of time they’ve been able to get the absentee ballots done extremely professionally. They’re so well run. Florida’s a very well-run state. Low taxes, low everything. They’ve done a great job. Really a great job.”

Trump not only votes in Florida now, but does so by absentee ballot. It’s hard to believe that even Trump could utter the phrase, “Florida’s a very well-run state.” DeSantis’s handling of the pandemic might just be worse than Trump’s. And let us not forget the fiasco of the 2000 presidential election, which Florida has done little to reform their failings from then. Then, the very same day he praised the incompetent State of Florida, he followed through on his threats to sue Nevada over its plan to conduct the November election almost entirely by mail-in ballot.

In this episode of “Axios on HBO,” President Trump discussed in a disastrous interview for his campaign his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, the upcoming election and much more with National Political Correspondent Jonathan Swan. The interview was filmed on Tuesday, July 28 and aired Monday, August 3 on HBO. While the interview highlighted Trump’s incompetence in handling or even understanding the coronavirus pandemic, the full list of his false claims during the interview are staggering. Swan grilled Trump on his laughably inaccurate claim that the virus is “under control,” which he has been making for more than six months. In the interview, Trump said, “Right now, I think it’s under control. I’ll tell you what –“

Swan responded with, “How? 1,000 Americans are dying a day.”

Trump’s answer was that “They are dying. That’s true. And you have — it is what it is. But that doesn’t mean we aren’t doing everything we can. It’s under control as much as you can control it.” And there you have it, Trump’s total lack of empathy for the American people and his inability to be any kind of effective leader. All he can say is, “It is what it is.” It was one of many eyebrow-raising statements made by the president in the sit-down chat. The Biden campaign released a 27-second advertisement showing Trump making the statement, then cuts to a montage of images of medical professionals in protective equipment and people mourning those killed by COVID-19. The Biden campaign and The Lincoln Project have produced some pretty efficient ads, and they don’t have to rely on lies and misinformation.

These instances just continue to show his incompetence, stupidity, and lack of ability to tell the truth or have any morals. But now Trump is really trying to reach bottom in a new campaign advertisement. Trump, the darling of evangelicals despite his decidedly ungodly behavior, has put out a new campaign ad that mocks former Vice President Joe Biden for praying. Biden is shown with his head down wearing a mask and clasping his hands. “Deep in the heart of Delaware Joe Biden sits in his basement, alone, hiding, diminished,” the ad begins. Five seconds into the ad, a photo of Biden sitting on the floor by himself is shown with the line, but the Iowa newspaper The Gazette has come forward to say that the photo was taken by their reporter and had been dramatically manipulated. In the original photo, Biden is surrounded by reporters and supporters in the home of Coralville, Iowa Mayor John Lundell. Approximately three dozen people were in the room, according to the newspaper. Biden had sat on the floor after giving up his seat so someone else could sit there.

The ad ends by saying that Biden “Has no answers” and “He never will.” The end of the ad shows the last statement superimposed over a picture of Biden praying inside the historic Black Bethel AME church in Delaware. The image is meant to make Biden look like a defeated old man, when he is simply a man who is praying. Biden’s Director of Rapid Response said in an emailed statement, “Donald Trump is the only president in our history to tear gas peaceful Americans and kick a priest out of their church so he could profane it for a photo op….Which makes it unsurprising – but no less sickening – that the Trump campaign just denigrated Joe Biden for praying.”

While prominent religious leaders and activists, including anti-LGBTQ hate group, have made excuses for Trump several times over, will they stomach Trump mocking a devout Catholic man for praying in a church? If any of you are familiar with most Protestant denominations, especially those in the South and whose members are the core of Trump’s devotees, you know that these bigots don’t consider Catholics Christians. I can’t count the number of times I have heard Protestants make the claim that Catholics are not Christian. Many of my students—middle school, high school, and college—were surprised to know that the Catholic Church was the main form of western Christianity until the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century. So, don’t expect there to be much outrage in the South over Trump ridiculing Biden for praying. They don’t believe his is a Christian, so how can he pray? What they fail to realize or even want to know is that Biden is a regular churchgoer, while Trump has rarely ever stepped into a church.