Will Donald Trump Ever Go Away?

The Fight For Democracy And Against Authoritarianism Continues

Will Donald Trump ever go away?

He promised that we would never hear from him again if he lost to Joe Biden in 2020.

He lied.

I don’t know about you, but I’m sick and tired of it. I’m tired of waking up every morning and wondering about the next episode in this reality show from hell.

How will he grift today? What crazy statement will he release today? What is he going to rant about at the next rally? Will he or won’t he run? Will he be indicted? Will he be arrested?

“The battle we fight now is between democracy and authoritarianism.”

I’m tired of his presence in our everyday life. I’m tired of him being the lead story in the media. I’m tired of his rants on TRUTH social being reposted on Twitter. I’m tired of the bloviating rants at his rallies. I’m tired of the lawsuits, the grift, the arguments and bomb throwing.

I’m tired of losing relationships with family members and long time friendships (my daughter, my son-in-law, my best friend, who was like an older brother to me) because of deep disagreements about Trump.

I’m tired of a former president who boasts about “love letters” from a despotic dictator (North Korea’s Kim Jung Un) and praises a Chinese dictator because he rules with an “iron fist.”

I’m tired of a former president who lives in an alternative universe where he believes that his rejection by the voters in 2020 was the result of some deep seated conspiracy that created massive election fraud. I’m tired of hearing about Venezuela, Chinese bamboo ballots, “2000 Mules,” stuffed ballot boxes, fake electors, and all of the other detritus concerning a stolen election that eats away at his brain and his ego.

I’m tired of a former president and his political sycophants in what now passes as the “Republican Party” (read Tim Alberta’s American Carnage: On The Front Lines Of The Republican Civil War And The Rise Of President Trump and Tim Miller’s Why We Did It: A Travelogue From The Republican Road To Hell to understand how we got to this point) who follow his example and use victimhood, grievance, “whataboutism,” redirection, anger, and yes, hate to manipulate voters in order to attain and hold personal political power just for the sake of having that power (read Tom Nichols’ Our Own Worst Enemy to better understand the underlying currents that have enabled this to happen).

I’m tired of politicians like Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Josh Hawley, Eric Schmitt, Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lindsay Graham, and all of the other “Trump Wannabes” in their little blue suits, white shirts, and red ties who populate national, state, and local government and do his bidding and defend his thoughts, words, and actions. They are such cowards.

I’m tired of Steve Bannon, Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham, Judge Jeannine, Ben Shapiro, Joe Rogan, and the “Pillow Guy.”

I’m tired of Rudy Guliani, Roger Stone, Steve Bannon, and all of the other creeps who populate the dark spaces of MAGA world.

I’m tired of the MAGAheads themselves, many of them middle class and living the “American Dream”, bitching and moaning about how bad their lives are compared to others, about their loss of “personal freedom” and “way of life” and how “oppressed” they are, all from the comfort of their $750,000 tract houses, with their six figure dual incomes, $75,000 pick-up trucks, and vacations to Europe.

I’m sick and tired of the former president, his clown show, and what he and his followers have done to our country. I’m tired of all of the sycophants, grifters, hangers on, media shills, and all of those who are so afraid of him that they sell their souls to stay in his good graces, living in fear that they will lose the support of the MAGAhead voters who dictate the outcome of Republican primaries and threaten their personal political power.

Whether one agrees with him or not, the fact that the current president felt compelled to give a major speech addressing the threat to democracy posed by the former president and his followers should be a warning sign that we are, to quote “Iceman” in the final dogfight sequence in the the movie Top Gun, “in deep shit.”

As I am fond of saying, “The enemy is at the top of the hill and we are running out of bullets. What are we going to do?’

We are in a fight for our democratic way of life. The battle is no longer about Republicans and Democrats. For a number of reasons, that train has left the station.

The battle we fight now is between democracy and authoritarianism.

“I don’t know about you, but I’m sick and tired of it. I’m tired of waking up every morning and wondering about the next episode in this reality show from hell.”

During my time in the Army, I saw authoritarianism, and its end product, totalitarianism, up close and personal. I saw what government is capable of in order to control people and keep power. I saw people risk everything, and I mean everything, to live in freedom.

If we continue down the path that we are currently on, this is not going to end well.

When I entered the Army in 1974, I took an oath to “protect and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” I can’t speak for anyone else who took that oath, but I consider the oath to be a lifelong obligation, a perpetual oath that I will work to uphold for as long as I have breath in me.

For me, that means continuing the fight against everything that threatens our democracy, our republican form of government, and our constitution. In 1974, my weapons were the M-16, the M-60, grenades, and if need be, the bayonet. During that time, I was so sharply trained and highly motivated that I would have done whatever it took to accomplish the mission.

Today, my weapons are my voice, my keyboard, and my vote. Make no mistake, my level of motivation hasn’t diminished. I will do whatever it takes to defeat the authoritarians who want to turn us into the “American” version of Victor Orban’s Hungary, or worse, Putin’s Russia.

I’m not buying what they are selling.

How about you? The enemy, authoritarianism, is at the top of the hill. We are running out of bullets.

I’ve made my choice.

What are you going to do?