It is disappointing that we have strayed so far from the core principles of our country. One cannot blame one party, one branch of government, or one politician. “The fault lies in our stars.”
The Founding Fathers, cognizant that a well-educated and civically engaged citizenry committed to their role as the guardians of the rights enumerated in The Constitution, cautioned us against the dangers lurking in abeyance in a democratic-republic. Our Founding Fathers were erudites who studied the failed democratic-republics of Greek antiquity and The United Provinces. Their words traveled the great expanse of time to admonish us of the of the propensity for democratic-republics to fail, especially when folks who expect the protection of the Bill of Rights fail to understand the inherent responsibilities indissoluble from those rights.
Ben Franklin warned that “those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” Yet we have consistently chosen security over freedom.
John Adams was aware that if American citizens reneged on their duty to assiduously pursue truth and knowledge that our national prognostication was grim. Adams knew education to be so important to our democratic-republic that in writing the Massachusetts Constitution, he enshrined public education as a right guaranteed to all of The Commonwealth’s citizens. In 2017, Massachusetts remained the best school system in the country. It is not a statistical anomaly that Massachusetts also has the lowest abortion rates, and the lowest divorce rates.
Many Conservatives will not vote for progressive candidates because of their pro-life stance. Most progressives believe that abortion is a necessary evil, but progressives are sensible enough to understand that conservative laws that make abortion essentially illegal in states like Texas, have not only failed utterly, but have driven abortion underground, putting the mother’s life at risk. Conservative policies have failed in reducing abortion.
The most progressive state in the Union found a way to greatly reduce abortion rates. The only successful policy at reducing abortion rates is a strong public school system that does not ignore the biology of their students. Progressives sometimes want the same thing as conservatives–accept our progressive policies actually work.
Thomas Jefferson said, “education and democracy are interdependent.” He went on to say, “Education being necessary to its [democracy’s] success, a successful democracy must provide it.”
When millions of Americans are deceived by the country’s biggest con-artist to vote for him because he will make “America great again”; when people of color and people who pray differently are scapegoated by the Trump Campaign as the cause of all the Trump voter’s problems; when a candidate of inherited wealth who has refused to pay workers in the past is able to swindle the deluded working class to vote for him; there is a problem with the education system in this country.
In the Federalist Papers, John Hamilton, apprehensive about the American Experiment, wrote:
In Republics, persons elevated from the mass of the community by the suffrages [votes] of their fellow-citizens, to stations of great preeminence and power, may find compensation for betraying their trust…Hence it is, that history furnishes us with so many mortifying examples of the prevalency of foreign corruption in republican governments.
Hamilton’s prescient words have become a harsh reality.
We have a president who, in the middle of a nationally televised debate, asked our greatest adversary, Russia, to commit acts of espionage against the United States. He did not hesitate to seek foreign influence to promote his self-interest. And self-interest will always be Trump’s great motivator. He has not served his fellow man a day in his life.
Once again, the blame for this disaster falls on this country’s sovereign power: The People.
His campaign should have imploded after he asked a foreign enemy to get involved in our electoral processs. And The Trump Campaign’s collusion with Putin and Russian Intelligence is even more egregious than we realized. Much of his inner-circle served Putin’s interests. Some like Paul Manafort committed treason against our country by aiding Russia in its occupation of our ally, Ukraine.
Trump’s Secretary of State has had many business dealings with Putin, and he received the Order of Friendship Award from Putin.
Donald Trump’s own son attempted to discredit the Clinton Campaign by meeting with a Russian lawyer who claimed to have damaging information about Clinton. This lawyer is connected with the Russian Government.
Trump avails Putin’s interests, and sews conflict amongst our steadfast NATO allies who contributed to the downfall of The Soviet Empire. Yet with the election of Trump, Putin has successfully divided the West between The US and Europe. He has divided his enemy and weakened us.
The world and progressives worldwide resent us right now. A president commits an acts of treachery, yet the streets are empty of Americans who are either apathetic or victims of weapons of mass distraction.
I understand the desire to “shape shift” into an Ostrich and bury your head in the sand for the next few years. I still feel like I am in a surreal state when I see President Trump on CNN.
Are we going to allow the incompetence, treachery, and greed become acceptable behavior for The President? History will judge us as the generation that stood idly by during the American decline. Or they will judge us as the collective voice of revolution–a voice that says that it is morally reprehensible to have an incompetent, malignant narcissist in the Oval Office? Will your voice join the chorus of voices that say our democratic-republic needs to be protected, if not by Congress, if not by the state legislatures, if not by the SJC, then by the people, which is where the sovereign power of this country lies.
Our Founders believed that when liberty and national security are threatened, that we have the right to rebel. Alexander Hamilton wrote in the Federalist Papers:
Projects of usurpation cannot be masked under pretenses so likely to escape the penetration of select bodies of men, as of the people at large. The Legislatures will have better means of information; they can discover the danger at a distance; and possessing all the organs of civil power, and the confidence of the people, they can at once adopt a regular plan of opposition, in which they can combine all the resources of the community. They can readily communicate with each other in the different states; and unite their common forces, for the protection of their common liberty.
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