America For Sale
Used nation with ‘under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all’ option pending. Great fixer-upper, absentee owner. Good location, close to schools, shopping, worship, ammo and lots of guns. Free Press, 1 Yr. free cable TV. Will take best offer.
Or, maybe we should hang on to our sacred heritage, our credo, for future generations of Americans yet to be born, and those yearning to be free beyond the other side of hope. Maybe there is some value here, both marketable and sentimental. You’d never know it, however, considering the current events.
Observing the wimpy political shenanigans surrounding the president and his White House of Crazy this past week, and for the past year, and, honestly, for the past many years with a perpetually gridlocked congress, big money lobbyist influence and one ridiculous scandal after another, one ridiculous non-decision after another, and by one wannabe television star patriot after another, one can only step back and wonder just where this is all going. Maybe it is time to sell. America seems up for grabs anyway these days, and it even appears that our president is literally trying to sell us to the Russians.
Just when you were thinking that things couldn’t go more off the rails in our nation’s capitol, the “anonymous” op-ed that was recently sent to the New York Times by some “high-ranking government official” is the latest new adventure in White House crazy. It tops everything so far, but we shouldn’t be surprised, it's how they roll in Washington. Cowardly. My first reaction was, wow! ...holy cow! This thing is coming apart at the seams now. Skirting the larger implications of this farce, the media and White House focus is on who? ...who wrote it, and sent it? The media is making guesses, the White House is livid, and has narrowed it down now from 27 people to 12 people. The bird nest coiffured senator Rand Paul, brilliantly, called for a lie detector test of all White House staff. Ya, that should work.
My second thought on this omnific op-ed was, wow! ...what a cowardly act. If this anonymous person felt so strongly about his or her beliefs they should have considered putting their name on it and either suffered or reveled in the consequences.
Then, after reviewing the situation further, my third thought was, holy cow! ...was this just a PR stunt by the White House to deflect from the multi-sordid issues consuming the president? Brilliant! It was a risk, but there’s not too many more places left for the president to hide. The risk taken would be that the anonymous op-ed author would take the heat and focus, eventually (never) be identified, and scorned by all to be the coward and traitor she or he is. The backfire would be, well, it would further demonize Trump and finish him off once and for all toward a successful, air-tight, impeachment. Like in boxing, it would be the stunning quick jab complemented by the Mueller investigation strong right to the chin. Down he goes.
So, while we’re all focused on crazy Trump World, and now the anonymous moving toward infamous New York Times op-ed, and all caught up in these highly entertaining moments of spectacular reality programming, who’s got our back? Who’s running the country? Where do they find time to do America’s business? It seems this is a very very vulnerable time for the USA. It’s not a friendly world out there. We should be concerned about Russia, China. North Korea. Iran. Trump has laid the groundwork for the worst international ally relations in U.S. history. He’s isolated us, both in trade and in military support. It’s how you kill something. You first isolate it.
In the midst of this current White House upheaval, the news gets even worse. Vice President Mike Pence and Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, are next in line to take over the presidency should (when) Trump be removed from office. If I had to choose from the three, I’d pick Trump over either of these two ineffective dilettantes. At least with Trump you get a movie and free popcorn.
America could either reboot, by booting out most of these “high ranking government officials”, lobbyists, special interest money handlers and anyone who doesn’t pass the smell test, and start over again with a renewed sense of urgency, decency, conscience and civility. Or maybe it is time to sell this democracy to someone who would appreciate it, taking that chance, which would be a shame because I think there is a lot of life left in this old girl for us.
So how do we do all this housecleaning? Who’s going to do it? Certainly not the “high ranking government officials” who we’ve been waiting for to do it. How does it get done? Don’t wait for heros, they are few and far between these days. And don’t try to be a hollywood hero, we have enough of those. Be a hero. Run for office. Cast an informed vote. Protect your neighborhood. Respect your neighbor. Can you do that?
Sell out or clean house and renovate, America ...before someone does it for you.
John Kushma is a communication consultant and lives in Logan, Utah.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-george-kushma-379a5762
http://newsbout.com/a/John+Kushma
