Can America Survive Until November?
With an election just six months away—one that will undoubtedly change the trajectory of the country one way or another—we have cause to wonder if the country can make it that long.
By David Todd McCarty | Thursday, May 14, 2020
The President of the United States today called for his predecessor, as well as his current political opponent, to be investigated and jailed, in what can only be described as a flagrant abuse of office, an unprecedented divergence from the peaceful transfer of power that democracy promises, and a complete disregard for the rule of law.
Donald J. Trump has always seen the office of the Presidency as a seat of power from which to consolidate personal power and from which to vanquish his enemies, either real or imagined. The President is either increasingly desperate, deranged and unhinged, finally recognizing that the end is near and lashing out, or depending on your point of view, is acting as he always has, the only difference being he has less people attempting to restrict his more depraved and maladroit inclinations.
He continues to dismantle government institutions by appointing lobbyists either dedicated to bringing down the department they’ve been charged with leading, or so inept and unqualified that they allow the institution itself to collapse from neglect.
He is trying to destroy any number of institutions he views negatively for any number of delusional or personal reasons, including but not limited to, the entire US Intelligence community, the Justice Department, the departments of Health, Education, Interior, Labor, State and Energy, the CDC, the EPA and now the United States Postal Service.
His Republican enablers have been busy installing Conservative Federal Judges that they can count on to make policy for the foreseeable future, long after they’ve been voted out of office. Our world standing has been diminished to the point of being a side show. The slow-motion collapse of a once mighty nation. They have cut regulations encouraging lobbyists to write corporate friendly laws, and allowed entire industries to pollute the environment without regard or concern.
All this has been given up for a trifle of short-term wealth for a select few, and in order to indulge the fragile ego of one small man.
The question that remains is, can we wait him out?
It’s incredible we’ve lasted this long, to be honest, unless of course you count the 150,000 Americans that will likely die and the 40 million that will be out of work before this is over. It clearly didn’t work out so well for them.
The last century has seen a cycle of Republican administrations cutting taxes, tanking the economy and driving up the deficit, only to be followed by a Democratic administration that rebuilds the economy and drives down the deficit. It has been an insane cycle of predictability. But it was fixable.
But this time, we are not merely facing an economic downturn or the aftermath of another ill-advised and disastrous war, but the very real possibility of a massive economic depression and global pandemic caused or exacerbated by an incompetent fool too ignorant and narcissistic to lead a country in a position of power almost unthinkable even for someone exceptionally qualified. The long-term fall out of this Presidency will be generational in nature, and may take decades to recover from, if that’s even possible.
For now, we have to begin to worry how many of us will live to see the end of this walking disaster. Will we be shot dead in the streets by one of his red-hat wearing white nationalists? Will we die of a virus due to lack of concern by the government because we live in the wrong state? Will we see our votes cast aside, or our phones tapped, or our mail shelved?
Can we make it until November? If we do, will Americans finally understand that their futures are held in the balance of whether or not they take a moment to decide which button they choose on the voting machine, which box to check on that ballot they set aside and forgot about, or whether or not they bother to mail it in. This is a life and death decision, and there is a reasonable fear that people will treat it with no more seriousness than they do with what they will watch on Netflix tonight.
Can we make it until November? We hope so. We certainly hope so.
Follow David Todd McCarty on Twitter @davidtmccarty and The Standard @capemaystandard
