I tried to enjoy the fireworks last Wednesday night, but in many ways it didn’t feel like an Independence Day celebration; it felt like I was visiting a dying friend. The awful memories of the debate linger. One of the candidates seemed like an old man in cognitive decline, the other, a bombastic, lying, egotistical, selfish blowhard with a history of racism, misogyny, and profane language and behavior.
It is utterly amazing that one person can tell more lies in 90 minutes than most people do in their lifetimes. One political party has forgotten its patriotic duty; the vast majority of its elected officials and other leaders are toadies and lapdogs, slavishly following their flawed leader in a nauseating fashion scarily reminiscent of Germany in the 1930s. The members of that party who speak their conscience are isolated and ostracized.
The other party is paralyzed and divided between a hard left that is hopelessly out of touch with the beliefs of the vast majority of Americans and a far-too-small center. Only a minority of the country does not see the U.S.
Supreme Court as hopelessly biased, and, by all appearances, two justices have been bought and paid for by right-wing billionaires. Calling the legislative branch dysfunctional feels like an understatement, and the behavior of some of its members is a national and international embarrassment. Our leaders need to do better; if not, we will no longer be a “city upon a hill” but a society destined for decline.
Donald Tr.