As Trump lies, democracy dies

 

 

“The most outrageous lies that can be invented will find believers if a man only tells them with all his might” - Mark Twain

Trump’s farcical display televised on July 16th, spewed previously debunked claims regarding his Big Lie and his current willingness to cancel the results of the 2026 elections that his Party’s majority will likely lose.  Knowing that he’ll face legal scrutiny for all of his violations of laws and enriching himself at tax payer expense, he wants to offset results that could lead to a third impeachment.   

His narrative that night pulled a page out of the McCarthy era where Movement conservatives championed by Barry Goldwater in the 1950’s and 1960’s called all Democrats Communists, with a capital “C”, to identify it with the Chinese communist threat at that time, as Heather Cox Richardson notes in her book, “DEMOCRACY AWAKENING: Notes on the State of America”.  

The “red scare”, as it was referred to, energized Conservatives to replace the fact-based liberalism of FDR, Truman and JFK, with Christian spirituality and free market capitalism: concepts that empowered wealthy businesses to form government policy they benefitted from. This plays in well with Trump’s support of the billionaire class.

It’s troublesome too that Trump has recently scheduled Kash Patel as FBI Director to visit Moscow a week before the mid-terms this year, for unfathomable reasons that suggests the pro-Putin Trump administration may conspire with the Kremlin to once again, intervene in our elections to favor a GOP victory

Trump has already attempted to silence the fourth estate through purchases of large entertainment venues that own media stations that call out his corruption.  His second administration has replaced the previous guard rails in his first presidency with mostly unqualified people in another attempt to overthrow our constitutional republic.    Todd Blanche vying for the Attorney-General seat and Jay Clayton for the Director of National intelligence are positioned to circumvent elections outcomes in congressional districts that don’t favor the GOP

His Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, has been firing and demoting generals who aren’t willing to sign on to Trump’s grand delusions of Republican/MAGA power for a hundred years.  Hegseth would be a willing dupe to establish a formidable  paramilitary group to carry out assignments that would follow an autocratic ruling, imprisoning political dissenters without due process of the law.  And as an apparent fan of Rambo-style movies, Hegseth wants to build a more muscular, manly military that could be indoctrinated to carry out Trump’s strong-man rule.

If Republicans leaders fail to oppose illegal attempts to harass voters and cancel votes that favor the Democratic candidates, we could be faced with a fascist autocracy that would rival his autocratic heroes around the world.

Our political representatives need to hear from us loudly and often to have any chance of stopping this mad man’s fantasy.  If you’re not already, please get registered and vote this November.

Are we edging towards a theocracy

 

                                                                                

"the inquisitor who mistakes his own cruelty and lust of power and fear for the voice of Heaven will torment us infinitely because he torments us with the approval of his own conscience and his better impulses appear to him as temptations." - C.S. Lewis

 

Are evangelical churches in Texas failing to adequately indoctrinate the children of the state where they have to rely of legislation that allows them to push their religious views into our public school systems? It has been my experience that faith is best served up to those willing to consensually assimilate religious scripture into their hearts and minds rather than making their case in the form of restrictive codes, such as the Ten Commandments

The Texas state school board has opened its public school classrooms for a curriculum, that consists of “teachings by Jesus, stories such as the parable of the prodigal son, readings from the Psalms, and a unit on the Golden Rule.”  Though not mandated for all public schools, those often strapped for funds will likely jump on this wagon that offers up to a $60 incentive per pupil in the program.

A religious non-profit recently paid for and distributed some 1200 posters of the 10 commandments to Denton ISD.  Texas Senate Bill 10 “requires public schools to accept privately donated posters of the Ten Commandments …  and to display them in each classroom that does not already have one”.   The commandments are all about forbidding specific behaviors, intended to mold each generation in how not to behave, assuming proper behavior was a given.  

But we know that not all Christians practice what they preach and thus pass such misgivings on to their own children.  This becomes even more egregious if such people are cultural and political leaders, for they have domain over the narratives that are spread throughout our private and public institutions.  

Jesus the Nazarene, upon which the Christian faith is based, expressed his desire for his followers to follow the law of the Prophets in Matthew 5:17,  but throughout that parable, that is more popularly known as the sermon on the mount, he also wanted them to go beyond the negative expressions of Mosaic laws, putting love and compassion in the forefront.

However, once the institution of the Church began cherry-picking  scripture that served their political agendas, the example they set no longer encouraged exclusively the exuberance Jesus presented to the crowd that gathered on that Mount.  Religious leaders demanded obedience to rigid rules like the Ten Commandments that were used as a cudgel to keep followers in line.

This appeals to those who search for solace in familial terms as Frank Rich laid out following the horrors of 9/11.    It follows Plato’s parent-child analogy in his Crito. “In this formulation, the state is to the subject as the parent is to the child: as the child must obey the parent, so must the subject obey” (5)

This then is the appeal of Trump to evangelicals.  But they failed to see where this egomaniac would lead them.  He demands loyalty above all else as do the Christian nationalists and works to punish those who oppose him.  He’s become a comical creature they are now forced to stay aligned with, lest they look weak to those whom they have drawn into this dysfunctional family.

Imposing their religious views into our schools sets the stage for a fundamentalist drive to convert our democracy into a theocracy where cruel punishments not unlike those the Church imposed in middle ages, which in turn led to the notorious Inquisition  It’s hard to image our historical culture would fall for this, but where information for some relies more on feelings than facts, societies easily acquiesce for fear of public shame and ostracizing. 

When is enough enough?

 

If you still have any reservations as to the Trump administration’s corruption and incompetence, one only needs to look at the current bevy of Trump appointees who are guilty of some if not all of the Seven Social Sins.  

There was dog killer Kristi Noem’s extravagant and illegal expenses, squandered by her and her improper companion, Corey Lewandowski.  She was followed by Greg Bovino, Trump’s  inhumane ICE “commander-at-large”.  Then came the dismissal of Pam Bondi, with her apparent attempts to protect Trump from the remaining Epstein files and her virulent testimony before Congressional oversight committees, displaying some of the most unprofessional behavior ever as an unelected official.

And now there’s Trump’s Labor Secretary, Lori Chavez DeRemer, who can’t control her husband’s sexual proclivities toward her female staff, and who herself had “an affair with a subordinate and drinking alcohol on the job” along with four others in her Department.

Next on the cutting block should be the FBI’s feckless Director for his excessive drinking and unexplained absences.  In an Atlantic story on the boozing Kash Patel, we learn that he would often “drink to the point of obvious intoxication” needing at times to be awakened out of his drunken stupors to attended scheduled meetings.

Many more have replaced qualified people with mostly unqualified wealthy corporate interests, selected by the Project 2025 contributors.  Actions that have eliminated many of the guard rails in place during Trump’s first administration to stop this petulant sociopath.