Dear Fellow American Patriots—
Much that has needing to be said has been given voice on many diaries today. This act of public high treason shocks on many levels mainly because it was so overt. This has not been DJT’s only illegitimate act— everything this man has done since his stolen election should be called into question from his VEEP to his executive secretary.
I mean that when he is impeached, indicted, arrested and/or removed from office, we should not have to accept VP Pence as the new POTUS because he was also chosen by the traitor in chief and elected under false pretense.
Yes, we are in a Constitutional crisis. I agree it is one our Founders could never have anticipated. In the best of my scenarios, Congress should impeach and convict DJT as a first step. This will take a total tsunami of public outcry which has begun today and into the night. As a second step, they should also act to remove the succession by removing the whole Administration as accomplices to the traitor in chief. Third, they should also pass Legislation appointing a Democratic Senator like Corey Booker, Elizabeth Warren or other newer generation Senators to fill out the remaining two years of DJT’s term.
The remaining steps would be to call for a completely new Congressional election in which none of the current incumbents can run for re-election. The new Administration should set a domestic agenda focused on a restoration of rights and equality, responding to needs across the nation ranging from a new clean and renewable energy system to establishing local schools with the support we would give new sports stadia, or new aircraft carrier or nuclear submarine.
We need to turn our massive economic engine toward rebuilding our infrastructure--everything from highways, trains, the power generation system focused on clean renewable energy and the power grid, self-driving autonomous vehicles, mass transit, better railroads, more secure internet, secure ports and what to do about the systems being replaced.
We need tuition assistance free to everyone including college, skill trades, tech schools as well as career re-training. This is a public investment and for those who are already struggling to repay student loans, these should be forgiven. This is more than paid for in the same way we pay for the gold plated education we provide from our military academies—with a commitment to a term of service. National service is something that will provide the opportunity for rising young people to get not just skilled work experience, but personal growth by exposure to the ideals of service and values The discipline learned in service—that quality of sticking to a job and doing so in a group that follows a leadership structure— is a something teachers, coaches, employers, and grandparents will tell us is missing in our society.
I am not advocating everyone serve in the uniformed services, although I’ve known and admired many in the Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force. I’ve not known many Coasties, but I admire them because often they are the first responders to seaborn tragedies. There are also the National Health Service, the Peace Corps, and others we could put in service. At one point, we had the Civilian Conservation Corps along with the Works Progress Administration. Those could be updated and provide people who could be tasked with preventing forest fires by doing the work necessary to clear the understory of forests and work in and around communities to clear fire hazards.
The WPA could be Public Works Administration which could be assigned to communities around the nation to help municipal public works agencies to take care of public assets like parks, irrigation canals, and storm drain systems. FEMA needs workers as does the Army Corps of Engineers to work on flood prevention.
Tech-oriented teens could be trained to provide support to teachers in the classrooms as well as school support people. There are many in the AARP generation who could benefit from classes in how to make the tech products work well for them—a sort of national Geek Squad if you will (apologies to Best Buy). This group would be a good source of cyber warriors who would work to protect our electronic communications systems and internet from hackers.
Older workers with professional training could be part of a corps of people to act as life coaches for young people who need help with all sorts of life skills. Whether that be in how to peacefully interact with peers and elders like parents and teacher or whether it is how to rebuild their lives from being drug dependent or when re-entering society from jail or prison.
Providing for national service for all would be a source of personal as well as national pride. It gives a sense of belonging to something bigger than self. It more than repays the investment in the education we would provide. All of these suggestions are among the many ways we could benefit ourselves as a nation and ourselves as citizens.
We need to focus on needs rather than how to profit from government functions like schools, prisons, transportation systems or other functions that the wealthy want to privatize claiming the private sector and do it more efficiently. The main reason to privatize schools, for example, is to get private hands on the public funds that purchase things like textbooks, on which we have spent $1.2 billion in recent years.
We need a return to the understanding of how to exercise our massive soft power, as well as to work on fair trade agreements rather than trade wars. Trade builds mutual interest and counters the move toward actual wars. The world will always have its trouble spots, but failing to work toward making better what we can make better points to us as a people unconcerned with the well-bearing of others.
We need to recognize our weaknesses so we can build our strengths for the future to improve the general welfare and extend the American dream to more people in successive generations.
I once attended a church where I heard a doctrine of belief from the older generations that went something like “me and my wife, our son and his wife—us four and no more.” I was appalled to hear that from people I thought of as otherwise good and generous people. Not that I am a great Reagan fan, but I did like his reference to the U.S. as that shining city on a hill. We have to remember that our faith, no matter the religion, calls us out to serve others according their needs and our abilities to help.
The United States is a nation built by immigrants. We sometimes forget that the pilgrims who came here to establish their own freedom would have starved to death were it not for the original Americans who came to their aid in showing them the survival skills they needed. Later, that generosity was forgotten and bad treatment followed. We are still paying for the legacy of involuntary immigration that gave us the Civil War. Various others who came as did the Chinese to help build railroads, the Irish, Germans, Jews, Italians, Poles, and others have often suffered discrimination. I know in my own family that the Korean War changed an uncle’s opinion toward Black Americans because a Black GI pulled his wounded white butt back to American lines.
The second half of the 20th century had seen great strides of progress in many areas. After WWII, we gained international respect when we (even if out of enlightened self-interest) helped rebuild war-ravaged Europe and Japan. Our efforts to support freedom around the world turned former enemies into allies and friends. We have to continue building on that legacy rather than allow the current administration to destroy it and the alliances we have created around the world.
That needs to be the agenda of the new President and Vice-President we install in place of the current train wreck of a clown show we have now. Yes, it will be seen as a coup. But better that than allowing our government being sold lock stock and barrel to the demon of the Kremlin and his minions.