Editor, Times-Union:
I know there should be no “crying in baseball” but should there be “do-overs” in politics? Donald Trump and his genuflecting followers are hoping so. They almost got it right last time, but, rats! Too many of his “best people” got caught. They have since learned from their mistakes, are writing a new playbook, and are gathering their experienced enforcers of evil. They are hoping their voters have short memories and will place these new “Avengers” once again into positions of control.
Their future tasks loom large: lots of undoing ahead. That darn Joe Biden and his do-gooders managed to actually listen to the people and by created more than 40,000 new infrastructure projects! (Can’t use that as a campaign issue) Joe and the Dems have also added more jobs than anyone in decades, helped to increase wages, set up plans to keep lowering the cost of living, lowered drug prices and inflation rates, and brought loads of manufacturing back to the U.S. (Scratch those issues from the campaign.) Joe also rebuilt our relationships with overseas allies, so the MAGAs are going to have to concentrate on weakening those alliances again and strengthening ties with dictators/mentors again. Putin, Jinping, Un, and other “strong” leaders are already salivating.
Fact: Trump and his suck-ups are proudly verbalizing their intentions. Believe them. Trump is pledging — not for the betterment of Americans, but for the betterment of himself — revenge against all his detractors (real and imagined) and that he will consider using the Justice Department to prosecute his enemies. In fact, a group of conservative think tanks under the auspices of what they benignly call Project 2025, has been drawing up plans for how Trump could do this. “Pledging to be a “dictator on day one,” he envisions himself “as a force unrestrained by rules or laws …. able to do anything, as long as 35 senators do not convict.” –Mother Jones, January 11, 2024 (Perhaps we voters should pay a lot more attention to down ballot candidates too, don’tcha think?)
Fact: “Trump has repeatedly threatened to go after the broadcast licenses of media companies that he considers antagonistic to him …”
Fact: Trump plans to gain ironclad control over the federal bureaucracy by replacing thousands of federal civil servants with only devoted supporters. (Imagine the fear, the snitching, the “tattling.”)
Fact: Trump has hinted at his desire to suspend the Constitution and to use the Insurrection Act “to turn the military into a domestic police force at his command.”
Fact: Trump intends to pursue the goals of “more tax cuts for the well-off, removing health care insurance from tens of millions, ending climate change action, bombing Mexican cartels, restoring a Muslim travel ban, deporting millions” and imprisoning thousands.
This time Trump already has a team in place, and they really are the “best” - the best bootlicking, ring-kissing power seekers. This time it ought to work beautifully as long as they all do his bidding — and obey!
Jeanne Schutz
Winona Lake, via email