Dear GOP,
Every day brings another outrageous development that threatens our very existence, yet you are all but silent. You acquiesce to a president that is dangerously unstable, irrational, and impulsive. You collectively stand together, putting party before country. I want to know, when will you have had enough? When will this epic, downward spiral towards the pit of hellfire and despair be close enough to all of us, for you to act? Because I think we are about as close as I want to get. If you can’t feel the flames, there is something seriously wrong with you.
My parents survived the Great Depression. I lived through the cold war. I remember the drills in school, the “Early Warning System” that would allow us time to prepare. I had relatives with a bomb shelter in their back yard. In the 50 or so years that have passed since those days, I’m now mature enough to realize that none of those things would have saved us. The only thing that will save us today, is if our elected officials take steps to prevent catastrophic events from occurring in the first place. I’ve seen no evidence that you have any inclination to do that.
John Bolton, just announced to be the president’s National Security Adviser, wanted a war with Cuba, arguing wrongly that Cuba had WMD. He wanted war with Iraq, arguing, again wrongly, that Iraq had WMD. He believes, wrong a third time, that Islamic law is taking over America. And this guy who is always wrong on national security, is going to be the NSA for a clueless president? Bolton, like Trump, is reckless and impulsive, has a nasty temper and is prone to believe conspiracy theories with no basis in fact. The two of them together are like gun powder and matches. Why is there not an outcry from the party, over this dangerous move? My only hope is that he is another one that will not be able to get a full security clearance. This time, why not insist that he get his clearance first, before he is appointed?
Our deficit is growing exponentially, and there is talk of another tax cut for the wealthiest among us. At some point I fully expect to hear the House Speaker announce the poorest among us will have to suffer even more, to support those tax cuts. Corporations used the first tax cut to buy back their own stocks. None of the windfall is trickling down to any of us. This is a lie, started during the Reagan years, and it’s still a lie today. I want to know exactly what you are planning to do about the deficit?
Tariffs on steel were a failure under George W. Bush. There were 200,000 job losses from Bush's steel tariffs, according to a study by the Trade Partnership, a consulting firm that was paid to do the research by the industries that use steel and were hurt the most by the tariff. Bush’s economists wrote to Trump and advised him not to impose steel tariffs and warned that they would hurt the economy. Other advisors have done the same. Yet here we are in a trade war with China that no one will win. Prices will most certainly rise, jobs will be lost, again. It seems the GOP motto is “if it didn’t work the first time, let’s give it another go!” In fact, what Bush did in 2002 was much less severe than what we are seeing now. Trump’s trade policies are going to destroy our economy. People are going to suffer. It is your job to do what is best for America, and if your base of supporters doesn’t understand it, you need to explain it to them. Instead, you do the wrong thing because you don’t want to upset your base of ignorant voters? It’s madness. What are you doing to stop this madness and stabilize the market? All those stock buy-backs aren’t going to trickle anywhere if the stocks are worthless, so there goes that GOP talking point. But the rich aren’t the only ones that will be hurt if this continues. Many of us rely on retirement accounts to live, and even small losses are a concern. I wonder what is Trump’s end game? Is he trying to destroy the economy on purpose? Do you know? Does anyone?
I don’t care what FOX news says, Russia did in fact influence our election and has probably been infiltrating our social media for years. It now appears that with the help of Cambridge Analytica, they were able to fine tune their attacks. Russia can hack into our grid and shut down our power plants at will. At one point, a C-Span feed was interrupted and began instead, to broadcast Russian television. The private information of millions of Americans was stolen. Voting rolls were hacked. Both the DNC and RNC headquarters were hacked as well as government agencies like the State Department and the Pentagon. Electronic voting machines were also hacked, votes were flipped, and tallies changed. I have written to my representatives about my concerns, and received feedback from just one Senator, Tammy Baldwin, D-WI. Why is this not a bigger concern of the GOP? Instead of working to ensure fair and honest elections, many of you are fighting in court to uphold illegal gerrymandered district lines, enacting laws that make it harder to vote, and looking for ways to screw up the next U.S. Census. Do you believe in free and fair elections or don’t you? You don’t seem to care about the will of the people anymore, so your lack of concern over the midterm elections is disturbing and highly suspicious. Will there even be mid-term elections?
Trump and his family are all benefiting from the office of the presidency. The man is a prime target for blackmail on so many levels it makes my head spin. Porn stars, hookers, under-age girls, money laundering, shady business deals, massive debt. None of these things are “theories”, or “hoaxes” or “fake news”. You know it, I know it, Robert Mueller knows it. Our nation’s security and that of our allies, is in extreme danger from this man and you stand by and do nothing. If this were Obama, or Clinton, or any other Democrat, what steps would you have taken? What are you doing to protect Robert Mueller and his investigation? If your answer is “nothing”, why is that? Why is it that you do not want to get to the bottom of Russian election interference? What are you hiding?
Do you hate America, or just its citizens? Puerto Rico is still suffering, and people are dying. Our Public Lands are being sold to the highest bidder. (Won’t it be great to see oil rigs in Zion National Park?) Flint, MI hasn’t had safe drinking water for four years. (We are the self-proclaimed “greatest country on earth” and entire cities don’t have safe drinking water?) You continue to undermine the Affordable Care Act, threaten to cut Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security, fight against an affordable living wage, while exploding the deficit so you can cut taxes for your rich donors. I call bullshit.
Our country is no longer admired. You are not making America great, you are destroying it. The whole world is watching. Many are terrified that the US will be responsible for a nuclear war. Are you taking any steps to prevent that? If not, I want you and all your relatives of military age to be the first to volunteer for active duty, before you send another person to fight and die. I have many more questions. So many. Too many. I fear your lack of any response to these concerns will tell me everything I need to know.
Ayn Rand was dead wrong. Unfettered self-interest is not good for a society. As proof, just look at the abysmal mess that is the GOP.