Anybody got a plan?
I have been giving the current presidential “administration” way too little credit. For whilst it seems the tweeter-in-chief is a rudderless airbag with no moral compass, it occurred to me this past weekend while trimming my nails … by the way, trimming nails is not for the faint of heart, it requires a vise and a strong enough hacksaw to handle those 16-penny jobs. Really, why anyone invented nail trimming is beyond me.
But I digress.
See how I got it out of the way early this week? You’re welcome.
In any case, it occurred to me that no one could possibly be this boorish, this arrogant, this self-centered, this tone deaf, this clueless, this the crush this the baby sitter … sorry I got sidetracked by Alicia Silverstone movies … this divisive by accident. So I resolved do look closer and glean what I could about this current catastrophe. I mean administration.
When one not only bullies disabled reports but also delusional tyrants; when one tacitly implies that hey, Nazis have feelings too; when one taints the justice system by implying he will use a presidential pardon on a rogue sheriff; when one starts his campaign for re-election before he finished his oath of office; when one, in the span of nine excruciating months, alienates the vast majority of the world, I can’t believe that’s just happenstance. No, my friend, there is a larger plan at work here. But just what might that plan be? Not to be confused with a Plan B, of which, obviously, the boaster-in-chief has none.
I do have a question though. When do we stop treating him like crazy Uncle Ernie who shows up at Thanksgiving with a tin foil hat, blabbers about conspiracy theories and regales the family with fabricated stories of inventing everything from Velcro to Velveeta?
When someone in your family shows a basic disregard for human beings, you probably have a talk with that person and try to discover why he or she is so contrary.
When someone in your family pouts, whines, lies and blames everyone but himself for his own disruptive actions, you probably give him time out, take away his media privileges and ask him to apologize to his kindergarten teacher.
What do you do when that someone sits in the most powerful office on earth? And what do you do when that someone describes that office on earth as a dump? Listen, I have about 80 million friends who would be glad to come over and help him move out. Gratis, no pizza needed.
Isn’t this really playing out like The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial? All President Queeg needs is some steel balls to roll in his tiny hands. Insert your own steel balls joke here.
The hope is that out of these ashes rises a true leader, a decent man or woman who will stand strong and stand up to bullies, to those who would assail our rights and freedoms; a leader whose motto is not “The bucks start here.” One who refuses to reduce the world and its citizens to black and white baskets of winners and losers. I want someone who sees the gray, who knows how to say yes, who reaches out with an open hand, to grasp not to slap verbally from the cowardly confines of a Twitter account. One who truly wants to serves us, not the other way around.
Gotta start small though. The 2018 mid-term elections will be the first chance to start tearing down the tyranny that is building in our capitol, but it has to be with a positive, real plan. One not based on “block everything the president wants to do,” that was the Republicans anti-Obama mission and we the people are better than that.
We must look ahead and support candidates in the next election who have a plan, have a vision, are committed to justice for all and doing the right thing no matter what. That is the way to defeat hatred and a man whose fragile success is based on fear mongering.
Reach out to friends across the country who may live in absurdly gerrymandered districts where the incumbent do–nothings are vulnerable. Let’s start parsing our slate of possible leaders to take back the White House in 2020 and make it the house of the people again.
Is it Warren? Booker? Harris? Jed Bartlett? I don’t know, but I do know that there is a leadership vacuum in DC, and we know what nature thinks about that.
