My takeaway from the opening of the Congressional Impeachment hearings this morning was that we do not need an average John in the Oval Office. For years and years, primarily men, have slapped themselves on their backs sitting on a diner stool, in front of water coolers at work, and in line for football tickets saying to anyone who would listen, “ we need a guy, like me, a guy we can have a beer with as President.” If that means a foul-mouthed guy, who cannot keep his hands off women’s genitals, who see avarice, greed, lying and selfish-preservation as an attribute, we have that, and it is not working.
If your idea of success is a suspension of moral decency, locking up, and in some cases permanently separating children from their parents, or selling out your country’s process of democracy for personal gain, then Hoorah, Hoorah. That is the result of having a guy, you would like to have a beer with, in charge. As much as we hate to admit it to ourselves, most of us and our friends are not equipped intellectually or morally to be President of the United States.
I am so tired of this straw man argument of elitist and Ivy Leaguers ruining the world. In my lifetime John Kennedy was an elitist and he saved the world from nuclear disaster negotiating the Cuban Missile Crisis. Barack Obama saved the world’s economy with his stewardship avoiding the biggest financial crisis the world, vis-à-vis America, has seen since the Great Depression, and he is an Ivy Leaguer. A slick real estate grifter from New York who believes he served his country by avoiding a venereal disease is what the knucklehead on the barstool next to you at Archie’s Place says over a Heineken.
This is not to say that elite schools and money are not a problem in the wrong hands and minds. Richard Nixon graduated from law school at one of the most prestigious schools in the American south, Duke University, both Bush[es] were Yalies. So, this convenient everyman argument only when it comes to Republicans is specious and dangerous. It discounts education, it discounts science, it discounts historical precedent and it discounts competence. I hope most of America is riveted to their TV sets today, it does not take an Ivy League education or gobs of money to figure out that the President is an extortionist. The guys who order a craft beer or the guy with a Budweiser can agree that give me what I want, or your people will die is an easy concept to understand.
If you do take the time to listen to or follow the testimony of today’s witnesses, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State George Kent or Top U.S. Diplomat to Ukraine, Ambassador Bill Taylor, you will hear that Democrats asked about the security of the United States and Republicans asked about the security of Donald Trump. The Republicans are performing tricks, balancing democracy on their noses like a big rubber ball embossed with stars, for their ringmaster. This activity is treacherous and counters all the Constitutional safeguards devised as a means of checks and balances. If Republicans take a moment and read their oath to the United States government and ignore their oath to Trump, justice would be served.
Vote in 2020 for Change.