Opinion: Believe Trump when he says he will turn US government into his vendetta machine
A daily dose of national news consumption can be a wildly depressing diet. Being regaled with the latest Donald Trump rant or details of his never-ending legal woes, accompanied by the chicken little warnings of Joe Biden’s debilitating age infirmities, can send the bravest of us running to the closest cave out of any telecommunications range. But we must remember the American Democratic Experiment is not a sprint. It is a marathon that has weathered catastrophic storms in the past. Civil War, world wars, economic depressions, Vietnam War/Civil Rights tumult of the 1960s, Watergate, the assassinations and attempted assassinations of far too many presidents have all offered opportunities for our system of government, based on the consent of the governed, to crumble. Yet, it has survived.
The consistent element in our success is a combination of resilient institutions and a willingness to have those institutions mature as the country has evolved. The praise heaped on our Founding Fathers for the creation of such a unique form of government in the 18th century is well-deserved. What is even more admirable is their vision to realize that anything they created in 1787 would most certainly not be suitable in perpetuity.
Even as the U.S. Constitution was being debated and ratified, the shape, expanse and demographic makeup of the country was changing, thus exerting pressures on the Constitutional framers to prepare for future adaptations to changing national circumstances. The 27 amendments enacted since 1787 are a testament to the system's flexibility. The institutions Congress established to operate our government across a continental expanse matter. They are the fiber of our system of government that prevents any one person from blowing it all up. They have persevered in their service to this country for 237 years. In the current maelstrom of news and presidential campaigns, we must keep the faith that they will continue to serve us well.
Speaking of campaigns, if the daily news tells us anything, it is that our current times are no time to be complacent. Institutions require diligent men and women to protect them. As the saying goes, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing.”
I take Trump at his word when he states he will turn the institutions of the U.S. government into his personal vendetta machine. I believe him when he solicits bribes from oil men to fund his campaign in exchange for even more egregious tax cuts and expanded oil and gas exploration access into protected lands. I believe him when he says he wants to violate U.S. law and Constitutional protections against the use of the U.S. regular armed forces for domestic law enforcement activities. Perhaps most dangerous, I believe him when he continues to lie about the 2020 elections, continues to feed ill-informed, gullible citizens promises he did not keep in his first administration and has no intention of keeping in his second, and idolizes the most glaring examples of men hell bent on using power for their own benefit at the expense of their countries.
There is a clear choice in the 2024 elections. MAGA-dominated Republicans will further bankrupt the country to give more generous tax cuts to their wealthy patrons, more deeply institutionalize government’s control over the female half of this country’s population, continue to marginalize minority voting rights to ensure their dwindling demographic slice of the American electorate can manufacture victories, further demolish the sacred wall between church and state, and place the health and welfare of our government’s institutions in the hands of leaders who care not one whit about anything but themselves. Democrats offer a continuation of the job growth, wage increasing, infrastructure building agenda that actually has the potential to improve the lives of average Americans.
Our institutions have preserved our great country for nearly 250 years. They can continue to do so if good people step forward and do something. Sitting idly by hoping someone else will step up to the plate is not the solution. The retribution agenda Trump espouses is not simply list of policy differences with Democrats. It is a roadmap for fundamentally changing the very character of our country and the institutions that have delivered us to this point in history. It is time to stand up and be counted.
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Brad Gutierrez, Ph.D., is a retired U.S. Air Force combat pilot, professor of political science, military diplomat, and senior public policy civil servant. He is currently a woodworker and nonfiction writer based in Marshall.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Opinion: Trump would dismantle US Constitution for personal vendettas
