With the announcement that Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy was retiring, the politics in this country could potentially go from bad to worse. With a court that is heavily skewed to the right and a dishonest crook as president, those of us who believe in majority rule, civil rights and separation of church and state are genuinely worried.
My take is that President Donald Trump has done an amazing job of cobbling together the dishonest (Scott Pruitt, Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn), the poorly informed (all the good people who believe coal jobs are coming back), those with low self-esteem (women who vote the way their husbands/fathers tell them to vote), the genuinely confused (religious folks who haven’t the faintest idea what Jesus really said in the Bible) and the power hungry who are smart enough to know better, but value fame and fortune over the good of the country (Fox News, Sean Hannity, Paul Ryan).
It’s a sick and cynical strategy, but it worked.
Never before in U.S. history have we been in a place where democracy is genuinely threatened by a leader with no regard for what the majority wants, no integrity and a blatant disregard for the rule of law and the ideals on which the country was founded. All you have to do is witness the unending attacks on Robert Mueller — a decorated war hero and registered Republican — to understand that this is an all-out propaganda assault on our justice system and the rule of law by a crooked president and a bunch of spineless Republicans scared to stand up to a bully.
Expecting a good debate and sound reasoning to change some of the true believers’ minds is unrealistic. Listening to Sean Hannity and hoping that at some point he might stop promoting wacky conspiracy theories to the dim-witted Fox News viewer is no different than thinking you can change the minds of those who believe the earth is only 3,000 years old or that blowing up infidels will get you 72 virgins in heaven. It ain’t gonna happen!
So what’s the solution? It’s simple. Republicans have lost the popular vote in six of the last seven presidential elections. In other words, there are still more smart people than dumb ones in the U.S. Trump won the presidency by 77,000 votes and an archaic system called the “electoral college.” Despite what he says, he won by a razor-thin margin, luck, Russian interference and a system that does not reflect true democracy.
If you care about democracy, the rule of law, civil rights, gay rights, legal marijuana, global warming, science-based decisions and having honest politicians, you cannot afford to be passive right now. If you want to live in a country that is not ruled by the wealthy, the crooked and the religious nuts, the time to act is now.
Support politicians who are running on honesty, integrity and real change — not Trump change, which is nothing more than replacing corrupt politicians with even more corrupt cronies and business allies.
All year I’ve been donating money to Democrats and to those who support women’s causes, the environment and legal cannabis. I plan on giving more to the fall races, and I urge everyone who believes in the rule of law and majority rule to give like never before.
Think beyond legal marijuana and consider what we’re really talking about right now. It’s that important!
Greg James
Publisher