The Wake Up Call We Needed — Now What?

Fast times in DC.

Who could have guessed one person could do so much damage in so little time? Boy did we get blindsided.

But who is to blame?

The ugly answer is you, me, and the rest of the sheep basking in the sun, being spoon fed from the easy café.

In a year and a half we have watched our checks and balances reveal themselves as profoundly unbalanced. We have watched the courts become so partisan that the blind lady of justice simply threw away her scales. We have watched corruption we never considered possible — insider trading making the obscenely rich richer, our heritage torn down and rewritten to honor a grifter, due process replaced by the rule of whoever wears the crown.

None of it was subtle. It was thrown in our faces. We were sneered at, belittled, and abused. And told it was for our own good.

For once I agree.

It has been for our own good. Not the abuse — the exposure. We needed a wake up call. Not a gentle alarm. A slap across the face.

Are you awake yet?

Do you see what has happened, what is happening, and what will happen if we don’t put a stop to it?

But wait. Before we stop it something else must be decided. How do we make sure this never happens again?

And so far the answer from most quarters seems to be — put the Democrats in power.

That’s a rather simplistic view.

Consider this honestly. What would you do with absolute power? Power corrupts. Absolute power means the same old fleecing — just someone else holding the shears. Do you really believe the Democrats are immune to that power rush? Would you be?

Oh, but they’re the Democrats. Right.

I don’t trust them any more than I trust the Republicans. And I say that having watched both parties for six decades.

This didn’t start with Trump. For decades — through conservative and liberal administrations alike — the machinery of power has been slowly redirected toward the people operating it rather than the people it was built to serve. Term limits have never passed because nobody in power wants to give up power. Legislation shifts like sand from side to side depending on who holds the majority. Congress spends more time and money on Congress than it does on the rest of us. We exist to justify them and to pay them.

Trump accelerated what was already in motion. He didn’t build the road. He just drove it off the cliff faster than anyone expected.

So here is my advice. Take it or leave it. But remember — you will have to live with the results. I am old. The changes we make or fail to make won’t affect me nearly as much as they will affect my children and their children. That’s why I’m still paying attention.

Elect moderates. I don’t care if they carry a D or an R. Get away from the extremes. Flush MAGA down the toilet. Dump the wokes in a landfill. Look for people who want a functional government — leaders who understand that America is a member of the world community, not its boss. We are powerful enough to guarantee mutual destruction. Why are we too weak to simply get along?

The power will be taken from Trump. That’s a given. The question is who ends up with it.

And what they do with it.

That question is what the rest of this series is about.