I’m watching the most recent debacle, i.e., the Charleston Democratic debate. There are, at any one time, three people talking at the same time, which means that I cannot understand a thing any of them are saying. They are supposed to be running against Donald Trump, who is a serious, dire threat to American democracy, to our very way of life. Yet these guys are spending their time chewing each other up. I have yet to hear even the name of Trump. Trump has worked to make a chump out of every man and woman he talked into supporting him. But he is the chump, and these guys should be chewing on Trump the Chump.
My real fear is that I can’t see one guy on this stage who can actually beat Trump. I see some maybes. Maybe Bloomberg, but he would have a lot of explaining to do. Maybe Mayor Pete, but he’d have to talk a conservative country into voting in a gay president. And, of course, maybe Joe, but his problem is that he is, well, Joe. Maybe Klobuchar, but she is dragging far behind. And through it all, I wonder why it is so bloody hard to find one attractive moderate human being who can just stand up there and say, “Good on all of you for running. I am too, and the one and only thing I am concerned with is throwing out this self-absorbed, tyrannical sexual predator.”
This country is in danger of losing its soul, in two ways. First, Trump has done everything he can to violate the separation of the three branches of government. Second, we Americans are being pitted against each other. I am what might be called a classic liberal. I want higher taxes for the wealthy. I want affordable education for all. I want affordable medical care for all. At the very same time, however, I respect and admire every American who advocates more conservative views but who really wants the same things I do — to give my family a good life and to make sure my children have at least as good a world as I have had.
Trump and his handlers try to make us hate each other. We can’t afford that. I am scared, really scared, that he will succeed, and, if he does, he will take democracy down.
I pray he fails.
We The Center 