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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsI guess I've been quiet long enough. My opinion piece
In 2003 I had a successful architectural practice in Southern Oregon. When it became obvious to me that we were about to blunder into a senseless war, I wrote a letter to the editor of our local paper opposing the war. That letter, that ended my guilty silence, was printed as an op-ed and reprinted in papers with larger audiences, including two in Italy. As I expected, it cost me some clients and caused strife with friends and family who did not agree with me.
Speaking out publicly was not my way of dealing with things. In college I was adamantly opposed to my fellow students protesting the Vietnam War. It was not until I served in Vietnam as a Naval Flight Officer that I realized that my government did not deserve my unquestioning allegiance.
Reading letters in this paper demanding fealty to the most corrupt and incompetent president in my seventy-five years has triggered my need to speak up again after a long silence. I have no clients to lose. The people I care about agree with me. I am in the process of becoming a citizen of the Republic of Ireland. I can be brutally honest and I will be.
Donald Trump was never prepared for any public service and he never expected to actually be a public servant. His candidacy was another of his many cons, intended to resurrect his failing brand. A climate of hateful ignorance and the aid of a brutal dictator wanting to sow chaos in our democracy swept him into the unexpected position of the worlds most powerful human being.
He had no idea how to form a government, much less how to run a constitutional democracy. He assembled a cabinet of obscenely wealthy misfits, each ideally suited to and morally inclined to sabotage the mission of the agencies they led. The few who might have been capable of effective, principled leadership were soon weeded out. They were surreptitiously fired or resigned in disgust.
His first year in office was punctuated by criminal indictments, convictions and guilty pleas. The 215 criminal indictments so far in this presidency eclipse the meager 76 of the Nixon era and the zero of the Obama administration. These staggering numbers alone should cause any rational conservative to question Trumps suitability for any position of public trust.
Like many disbelieving Americans, I was confident that Trump would be content to just play the president on TV. Surely he would let experience and expertise carry the load while he basked in the glory of his improbable presidency. Barring an unforeseen calamity, America could survive four years of Trump.
To my immediate horror, Trump began to actually take the helm of the ship of state. He could not refrain from inserting his grotesque ego into matters of great national and international consequence. He shattered alliances, trashed solemn treaties and waged war on the people he chose to demonize. His brutal treatment of immigrants and asylum seekers made it clear that malevolence and incompetence would work hand in hand in his administration.
We now know that the business acumen that sold him to just enough voters to win the electoral vote was as phony as his hair and his sprayed-on orange patina. It wasnt a million dollar loan from his father that gave him his start. It was a 400 million dollar inheritance, much of it stolen from his own family and hidden from the tax collectors. Bankrupting casinos was not a big enough red flag to voters aggrieved by eight years of success by a popular black president.
Books will be written for years about Americas foolish experiment with a reality TV president. Historians will paint a more comprehensive picture of the treachery that led to his impeachment and likely more grievous offenses for which he should have been impeached and convicted. Nothing will stand out as prominently as his willful failure to protect the American people from a predictable, actually predicted, pandemic. His vanity and his need to maintain the legal immunity he enjoys as president caused him to ignore the onrushing plague and to thwart the best efforts of our public health professionals. The number of souls lost to his abuse of office will probably exceed a quarter of a million by Election Day.
I still have faith in America and trust it will undo its disastrous mistake of 2016. If that faith proves unwarranted and Trump stays in power, I will be claiming my sainted grandmothers Irish birthright. My wife and I will be resettling in Ireland, a land more attuned to my notion of democracy. We will be leaving behind family and friends. I trust they will not think we are abandoning them. They will understand that we have no desire to live or die in Donald Trumps America.
Faux pas
(14,690 posts)pwb
(11,287 posts)We need you.
ProfessorGAC
(65,159 posts)CaliforniaPeggy
(149,683 posts)Superbly thought out as well as written, this nails tRump to the unforgiving walls.
I too trust that we will undo this disastrous mistake. My husband and I have no option but to stay, no matter what transpires.
You are so very fortunate to have a welcoming home to spend your last years. I hope you won't have to exercise that right, but it's much better to be prepared.
And please continue to share your thoughts with us. We need your clear-eyed view.
Phoenix61
(17,018 posts)Alliepoo
(2,225 posts)Squeezing myself into some of that luggage and going to live in Ireland with them!! I looked into obtaining Irish citizenship but my grandfather was two times removed from eligibility. Darn it all.
Lonestarblue
(10,053 posts)My Irish ancestors have been here since the 1700s, so too far removed. If Trump is reelected, perhaps I can plead for mercy from some European country.
calimary
(81,441 posts)Unfortunately.
I'd love to relocate. Unless, of course, Our Biden/Harris team carries the day.
I find myself grateful that we're staying healthy, mainly because we're staying home! This is Day 173 of our self-quarantine.
morillon
(1,185 posts)alwaysinasnit
(5,071 posts)Martin Eden
(12,875 posts)You have a way with words which speak the truth.
mountain grammy
(26,644 posts)I am trying to have that faith..
Alliepoo
(2,225 posts)An absolutely wonderful piece of writing.
seta1950
(933 posts)But let me say , in defense of Americans, he could not have been where he is and do what he is doing, if not for the republicans and their tolerance for the sake of power and the help of our enemies.
634-5789
(4,175 posts)Hekate
(90,779 posts)God knows were thinking about an escape hatch, but were about your age
Moostache
(9,897 posts)I too feel no desire to remain in Donald Trump's American Dystopia.
The 'values' of such a place are an affront to human dignity and the equivalent of putting false mustache on the Mona Lisa.
I miss the America of ideals and high-minded goals.
I miss the country that explored space, cured diseases, eradicated dictators...this one that eschews science, lauds opinions and actually celebrates stupidity is not a place I care to finish out my years left.
dixiechiken1
(2,113 posts)I am always so very proud to be a Democrat, but never more so than when I read posts such as yours. It is exactly this type of intelligent, well-reasoned nobility that is missing from the Republican party of today.
Thank you for your post.
PatrickforO
(14,586 posts)that you and your wife don't HAVE to leave here because Trump is reelected.
God forbid that should happen.
From a fellow Irishman whose paternal great-great grandparents originated in County Roscommon and immigrated here in the late 1840s.
CaptainTruth
(6,600 posts)LuckyLib
(6,819 posts)(and certainly not Melania) ever expected him to "win".
"Donald Trump was never prepared for any public service and he never expected to actually be a public servant. His candidacy was another of his many cons, intended to resurrect his failing brand."
Should be repeated often by the Democratic campaign.
cp
(6,652 posts)Clear and well written. Thank you for writing this.
world wide wally
(21,754 posts)BigmanPigman
(51,626 posts)stage left
(2,965 posts)Very well said!
backtoblue
(11,345 posts)spooky3
(34,468 posts)Karadeniz
(22,564 posts)cilla4progress
(24,760 posts)I've read to date.
I hope your faith is right. If not, I'm certain you and Ireland will get along just great! And goddess speed...
Thank you, FI.
Printing it out. Have a lot of people I would like to send this to. Half wouldn't even read, much less acknowedge, its truths. The other half already sees it the exact same.
3catwoman3
(24,032 posts)...disastrous Trump administration.
My Irish heritage is too far back to be an escape hatch. I wish!
grantcart
(53,061 posts)For hundreds of years plays will be written, many comedies will use verbatim scripts from Trump and use helicopter background sounds to stimulate the farce we are witnessing.
In the year 2326 there will be the revival of the Mel Brooks-esque "Springtime for Donald" which is based on a a clever scheme to make billions by losing a Presidential election only to win the election and end up in prison. It becomes the ultimate cult classic with millions memorizing every line and flicking to see it in Polish, Swahili and Vietnamese because it just sounds funnier in those languages. Actors have had to learn to stay frozen at certain lines like "I grab them by the pussy", "it will just go away" and put UV in the body" because audiences roar with laughter drowning out dialogue every time.
In the first 100 years after his death 47 different rock operas perform 12,456 times on Trump themes.
If he wins again my wife and I will be returning to Thailand and like many friends will never return.
Fortunately that won't happen.
trof
(54,256 posts)Thanks for this.
warmfeet
(3,321 posts)Excellent writing, excellent message!
raccoon
(31,119 posts)llashram
(6,265 posts)go in peace
live love laugh
(13,124 posts)Is this factual?
I thought The supreme court definitively stated he is not immune from prosecution.
Other than that, for all of our sakes, I hope that you do not have to activate your Irish citizenship.
I_UndergroundPanther
(12,480 posts)I'd take my transgendered black,poor disabled freinds with me because if trump isn't dumped I think we will have targets on our heads.
eppur_se_muova
(36,281 posts)niyad
(113,533 posts)C Moon
(12,221 posts)They are breaking laws every week.
Our US mail is being dismantled, and nobody can stop this.
Judges are voiding 10's of thousands of ballots.
The GOP is using our White House as a backdrop for their convention.
Barr created an army that is arresting the pressnow unhindered.
Police in important states are siding with white supremacists.
Trump has plans to meet with Putin in November.
This election is set up to be stolen.
And I believe things will get 10x as bad when we hit October.
pansypoo53219
(20,993 posts)PCIntern
(25,576 posts)Thank you.
hkp11
(275 posts)wonderfully penned! Praying for faith in America to do the right thing and keep this menace from another 4 yrs
Raster
(20,998 posts)Kitchari
(2,168 posts)Every word is truth
UpInArms
(51,284 posts)FailureToCommunicate
(14,020 posts)Nitram
(22,861 posts)MyMission
(1,850 posts)And to the point.
Have you submitted it to local or national papers, or just here.
FightingIrish
(2,716 posts)in response to a letter they printed claiming Trump was decent and Biden wasnt. DU has always been my forum of choice.