Barrett Rainey's Second Thoughts

Much – way too much – media time and ink has been wasted on Trump – the worst-ever candidate for president of these United States. The ever-preening, contributing-nothing, obnoxiously-irrelevant, tasteless Kardashian’s filled our continual thirst for national B.S. for several years. Now, the scourge of Donald has replaced them – aptly described by all those adjectives and more: habitual liar, guaranteed loser, wastrel, phony and dangerous.

The embarrassment that is our national media makes sure we know where he is from minute to breathless minute, what’s he’s currently lying about, who he’s currently condemning and how little he knows about the ins and outs of government. His affluent effluence is everywhere 24/7.

But, what’s generally been ignored is what happens in our country after November 8th – the day you and I are supposed to decide who wins and who loses. Will the sunlight of the next morning see the Trumpster retire to his coffin atop Trump Tower? Will Mrs. Clinton quietly begin forming her new governing cabinet? Will the general population – us again – go back to our humdrum lives, knowing the national election is now a burden of history?

The answer is “NO!” If anything, we’ll likely find our political lives more twisted, more rancorous, more divided and angry than the day before. The 50 gallon drum of worms Trump has opened will continue to pour out more rancor, division and anger as he settles in for the long haul.

He’s already promised as much in his oft-repeated lie that the election will be “rigged” – that the “system” is against him and those who cling to him. Trump is not going away. He’ll continue filling the empty heads of millions of his “loyal followers” with lies, challenges to lawful authority, noxious legal actions and just plain crap as long as he has breath and dollars.

The discord, the gridlock, the irresponsible misuse of power by the majority party in Congress, the political abandonment of all but the upper 10% or so of society and the relentless drivel of the far right will continue to jam the wheels of government. For his part, Trump has all but guaranteed it..

If this dour prediction comes to pass, there’s only one thing you and I can do to ameliorate the situation. We’ve got to assure the new occupant of the White House gets a Congress of the same party. At least the Senate. Without that, Trump – and the miscreant Republican far right – can hold the country hostage to whatever machinations he – and they – can dream up.

The national Republican Party has been all but destroyed by Trump, those who’d follow him to the Gates of Hell and the billionaires wagging the tail of what’s left of the GOP elephant. Should he continue his disruptions after the election, the national GOP won’t have enough clout or bucks to do anything about it.

Serious-thinking, forward-looking Republicans, disenfranchised by their own party and Trump, must form some sort of “big tent” cohesiveness to create a new party – a party relevant to today’s economic, civic and ethnic situations. We badly need a fully functioning two-party system grounded in today’s conditions to deal with today’s issues. We need a Congress with more moderate members willing to put self-interest aside and work for the common good. Neither party has all the answers. But, both parties may.

The new political reality is that Trump is not going away. He’s poured verbal gasoline on a large collection of unhappy Americans, mad at a government that doesn’t work the way they think it should, yet ignorant of the civic and economic realities of governing. Illegitimate voices daily stoke their wrong-headed anger with misinformation, distortions of reality and outright lies. Near treasonous voices that blow the disaffected this way and that as they spew their verbal garbage.

We may not be a two-party country at the moment. We may be more a nation of two amorphous groups – the Trump followers and everybody else.

It’s up to us – the members of that larger, more reasonable, thoughtful and responsible group – to take the initiative and begin restructuring our political system. Trump is not going away. As long as the rest of us stay out there on the political playing field, too, he can’t win. But we can!

Share on Facebook Both comments and pings are currently closed.