A recent discussion with a teacher friend went like this:
Teacher: Politics in Washington is broken. Maybe we do need someone like Trump to go down their and break it up so we can start all over.
Me: Well, yeah, our federal government isn’t functioning, but not everybody is to blame. The dysfunction is the result of one party, the Republicans party, going completely off the rails.
Teacher: What do you mean?
Me: The country elected Obama TWICE by significant margins, but Republicans have not only insulted both him and the Office of the President but also worked overtime to thwart him at every turn. Remember when Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said his primary goal was to make Obama a one-term president? He didn’t say his goal was to get Kentucky off the federal dole, or to rebuild American infrastructure, or to make health care for our citizens more affordable, or raise living standards of working Americans. No, his goal was simply to block everything and anything the first African-American President tried to do.
Teacher: Yeah, but I still feel we need to send Washington a message.
Me: Well, tell them it’s time to bring civility back to government. Tell them to stop denying facts and refusing to negotiate. Our founders created a government in which compromise is absolutely essential, but the GOPers refuse to acknowledge it. They’ve thrown a wrench into the machinery of government and now are screaming that it doesn’t work any more. And they’re all to willing to suppress voting rights to retain power.
And no, Donald Trump isn’t the answer. He’s brought political discourse down to gutter level and seems to think a President is given dictatorial powers to run roughshod over the Constitution. In short, he and his Republican colleagues have become a real threat to our democracy, not the savior of it.