As the President of the United States, I have an absolute right, perhaps even a duty, to investigate, or have investigated, CORRUPTION, and that would include asking, or suggesting, other Countries to help us out! — Donald J. Trump Oct 3, 2019
I served in the US armed forces for 3-½ years. This was during the Cold War so I never saw any combat. Nonetheless, I have an 8-inch surgical scar, a spinal fusion, constant pain, and a permanent disability due to an injury sustained while on active duty.
And I am pissed. Trump has done plenty to piss me off in the past, but his latest tweets about colluding with other countries have made me utterly, thoroughly, 100%, over the top, unfriend me on facebook if you support Trump, pissed.
I served because I thought (and still idealistically think) that there is in our country and our constitution an idea — the “idea of America” if you will — that is worth protecting. And that idea, despite all of the ways this country has not lived up to it, is such that I was willing to give my life for it (and I almost did). I think most of the men and women I served with did so for the same reasons (to varying degrees) and I think most still do so today (again, to varying degrees).
That has been the raison d’etre for a strong military — that there are ideals (freedom, equality, rule of law, justice) — that are so important that they have to be protected from from other countries that do not share those ideals (e.g., Russia, China). And the military was protecting not just ideals — but actual people — Americans. Though they have co-opted and perverted many of these ideals, this is what conservatives, republicans, the right, all espouse
And now Donald J. Trump has publicly and unambiguously opened the front door, saying it’s his duty to ask other countries to go after American citizens. Countries that don’t share our ideals, by the way. And from the republicans, those who are for America first, those who say America is exceptional, those who would send men and women in to harms way to protect America and Americans? Crickets.
What. The. F. This is a monumental slap in the face to anyone who has ever served.
Leave aside all of the aggravating circumstances around this latest episode. We have already seen that the right have a tu-quoque non-sequitur for the nefarious (and obvious) reasons behind this betrayal. He is going after a political opponent for political gain (“Biden is corrupt on a scale never seen! And Hillary too!”) There was a quid pro quo (“No there wasn’t. And Biden is corrupt on a scale never seen!”) He was abusing his power (“Just a perfect conversation.”)
Leave all that aside. The simple unambiguous fact is this. Trump has publicly said he has a duty to sic a foreign government on an American citizen. And, in fact, he has done so. How can any conservative, any republican, anyone who has served in order to keep American citizens safe from foreign governments — how can anyone claim that Trump is acting in the best interest of America or Americans?
Again. What. The. F.
Not that any of this is unexpected — it’s just the latest example of the hypocrisy of the party-before-country republican party. But perhaps because I feel particularly disrespected by this latest — and because I feel my brothers and sisters should also be outraged — I am also particularly rankled.
Trump has famously said: “
I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters.”
I had a corollary that I often used: He could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot one of his supporters and that person would still vote for him.
But now we see. He can publicly boast of betraying the very things his supporters love him for and he won’t lose any voters.
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