Just looking at that headline makes me angry. I question the sanity, myself included, of anyone writing those words in October of 2016.
What in the world has come over me?
Here’s what: It is time to examine the doughnut, not the hole.
Think of this as a 2016 political spinoff of Russian roulette. With Donald Trump we have two rounds of in a revolver chamber containing six. With Hillary Clinton, at least five are loaded.
Clinton, in other words, will be disaster. The Democratic and Republican establishments will be pleased, as her victory will postpone their ultimate demise, but the road we travel will not change and American decline will accelerate.
Yes, it will be a rapid descent in many areas. Need I list them all? In the end, Clinton cannot help being who she is.
Trump? Not my first choice, but at least he offers a chance of reversing the decline and rechanneling a nation.
There will be change in the White House, that’s for sure, in a Trump Administration. Will it be for the better? Will his changes be done in a Constitutional fashion? Or will they take place via the same cynical and illegal overreach used by our current president?
So, how can I say we win either way?
With Clinton, the fight is on.
As Thomas Paine said, “If trouble must come let it come in my time, so that my children can live in peace.”
The words are riveting, the concept more so.
Let’s accelerate a showdown with corruption and lawlessness. Bring it on. Who wouldn’t prefer to take on the perpetrators themselves instead of merely passing down this soiled legacy to our children?
Yes, a Clinton victory means a fabulous teaching moment and an opportunity for action.
To what do I allude? Here is a partial list:
● Forcing Congress to step-up and start impeachment proceedings immediately (if you need to know why, you have not been paying attention);
● Mandating Congress do its job and actually legislate, rein in the Executive and Judicial Branches (not that I think they will, but we need to so demand);
● Relearn the actions of the 39th Congress. No, it never was co-equal branches. Congress has the power. It is time to use it;
● Making the States relearn their role as sovereign entities;
● Creating committees of correspondence and alliances among the states for mutual protection and benefit;
● Bringing a sense of Federalism back to the state leaders and the peoples’ minds;
● Reacquainting citizens with a sense of their own power;
* Understanding the proper role of the Supreme Court as intended and the dangers foreseen by the Founders;
● Encouraging the States and people to nullify unconstitutional Supreme Court rulings.
● Educating the populace with what the Founders would have us do;
● Using Article V of the Constitution so states can handcuff the federal government;
● Stopping us from appealing to Washington and, especially, the President as a great savior and guide to daily life. (Oh, how we want a king these days);
● Putting the President back in her place and limiting ever-increasing, unlawful exercises of power.
A Clinton victory might just spawn a renaissance of rediscovering forgotten truths about the proper role of government, federalism, freedom, unalienable rights and so on.
George Washington told a friend it is a shame that we must feel before we see. It’s time that the majority of Americans start to feel that they may see. If this is what it takes, so be it.
If Trump wins, even better.
Now, we can dismantle the established self-serving corrupt inner beltway cabal. The applecart will indeed be overturned and we have a chance – yes, it is but a chance – to take back the rule of law and accountability from our federal system.
Trump, if flawed in a multitude of ways, does seem to put good people in the right places.
Were that to be the case, we have a chance of the following:
● Getting Constitutionally-minded justices confirmed to the Supreme Court;
● Improving our economy in a way that brings opportunity to more than the connected;
● Creating jobs for skilled and unskilled workers;
● Re-growing, refitting and reorganizing our military;
● Controlling the flow of immigrants to those we seek to have here;
● Tackling some of the larger budget issues;
● Becoming energy independent;
● Forming a cohesive and comprehensible foreign policy strategy.
● Rebuilding trust with our allies.
These are, of course, hopes.
The risk is that Trump may abuse executive authority in an even more pernicious way than his predecessor.
That may appeal to a certain niche of Americans whose mood is vengeance, but it would be absolutely the wrong path. Trump would also turn into our worst nightmare if he deems himself bigger than the office and, himself, above the law.
Come November, include me in the group that would rather have two rounds in the chamber than five.
Whatever the result, we have pending a batch of battles. The only other option would be abandoning hope.
I can’t, however.
I am accountable to history. To conscience. To offspring.