Trending
How do I condense all the insanity we are experiencing into a few paragraphs? It is not possible. I guess if you are a MAGA, you have no problem simplifying it all into a catch phrase, your "make America Great Again" slogan. That's actually what needs to be done, now that your dear leader has messed everything up.
It wasn't perfect before the Trump takeover, that's a fact. The trend in our national government was very much going in the wrong direction by allowing big money and corporate interests to have ever increasing influence in our politics. The Citizens United decision was a huge mistake. Now it has come to the point that the CEOs of the biggest corporations are actually making the decisions. Mergers are being allowed that never would have been allowed under previous regulations. Less competition, more monopolies. Is that a free enterprise system? Money being consolidated into the top 1% -- billionaires and soon to be trillionaires. The wealth inequality continues to grow under this administration, how does that help any of us? How does that make the country great for all us regular citizens?
In reality, a free enterprise system cannot exist without government regulations. Do you see what happens? CEOs, now oligarchs, are thriving while crushing the rest of us under an economy that we cannot afford.
Small businesses are going under; entrepreneurs can't raise enough funds to get off the ground. They can't afford to pay good wages so that workers can put food on the table and spend in the economy. Now, if unregulated, AI with its data centers can even threaten our very existence. President Joe Biden was right, we grow from the middle out, not the top down. The top didn't get there by being generous.
To elect a so-called businessman to the presidency exacerbated this trend to the max. He was backed by profiteers, and by dictators, who saw an easily manipulated puppet. He understands only profit and personal glory, and when his pet project fails, he declares bankruptcy and moves on to the next disaster to cause. He won't be finished with us until he can declare bankruptcy for the United States of America.
I keep coming back to the fact that Adolf Hitler was voted to the Chancellorship -- he came into power chosen by an election. He misled the people, just like Trump has misled his MAGA supporters. No new wars, lower prices (maybe that only pertained to eggs, admittedly, their price has come down), none of what he promised has happened.
Not your fault, MAGA, you were lied to by someone whose main talent is misdirection and manipulation.
Who operates with bribing and bullying to get his way. Promising to reward you if the Republicans win the midterm elections with a $5,000, is it, bonus check. The next time he mentions it, it'll be $10,000.
Besides being totally illegal (in our constitutional democratic republic, anyway), it is a false promise, never to be kept, the same as all the others. Ya gotta learn eventually. All the signs of the Hitler megalomania are visible in Trump. He is totally fixated on his own selfish aggrandizement, while he allows ICE to terrorize our neighborhoods and incarcerate and deport individuals without due process of law. While he allows a war that he started to continue to strangle the world economy and seeks to fix that problem with alliances with anti-democratic dictators.
Traditional Republicans (if there are any of you left out there), why are you going along with this insanity? Don't you see how he is hurting our country? Do you want a dictatorship? To abandon what our founders worked so hard to establish? What our ancestors fought and died for? Are you ready to give that all up?
We have a system of checks and balances for a reason. Power has slid into the lap of one party, and it seems that party is the weaker of the two. They are not standing up for our constitution and the rule of law. Trump, his administration, his family, have broken multiple laws, and yet have not been held accountable.
The Republican-controlled Congress instead seeks to punish anyone who tries to seek justice and protects them from any accountability. Their interrogation of Jack Smith is the most recent disgusting display of incompetence and time-wasting. One with false "evidence" about a basketball game, and another one asking him if he believed in the tooth fairy. Do any of them take the problems in our country seriously? Did any of them consider that when he said he has evidence beyond reasonable doubt, that the president of the United States committed multiple felony crimes, they should go after that? Be more like the Nixon Republicans? Jack Smith follows the law, not lawbreakers. Calling him names is not going to fix anything or change the fact that evidence was uncovered to accuse Trump of crimes. But they'll just try to discredit Smith instead.
When there is so much chaos and corruption at the top, how can any state or local governments function normally? With the "Big Beautiful Bill" cutting healthcare funding for millions, jeopardizing hospitals, and the states having to make up the difference, with the tariffs cutting off the supplies that many localities need to sustain their businesses and local governments feeling that pinch, how can governments be successful at any level? Unlike wealth, chaos trickles down.
So, is anyone happy right now? Does the price of gas improve our mood? Does doubting the safety of our food, not to mention being able to afford it, give us the comfort of a full belly? Do we enjoy hating and calling each other names? Does that make us a better society? A better country, state, or neighborhood? How do we reverse this? Is it too late? Just like an addiction, MAGA addicts have to experience rock bottom before they can change, I guess. Before they realize that made-up villains they call Dumocrats are not the cause of their woes.
I've just skimmed the surface. But MAGAs have it all boiled down to a few slogans, even a few letters. Why is it that I hear TDS whenever there's a discussion on politics, or just the state of our country in general. There is no doubt that much of the condition of our country is a result of Trump's actions. There are other factors worthy of discussion too. But the defenses come up immediately - TDS. Can we get beyond simple reductions? TDS can be an acronym for a lot of things: Trump Disappointment Syndrome that some MAGAs are feeling right now, Trump Delusional Syndrome that the hard-core MAGAs are still in, Trump Divisive Syndrome which is what he is doing to us, Trump Dementia Syndrome, which it appears that he is suffering from, and Trump Dystopian Syndrome which the United States has become under his leadership. How about this TDS: we want a True Democratic System! Let's vote for that - early beginning on Oct. 24, or at least by election day, Tuesday, Nov. 3. Remember, our elections always fall on the first Tuesday of November. Vote -- so that never changes.
Susan Bigler is a Sheridan resident.