January 9, 2018

A Most Perilous Path

I joked around in the previous post, but the Anti-Trumpers are heading down a dangerous path in their efforts to do anything to get him out of office. Pushing a coup for "mental deficiencies" is a dangerous game. Most politicians are egomaniacs.

How paranoid does it sound to allow the IRS to target your political enemies? Does it seem 'sane' to blame a "vast right-wing conspiracy" as the reason your husband lied under oath? What if the President is so OCD and controlling that he insists on personally writing the schedule for the White House tennis courts? What normal person would think it is OK to give guns to known criminals in an effort to prove guns are dangerous? Are any of these examples of rational thought?

Once we start down the road of palace coups we have descended into the dark days of the Roman Empire or a Banana Republic; changing leaders on a whim. Once the 100 Presidents-in-waiting in the Senate, the shadowy Praetorian Bureaucracy, the keepers of secrets, and want-to-be power-brokers in the press learn they can control the government at whim we are done as a nation. More simply, payback is hell. 79 AD was the year of four Emperors in Rome, and thereafter the top spot was controlled by whomever could gather a ruling coalition. Tyranny was the order of the day. and with few exceptions, the Emperor had to exercise his ruthless power to remain in control. The concept of a benevolent dictator is fantasy.

That said, anyone who thinks Mike Pence is dumb enough to commit political suicide by invoking the 25th Amendment is delusional themselves.

It is the height of malpractice for any physician or psychiatrist to diagnose publicly a person they have never met or interviewed. Since I do not have a medical licence of any type, I will say any medical professional who does so manifests signs of Trump Derangement Syndrome and anything she says should be discounted as pure ravings.

No sane person would trust the treatment of cancer or a heart disease to an Internet quack, and we should not trust the health of our nation to a partisan hack either. 

It is not Trump, nor Obama, nor Hillary, nor any other politician that is a danger to the Nation, it is the unreasonable reaction of the other side. The election is over. You get a do-over in three years. It is time to tone down the rhetoric before we head down a road we really, really, do not want to venture.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Being bored beyound belief I got into a discussion with a rabid liberal on Face Farce. When I finally checked on his page it was the typical liberal leaning. He is 22 married with one kid, never been out of New Jersey and an expert on international politics. He actually went to a trade school and is a plummers assistant. I gave up, you can't argue with somone who has never been out of his state, lives in a city and believes everything he reads. Four years from now we will have a new bunch of players, hopefully both parties will gain some common sense.

James Old Guy

Ed Bonderenka said...

That is such a well crafted and important post that I may ask to publish it in February.

Joe said...

Sure, Ed

Fuzzy Curmudgeon said...

The Goldwater Rule was a well-deserved slap in the face at the time, and it should remain in effect.

The thing is, Joe has it exactly right. No matter who wins, you get a do-over in four years (and as Joe points out, the countdown is at less than three years now). Barry didn't destroy us in 8 (although it was a close-run thing) and Trump isn't going to destroy us in 4. What gets dangerous is when you let a president keep being re-elected ad nauseum -- see President For Life Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Of course one could say the same thing about any over-tenured, career officeholder, like most 'critters or Senators today. The danger in our system is not having inexperienced people in high places (because either they learn fast or they're generally out within a term or two -- sometimes of their own volition), it's in allowing the elected part of the government stagnate while the unelected part grows, prospers, and begins to take liberties with the vague legislation that empowers it. (See also: EPA, IRS, etc.)

Keep government poor and starving, and it is your servant.

Allow government to become rich and fat, and it becomes your master.

I'll leave it as an exercise for the student whether we are masters or servants, these days.

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