“Unlikely Heroes in a Republican Party in Disarray”

Today on the floor of the US Senate, two unlikely heroes have emerged to deliver strong rebukes to Donald Trump, Republican President, by two highly respected Republican Senators.  The Honorable Senator Jeff Flake from Arizona and the Honorable Senator Bob Corker, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator from Tennessee both gave critical remarks of the President.    Both retiring from office, these two Senators have now joined John McCain, Senior Senator from Arizona in rebuking the President. [I do not call Donald Trump “our President”, since he has never represented me or my family in any respect, nor for that matter most of the rest of the United States citizenry.]

Senator Bob Corker remarked that President Trump “is treating the presidency like ‘a reality show’” and could put the US “on the path to World War Three” (October 9, 2017- quoting BBC News).  Senator Jeff Flake today said, “Reckless, outrageous and undignified behavior” at the top of the US government was dangerous to democracy (BBC News, October 24, 2017).  Senator Flake said he did not enjoy criticizing the president, but felt it was “a matter of duty and conscience.”

“We must never regard as ‘normal’ the regular and casual undermining of our democratic norms and ideals,” he said [Senator Flake].  He lamented the “flagrant disregard for truth or decency, the reckless provocations, most often for the pettiest and most personal reasons”.  “I have children and grandchildren to answer to, and so, Mr. President, I will not be complicit.” [Senator Jeff Flake].  Senator John McCain was quick to pay tribute to Senator Flake.  (BBC News, October 24, 2017)

For his part, Donald Trump has long wanted to oust Mr. Flake, even offering to spend millions of his own money to see him unseated in the primaries. (BBC News, October 24 2017)

In a series of TV interviews, Mr. Corker accused the president of lying, adding that he “had debased the US and weakened its global standing.”   These rebukes provides the backdrop to President Trump’s efforts along with Senator Mitch McConnell, to bring a tax reform bill to vote in the Senate.  It will be interesting to see if any of these three vocal critics of the President support his new tax plan for the country.

A much larger question, of course, is what the whole exchange of criticisms does for the functioning of the US Senate, as well as how it reflects on our democratic process to our enemies.  Will this type of division among the Republican Party be seen as a healthy exchange of differing political views, or as a sign of the weakening of the resolve of the nation to unify behind this President in the event of some major world crisis or war?

We know that President Trump has done his best to hobble his own Secretary of State in his function of diplomacy among the nations, both allies and enemies.  While Secretary of State Rex Tillerson travels the globe trying to strengthen the standing of the United States among the nations, President Trump tweets, as regarding North Korea, “Don’t waste your time!”  It seems rather odd that the President would undercut his own Secretary of State, who prefers diplomacy to a war of nuclear weapons!  While President Trump is trying to dismantle the Iran Nuclear Deal, Secretary of State Tillerson is trying to strengthen our allies in Iraq and Afghanistan, to negate the influence of Iran in the Middle East.  An Iran with no restraints will certainly be much more dangerous than one restrained in its nuclear ambitions.  President Trump continually proves himself to be a “moron” as to the nuances of foreign policy.  He appears to know so little about foreign policy that his words become increasing irrelevant to the rest of our allies, except perhaps to help define the positions they do not want to take!

I have repeatedly called for the impeachment of this President on the grounds of incompetency to lead our great nation.  I fault Senator Mitch McConnell and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan for allowing this “dog and pony show” to go on for this long.  I often wonder if Mr. Trump were a Democrat, would the Republicans have allowed this debacle to go on for so long?!

Those of us who consider ourselves average, but patriotic and very interested citizens, that is we want the very best for our nation and our leaders…those of us sitting and watching this bizarre spectacle of governance currently playing on the Washington stage find ourselves truly mystified, even scratching our heads, saying, “I never would have believed such an inept, self-centered, narcissistic man could ever sit in the high office of the Presidency!”

Truly this is one of the most bizarre political spectacles which I have ever witnessed come across the stage of this our democratic country.  I am running out of words to describe this sordid affair and find I no longer have any adjectives left to describe how awful, rotten, stupid and ridiculous this Donald Trump presidency really is!  It is amazing to me that the good citizens of this nation can stand for such awfulness and stupid governance.  I continue to say, “God Help US!  God help US all!”

A Prayer for US ALL:

“O Lord Jesus Christ, in your great mercies hear our prayers and deliver us from this out of control and stupid man, who claims to be our President, but in reality is no more than an actor seeking his face on the TV screen.  O Lord, in your mercies, hear our prayers and deliver us, in your holy name, we collectively pray,  in the Name of God our Savior, our Redeemer and our Friend.”  “Amen and Amen!”

 

The voice of one crying in this wilderness, “Make straight in this desert a highway for our God!”