A recent article written by Brandon J Weichert and published on the spectator asserted that Democrats are a threat to Democracy, and goes on to discuss his postulation that the criticism of Donald Trump as President is only partisan rhetoric and unfounded. This post is intended to rebut his perspective and provide insight into the truth behind why the majority of Americans, and the world #resist Donald Trump.
Weichert begins by calling for an examination of the evidence, but he quickly biases the discussion in an attempt to beef up his argument by calling the concerns of the left “outlandish claims”. He goes on to try to rebut the claim “that Trump loves autocrats, like Russia’s Vladimir Putin or North Korea’s Kim Jong-un”, by calling attention to the fact that “Trump threatened nuclear war against Kim Jong-un”. But we know Trump makes war against his own party, his allies, his friends. Trump has started fights with Jeff Sessions, Canada, Mexico, Australia, Great Britain, John Kelly, Steve Bannon. Nobody is sacred to Trump, Trump just wants to be on top. Yeah, he just about started a Nuclear war, that makes him incompetent and a horrible leader, it’s not a good thing. I don’t want to leave it hanging that there is evidence that North Korea has absolutely played Trump too, that they have continued to work on their nuclear program, and have completely deceived him, playing to his ego and exploiting his incompetence.
He argues that people are wrong about Trumps desire to kill NATO, but he has openly stated that NATO is obsolete. The fact that he later reversed this claim under pressure doesn’t amount to much as we have clearly seen that Trump says what he means in unguarded situations, then tries to cover it up with a Teleprompter or other source when faced with criticism. Trump makes claims that nations have increased their spending under his leadership, but they had already agreed to spending increases before he became President. It also needs to be called to attention that Trump thinks countries owe him (which may or may not be the United States) money for being part of NATO. The US spends huge gobs of money, most nations think the amount spent is unreasonable. It’s the reason the nation has trouble with healthcare, education, social security, and medicare. The nations agreed to work towards spending 2% of their GDP in national defense, and most have moved towards that goal, some have made it, but that money goes to their OWN defense spending, not NATO, not dues, not the United States or Donald Trump.
He goes on to make a false argument that people believe that his desire to fire senior FBI and DOJ is “Proof-positive that Trump is both a Russian agent”. When in fact the argument is actually that people believe he made a deal with the Devil to deliver him power and wealth, but even that is unclear. What the American people believe in, is justice. They believe that if there is a clear motive, and evidence of collusion (such as the relationship between Russian military hackers and Wikileaks, Trumps campaign manager, and NSA director, his son and senior campaign meeting with Russian government lawyers during the campaign for dirt on Hillary Clinton), that it ought to be investigated without interference, without bias. They believe that firing the senior FBI, and DOJ who have lots of information on this, that replacing them with friendly actors is obstruction of justice, and why obstruct justice if justice means being found to have no connection?
Brandon then states that “Trump has spent the last two years having the legitimacy of his unprecedented election to the presidency challenged by unlelected and unaccountable members of the U.S. intelligence community”. There are multiple statements there to break down.. obviously Trump isn’t the first to be elected, and it has always been the position of the U.S. intelligence community (not a foreign intelligence community), to provide accurate intelligence. Of this there are multiple points to note, including that it IS unprecedented that our own intelligence community unanimously argues against the presidents conclusions, and that many in the intelligence community have been appointed by this president, and that the intelligence community is typically completely non-partisan.
I will briefly address the false argument that “Trump disrespected America’s tradition of free-and-fair elections”. Trump was elected, people don’t argue that, what they do argue is that once again the electoral college went a different way than the popular vote. What they do argue is that while he did win the electoral college (as is the law, and is inarguable) it is likely that he did so with the assistance of foreign agents like Russia to convince 39,000 people (total) in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin to vote for him, rather than his opponent. People who were misled with stories and posts to look like news that were absolutely false. Trump does damage to elections, by calling into question the credibility of the election process, by claiming that there is fraud or tampering in a system that has served the US for hundreds of years. He does damage by attacking the institutions that protect those elections, that protect democracy, and by demonizing those who do not fly his banner, no matter their beliefs, their past experiences. Those others are likely your brothers, sisters, friends and co-workers. Like you they are good people who have a slightly different view of the world than you, and inevitably they will come to power again, hopefully they do rhetoric doesn’t keep increasing at the rate it has during his tenure.
I won’t even address the first amendment attacks by the President on the press, while I do have issues with how the media approaches politics, I don’t agree that the President of the United States, sworn to uphold the constitution, and stand for democracy and the people should undermine the credibility of the press just to cover up his own shortcomings.
I would like to conclude that the #resist Trump is not a purely partisan issue. Yes, Democrats rally to resist Trump, but they didn’t do this for Reagan, or George H.W. Bush, and while there was opposition to George W. Bush it was primarily a result of the Invasion of Iraq. In addition there are Republicans, and not just fringe Republicans, but lifelong, strong Moderate Republicans who have turned against Trump in the Senate, in the house, in the party. There are neighbors of yours who have always voted Republican who categorically disagree with the direction he has taken the traditionally free-trade, low debt, balanced budget, anti-corruption, god-fearing, democracy protecting, patriotic, respectful of women party, and turned it into an anti-tolerant, neo-nazi, debt raising, nationalistic (anti-free trade), misogynistic party. As Trump breaks down faith in the US Justice system, fair elections, cheats on his wives, attacks women in congress, insults womens appearances, objectifies women, does not refute neo-nazi endorsements or endorsements from David Duke, does not call out anti-semetic attacks, positions billionaires in positions of power over government agencies that deal with areas they have acted as lobbyists for or personally profit by tearing down environmental, Net Neutrality, Education, Financial, and health care (pre-existing conditions) that protect 95% of the people of this country from the 5% who own everything.