It's Time to Vote...

While living in Denmark, a well known American humorist and author once wrote that a common experience shared by many  American expats living abroad, was having to regularly defend U.S. foreign and domestic policy at the dinner table.  Even when you personally agreed with those criticising your country.

For me this thread has run through all of my experiences living, studying and working overseas.  Going all the way back to my fist time abroad as an exchange student in Germany in 1984, and again in 1986-87 .  Where I routinely  found myself  stubbornly defending  Reagan Administration  policies like the Strategic Defence Initiative (aka "Star Wars")

To  trying to explain the impeachment of Bill Clinton to friends while living and working in South Korea in the 1990's and how Americans hold the President to higher standard.  (Those were the days, huh?)   To  staunchly defending the decision to "take out Saddam Hussein" to my ABN AMRO colleagues in the Netherlands in 2002.

Or most recently here in London,  dealing with questions about Republican obstructionism to Barack Obama,  and the Birther movement and its clear racism.  That along with  how Hillary Clinton won nearly three million more votes than Donald Trump but didn't win the election.   

In all these conversations  you find yourself saying things like; "Well...you have to understand... America is a big and complicated country.".etc..etc.  When in fact you are in full agreement that it is all pretty much insane nonsense.

But now since the 2016 election, I will confess,  I .... got nuthin.  Zip... zilch... nada.

I have been completely unable to find any rational  justification for the actions  and inaction of the Trump Administration.    Like when Trump tried to kill the Affordable Care Act (aka "Obamacare") with nothing whatsoever to take its place. 

Friends here in the UK were  bewildered.  Asking me  why would the US Government  take away heath insurance from millions of Americans and have absolutely nothing to replace with with?  I had no response. There was no rational justification.

When Trump said that  Nazi's and a mob of  white supremacists  were  "good people" and  those protesting the Nazi's were the problem.   Friends here in the UK were bewildered and asked  what did US President really mean by that?    I was speechless. There was no rational justification.

Likewise,  when the Trump Administration decided the best way to deal with the Immigration issue in the US was not to have comprehensive immigration reform, or to engage with other countries to try to address the core issues that were causing their citizens to seek refuge in the US;  But rather,  to kidnap children from their parents,  throw then into cages and camps.   Threaten the parents and  break up whole families  for the sole purpose of terrorising immigrants as a "deterrent" to future asylum  seekers.

Friends here in the UK and around the world were horrified  and asked how such a thing could possibly happen in America? I was just as shocked and dumbfounded.  There was no rational justification.

Or,  when the overwhelming public evidence began to emerge that Trump lied about his campaign's contacts with the Russia, and when his behaviour  towards Putin was not that of the leader of the free world but rather that of a weak and toady sycophant;  

Friends here in  the UK were  (again)  bewildered,  asking me.  Why would  the  US President abdicate global leadership to Vladimir Putin?   Again,  I had nothing,  there was no logical  justification for any of it.

For all of this, I was at a complete loss to defend or justify the actions of my own government. And now with the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation travesty, we have the latest example of American dysfunction. 

Where the political party that  hyperventilated about "higher standards"  while trying  to impeach Bill Clinton in the 1990's gleefully gave a man with multiple accusations of  sexual misconduct a lifetime appointment the  Supreme Court.  This,  after having blocked President Obama from filling a court seat because....??  Yeah,  good luck rationalizing that.

Once again  here in  London friends are looking at me and asking what is that all about?   I still have nothing to justify what Trump and his political party have done.  But I do have an explanation and ...  a potential remedy.

The explanation is simple. The Republican Party as most Americans have known or thought of it since its inception in a schoolhouse in Ripon, Wisconsin as a new anti-slavery party, on March 20, 1854,  no longer exists.   

The GOP is dead,  what has taken its place is a political party  of  Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell,  where the good of country doesn't enter into the equation at all.   Its only about  the political victory.  Nothing else matters. 

American Constitutional Democracy is no longer functioning.    In 2018 under Trumpublican rule, the sole purpose of the Legislative and Judicial branches of government is to protect the executive branch.   (Checks and Balances are for losers.)  But the good news  is.... I have a remedy, and so do you.  In less than a month, we will have a midterm election in the United States.   So I have a  VOTE,  and so do you .

So here's the deal...

If you believe that  Insurance Company profit margins should be the determining factor in who gets health care in American - Then vote Republican.

If you believe that the best way to address immigration issues in the United States is to  kidnap children and  lock them up in cages and camps,  terrorise their families so others will be too scared to come the US.-  Then vote Republican.

If you believe that Vladimir Putin has America's  best interests at heart and should be a prime influencer of American foreign policy -  Then Vote Republican.

If you feel that the founders of our American Republic were wrong when they designed the Legislative and Judicial branches of government to be a check against the power of the Executive branch. - Then Vote Republican.

If you believe that women and people of color are less American than white men - Then by all means,  you should vote Republican 

If however,  you think all those  thing I just cited are bat-shit crazy  then  you clearly  are a rational thinking human being and like me, will be voting against the Republican Party.