Text by A.h. Scott, Copyright 2024
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Crystal Clear
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What will 2024 bring?
Will it bring about the reinforcement of American democracy?
Or, will it sink into the quicksand of dictatorship?
Well, of the two leading candidates of the respective Democratic and Republican party; one man boasts of an affinity for being a dictator.
As for the other man, who came into office riding a wave of reclaiming the soul of America; he might not be a shoe-in of being re-elected.
Just think about that reality for a moment. Donald Trump, a former President of the United States of America; who stoked and stroked an insurrection of the 2020 Presidential election, is closer than anyone would have believed in being on that pathway of reclaiming an office which he took to the brink of demolishing the spirit of democracy.
Oh yeah – and all the while his doubly-impeached backside is facing 91 counts from New York, Florida, Georgia and Washington, DC over his malevolent machinations. For Donald, everything is everything, and everything is a-ok for him. Just keep the grift up and all is well is Trumpworld.
Joe Biden, the current President of the United States of America; who has had a string of legislative successes that any politician would be getting high-fives and kudos over; is almost having to scream for a crumb of attention to get the respect he deserves over his record. President Biden doesn’t need to be a man begging for acknowledgement.
And, damnit, it’s a sad state of affairs in this country, when a person who has the gas can in one hand and the matches in the other in destroying anything that could be considered normal is leading or tied in the polls. Of course the polls are ever changing, and the election of this burgeoning year isn’t until November 2024. But, geez, is it just me, or is the abnormal the normal and sanity suddenly insanity.
Alas, this present situation is not just about two men; this is about who WE are as Americans. Okay, more specifically; who WE are as voters.
Some just wanna’ give a half-assed shrug and act as if what Donald Trump did in violating the 14th Amendment in giving aid and comfort to an insurrection, as if the Constitution doesn’t mean squat.
To the rest of us out here in America who actually give a damn about what the Constitution means and should be heralded as being; the name of Donald John Trump should be as far away from any ballot anywhere in this country. He forfeited the right to be a candidate the moment he chose to overturn the 2020 Presidential election. Going a bit further and being blunter to the point; fairness and that man’s name or likeness ain’t even in the same galaxy. He gets what he gets and what I believe he should get is the sound of that closing cell behind him.
Always acting like he is some penny-less victim, Donald Trump is playing that role of the ‘Poor Rich Boy’ whose daddy Fred didn’t hug him enough when all those millions he left his son was frittered away in bankruptcy after bankruptcy. Donald Trump, born with a diamond spoon in his mouth is groaning on and on every time he pops his head up before camera, rally or his own social network, which is Anti-Truth.
Just be glad you were not treated like every other defendant who would have been tossed in the clink to cool your heels until whenever your trial date came around. Yet, you have your southern palace of tackiness you get to stomp around in, all the while you tell your supporters you are being railroaded on their behalf.
You tell them that the ‘deep state’ is out to get you, even though the title of President of the United States of America doesn’t make that reality of persecution stand the laugh test.
The office of the President of the United States of America brings out whom and what you are. If you were a selfish, miserable, small-minded, misogynistic, son-of-a-Trump, then that’s what the reflection reveals during your days in that office.
Donald Trump didn’t change when he ascended to the office of the President. It was the office of the Presidency that changed when he became occupant of that hallowed office.
In some ways, the word descent is what comes to mind when I think of Donald Trump. The descent of America is what occurred when he and his lady love Melania descended that escalator at his namesake tower. Descent into one man’s egotistic madness is what we all have had to live with during the past, present and soon to be future in the realm of Donald Trump.
Yet, for Mr. 45, there is another word that looms heavy.
Even now, out of office and still on the hunt to claw back into the oval, Donald Trump is still the same person he’s always been. And, what word could be used at this moment – is DEPLORABLE. Oh, yeah, remember when former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton used that term and was berated and mocked. She was on target then and the target is still on point.
Deplorable Donald is who he is.
Tact be damned, when it comes to this human being; who is void of any flicker of humanity.
The whole situation of January 6, 2021 has to be addressed. What happened before that date, and what has happened since that date is the flashing beacon which no one should attempt to avoid.
Call it a reckoning. Call it karma. Or just call it just desserts.
Damn, this was just within the last five years, but it is starting to seem as if it were decades or a century ago when these events occurred.
With Barnum-esque braggadocio, the former President of the United States revels in always saying he is in a category all by himself. And, you know what – he is. Donald John Trump is in a category all his own. He is the only person who has occupied the oval office who has been charged with felonies up and down the courthouses of the Eastern coast of the United States of America.
Yes, Donald, your category is yours and yours alone. You know; the category of being the first candidate that even breaches the 14th Amendment of the Constitution and the courts have to come up with a ruling upon it. Yes, you have misshaped and deformed all which has been considered on the level of decency or just plain normalcy. Yeah, it’s all you, Donald Trump. Everything you touch turns to trash. Trashing the military, trashing the media, trashing political opponents, trashing fellow citizens, trashing anything you deem as being beneath your level of supposed greatness.
Yeah, so even I have to agree with the point of this person being on a level of all his own. It’s the 9th circle of hell, but it’s Donald’s and Donald’s alone.
Who would have ever thought that the levers of democratic institutions in this country could ever be taken beyond the outer limits of what is civil, proper and fair; all at the behest of a single person?
When Donald Trump whines about being tossed off the ballot in Colorado and Maine (and, hopefully many a more state) and being treated unfairly, it is a joke; for he should be glad he isn’t cooling his heels in a jail cell, until he goes through his court cases, due to his role as Insurrectionist in Chief for January 6, 2021.
Having the panoply of legal theories and legal firms on retainer at his beck and grifting call, the leading Republican Presidential candidate could choose how he wishes to be defended.
Would it be a defense of ‘true innocence’ by Donald Trump? You know, the kind of innocence that a person who wasn’t standing over a corpse holding the murder weapon in hand and has an actual alibi of being a thousand miles away with visible proof. Or, would it be a defense based on technical jujitsu[1] of flipping words and crossing your fingers in hoping that you could pull the wool over a judge or jury’s eyes?
Donald Trump can’t plant his flag on the visage of virginity. No matter what he or his highly paid defenders can toss into the ether as a hypothetical comparison[2] to any other person who has held the office of President of the United States of America, he has to stand on his own hooves and show not a fleck of ash upon a sheet of white.
George W. Bush with the Iraq War or Barack Obama authorizing drone strikes were policy directives by both former Presidents of the United States. So, the pros and cons of what those two former occupants of the oval office are apples compared to the putrid citrus fruit which is the orange of insurrection.
Dragging any other politician into the mucked up mix that Donald Trump may be mired within, will never make him virginal.
That train of temperance has long left the station of his living many a decade ago.
Alas, with all the gas-lighting that’s the purview of the Republican playbook, transparency of logic isn’t as evident as one may think it should be.
One party speaks in sentences, while another speaks in paragraphs. Yeah, I just wrote that and you might think it doesn’t make sense. But, it actually does.
Donald Trump – Make America Great Again
Joe Biden – ????????
Yes, one sentence. Whether you agree with it or not; it snaps and goes straight into a simple note of memory. You can’t forget how easy those four words in that sentence can hold your attention.
Democrats never seem to come up with a single sentence that can grab the voters’ attention. There seems that there is nothing I as a Democrat can reply in a slogan to express a vision or a roadmap.
As you read this, can you come up with a single sentence as a wraparound for what the Biden-Harris 2024 campaign is using as a basis for their re-election.
I don’t see it. I do see accomplishments. Most definitely, there are many of them that can be pointed to. Yet, are any of them bumper-sticker worthy? No, at this point, I don’t think so.
This is where the Democrats constantly fall short in getting their message across. In a YES or NO world, politicians on the left are forever lost in an analytical loop.
Donald Trump says Make America Great Again and yes, I roll my eyes and groan when hearing it. But, it’s a line that’s become ingrained. And, from Joe Biden’s side of the ledger, his advisors keep saying he’s got time to make his case for re-election. Well, it is now February 2024 and November is closer than they may think.
My small piece of advice for President Joe Biden and all within his campaign infrastructure is this – Make It As Plain As A Glass of Water.
Think of it this way; think of a glass of water and just say what it is. Water is wet. Water is cold. Water is lukewarm. Water is life.
Keep it simple and make your point. No need for a long and overdrawn chemical analysis of H2O.
That should be a breakdown of how a slogan should be made in defense of the Biden-Harris policies and the opposing of Donald Trump’s second coming.
If it’s the growl of Make America Great Again, why can’t we on the Democratic side say something like – Democrats Protecting Democracy. Yeah, it’s probably too simple a phrase to say; but, a single sentence has to come from somewhere. Because, right now; people out here in America ain’t feelin’ it.
You know, feeling the purpose of something beyond just the fact that Donald Trump is on the other side of whatever this election is all about.
Feeling of purpose seems to be that level of intensity to the extent of bleeding for the candidate. And, no matter how good and valid a man Joe Biden is; it ain’t him that brings out that devotion. Now, devotion may be overrated. I don’t know. But, since that asset of devotion is not in the toolbox of the Democratic candidate for re-election; then that messaging better be hotter than Hades and more on point than Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five.
You see, I can list the achievements of the Biden-Harris administration and show how they are benefiting the American citizenry. Yet, seeing statistics in black and white won’t set the soul on fire for people to have an impetus to vote in November.
THE BIDEN-HARRIS RECORD:
American Rescue Plan [3]– Stimulus checks, child care tax credits
Inflation Reduction Act [3]– Lowering drug costs and $35.00 insulin price cap
Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act [3]– Bridge repair and replacement, pipe and service lines, sewer systems, upgrading power grid, investing in high-speed internet
Safer Communities Act[3] – Providing funding for gun safety and $10 billion in funding for mental healthcare
Emergency Capital Investment Program (ECIP) [4]– providing loans, grants, and assistance to small and minority-owned businesses in low-income and financially underserved communities.
Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) Program[4] – 8 million payments to renters at risk of eviction
Whatever the message is that the Democrats are working on getting out before this election, they should be shouting from the rooftops and flashing the bat signal.
Advisors can say ‘Bidenomics’ from now until the end of Summer and that will fall on deaf ears. Focus on the underlying numbers and not a cutesy name for the economy under Joe Biden’s tutelage.
The slogan should be – Competence Over Chaos!
There you go – 3 words – bumper sticker ready!
Biden/Harris – Competence Over Chaos!
It turns ‘old & creaky Joe Biden’ into a sober and clear thinking leader of competence versus ‘old & dithering Donald Trump’ as a diaper soaked cry-baby of consistent chaos.
Now, it might piss off both sides of the political ledger in noting both men are ‘old’. And, yes, neither of the candidates are spring chicks fresh off the farm, okay.
So, the choice is competence or chaos?
And, that is crystal clear.
“Crystal Clear”- THE FOOTNOTES:
1.-Trump’s outrageous ‘license to kill’: MAGA lawyer claims POTUS may ‘legally’ murder American rivals – MSNBC
2.-Trump’s Bizarre Immunity Claims Should Serve as a Warning – The New Yorker
https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/trumps-bizarre-immunity-claims-should-serve-as-a-warning
3.-10 Accomplishments of The First Two Years of The Biden-Harris Administration – UpNorth News Wisconsin
https://upnorthnewswi.com/2023/01/20/accomplishments-two-years-biden-harris-administration-2/
4.-Year in Review: Treasury’s Top Accomplishments During Year Two of the Biden-Harris Administration – U.S. Treasury Department
https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy1180
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: A.H. Scott is a poet and essayist based in New York City and is a veteran contributor to this blog. To access additional articles by A.H. Scott, click here: https://tonyward.com/a-h-scott-games-people-play/