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Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781796035377 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Xlibris US |
| Publication date: | 05/24/2019 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 260 |
| File size: | 267 KB |
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CHAPTER 1
The Dissecting of a Democracy
The ship of Democracy, which has weathered all storms, may sink through the mutiny of those aboard.
— Grover Cleveland
IT IS IMPORTANT to define a democracy before we can surmise that it is at risk of being dissected or destroyed. A democracy is a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections; the political direction and control exercised over the actions of the members, citizens, or inhabitants of communities, societies, and states; direction of the affairs of a state, community, etc.; political administration. Government is necessary to the existence of civilized society.
In the title, it speaks of the destruction of our form of government and a possible new reality. The signals that we should all be concerned are rooted in behaviors such as suppressing voters, gerrymandering (changing the size of districts), lying without remorse, destroying the prior administration's accomplishments, not taking the advice of seasoned generals concerning international policy, taking kids away from parents in the name of good border security, shutting down the government because of a failed attempt to get US taxpayers to pay for a wall that he said would be paid for by the Mexican government, and claiming ultimate victory over the Islamic State (ISIS) without substantiating facts. Now you get the picture.
Are we operating as part of a democracy or under this administration? Are we a part of a kleptocracy, which is a government with corrupt leaders who use their power to exploit the people and natural resources of their own territory in order to extend their personal wealth and political powers? The Republican Party, which had a Regan f lair, is now the party of Trump, which does not fare well for the party.
Trump, with his celebrity and incredulity toward those who oppose him, has created a stage for himself that could change the presidency for decades to come. We have gone from a charismatic, negotiating, competent, caring president in President Obama to one who seems to be immoral, misogynistic, verbally incompetent, and unworthy in Trump. His bullying style seems just what the political right wanted, it seems.
No matter how insane this president acts, the Republican majority and his base fail and refuse to hold this political misfit in check. He attacks those who do not look like him or share his views, whoever they are. He thrives off name-calling, labeling, fake-news rants, tweets, golf, and a diet of cheeseburgers.
Is President Trump a racist? I believe with certainty that this man is a racist and would turn on his own mother if she disagrees with him. You judge a man not by what he says but by what he does and the company he keeps. He attacks black football players, immigrants, women, Latinos; refused to give proper assistance to Puerto Rico after the hurricane; and called countries with predominantly black and brown people "shithole countries." Now you decide whether he is racist or not. The country is in desperate need of leadership both domestically and internationally but, for sure, not Trump's style of leadership. The attitudes and behaviors of certain segments of the country are embarrassing to say the least. This new reality of a country is not the one that I have grown to love and respect over the years. Race and gender aside, the soul of this country, along with a brand that has withstood the test of time, is under vicious attack from this self-deprecating, disrespecting individual. I can say without hesitation, there has never been one like him, and thank God for that.
As of May 2018, there have been twenty-two school shootings in the past year. Many of these atrocities are enabled by the lack of action on gun control by the president and the United States Congress. This Congress and this president have chosen to believe that the NRA (National Rif le Association) is too powerful of a lobby to challenge. They chose not to legislate gun control but instead point the blame of the horrific killings of our young minds on mental illness on the part of the perpetrator. Mental illness refers to a wide range of mental health conditions and disorders that affect your mood, thinking, and behavior. It most definitely is an illness, but one of hate and vindictiveness.
Every year, approximately 42.5 million American adults (or 18.2 percent of the total adult population in the United States) suffer from some form of mental illness, causing conditions such as depression, bipolar disorder, or schizophrenia. Nice try, but mass shootings represent a small percentage of all gun violence, and mental illness is not a factor in most violent acts. According to one epidemiological estimate, eliminating the effects of mental illness would only reduce all violence by 4 percent.
Again, nice try, GOP, Trump, and the NRA. Your pitch primarily to your base as well as those whom you have mentally manipulated may have a significant impact on what they think or believe but not on those of us who were not mesmerized by your rhetoric. We know gun violence is a public health problem because more than thirty thousand people a year are dying from it. It is the third leading cause of death for American children. That in itself should be enough to get the lawmakers motivated to act. Anecdotally speaking, Americans are more likely than people in similar nations to be shot in church, in school, at a concert, in movie houses, or in a town hall. The malignancy of failure to enact a law dealing with these weapons of mass destruction has created this new reality that has thrust our schools and our children in a cycle of copycat killings unseen in modern history.
This cowardly administration and their Fox News / NRA advocates have changed what was a dream for a better world into a seemingly never-ending nightmare. This current administration, because of their controlling the three branches of government (executive, legislative, and judicial), continues to cater to the gun lobbyist at the expense of our young minds. Paul Ryan, who was Speaker of the House at the writing of this book, and Mitch McConnell, Senate majority leader, are proving to be empty shirts, unable to think for themselves and afraid of jeopardizing their political careers because of the vindictive nature of this president.
I am writing this book with relentlessness and indefatigability of effort in the sincere hope of motivating as many as possible to hold their legislatures accountable for bringing the gun issue to the floor for a vote. If they are unable to move with the will of the people, then it's up to the voters to replace them with those who will. The country is at a crossroads with this president who is under investigation for collusion with the Russians and possible obstruction of justice. He is focused on his ego, his business deals, and his friends and will only value the presidency if it was an oligarchy the likes of Russia, North Korea, or China.
There have been numerous presidents gracing the Oval Office over the years, and though I didn't necessarily agree with their policies or stance on major issues, I respected the men who were voted in to represent us as the top world leader. For the first time in my lifetime, I have no respect for the man who currently sits in the Oval Office, who is usually asleep or watching television or at Mar-a-Lago playing golf and winning tournaments that he did not participate in.
This current set of GOP men and women are without conscience, manipulative, and spineless. They are robots and puppets whose strings are manipulated by this implicitly biased perpetrator of a president. This group of selfish politicians prefer politics over purpose. They prefer to choose wrong over right simply to protect their positions and a way of life that has long since passed. They are so afraid to take Trump on for fear of him not supporting them in their state's primary. His name-calling, lack of moral compass, and willingness to lie under any circumstance leave the majority of these misfits as rebels without a cause. What's at stake here is the fragile soul of America.
I ask my readers who voted for this president to look deeply at who he has surrounded himself with. Make up your own mind if this individual has truly drained the swamp by adding people to his cabinet the likes of Steve Bannon, Anthony Scaramucci, Rudy Giuliani, Sarah Sanders, etc. Trump has created his own pigpen, and his sows are being fed the slop offered up by Fox News, the NRA, and surprisingly, the religious right. Do you get my point? If you wallow in the mud, you may not be a pig, but you take on piglike characteristics like our Congress has done.
I am not asking that you agree with me; just consider these senseless actions on the part of heartless men and women who have traded their hearts and souls for a leader who cares nothing about anything or anyone, including them, if you refuse to wear the Trump insignia.
To the young voting populace out there who felt that they didn't have a candidate who met their expectations and decided to sit the election out, now they see the result. Even though you may feel that one or the other candidate is not your choice, not voting has consequences as you can now see. An individual who chooses not to vote is still a vote nevertheless, and it could allow the lesser of the candidates to win as in this latest election.
It would have been great to have had a third choice, but as of now, the third party options are not viable in challenging the established parties labeled the Democrats and the Republicans. One candidate in a race will represent you whether you like them or not, so it would be plausible to take the high road and vote for the candidate who will meet some of your expectations versus sitting out without a voice. I meet young people every day who seems okay with not voting. Families who have a history of voting usually influence their children to vote. That doesn't seem to be the case with this new voting block of young people. Whether their parents vote or not, they are okay with sitting out if they don't like the candidate pool.
This election was a surprise even to Trump, a disaster for our allies, and the perfect storm for the country. Just at a time when the country was recovering from a recession that delayed the retirement of many boomers, had us positioned again as a strong world leader, and produced an improving economy, we promoted to the highest office in the land an unworthy egomaniac whose self-promoting and lack of a moral compass can and will lead us down a path of destruction.
The impact of a poor voter turnout this past election just conceivably may have affected the two-party system and the GOP specifically in a way that will change the grand old party for decades if not forever. The question now before the Congress and this president is, Have we lost our moral authority? Partisan politics aside, has common sense given way to power and political aspirations? Do we care more about winning elections than about truth, justice, and the American way of life? President Obama, in all his eloquence, said it best, "Backlash comes from people who are genuinely, if wrongly fearful of change. More often it's manufactured by the powerful and the privileged who want to keep us divided, angry and cynical because it helps them maintain the status quo, and keep their power, and privilege."
CHAPTER 2Modern-Day Slavery: A Different Approach
A people that elect corrupt politicians, impostors, thieves and traitors are not victims ... but accomplices.
— George Orwell
IT'S AS IF 2016 and beyond has become the Wild, Wild West again — terrorism, both domestic and international; police gone wild at the expense of good cops; questions about "The Star-Spangled Banner" and its implications; a political circus leading to the presidency; racial divide; white privilege; education affordability; health-care issues; immigration concerns; nuclear proliferation; gun control; school shootings; and terrorism across the globe.
At the time of my writing this work, this president has shut the government down, affecting over eight hundred thousand federal workers; and his position is, "It can be shut for months and even years until I get what I want." The "what I want" he is referring to is a wall along the southern border. He is pitching a temper tantrum not because it is a case of national security but because it was a campaign promise that has no merit. It has been statistically proven that a wall will not affect terrorism as he claims, and the majority of terrorists who are successful in penetrating our borders tend to come in through the airports across the country.
He uses the threat of gangs and drugs to play to the fears of his base and allow Fox News to determine the direction of his decisions. This president is an egotistical maniac who believes that the Office of the President is beyond reproach. He sees himself to be blameless or faultless on anything that is not consistent with reality show mentality. This president was offered $25 billion for border security by the Democrats with the caveat of having a way to citizenship for the DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) kids. DACA is an American immigration policy that allows some individuals who were brought to the United States illegally as children to receive a renewable two-year period of deferred action from deportation and become eligible for a work permit in the US. To be eligible for the program, recipients cannot have felonies or serious misdemeanors on their records. Unlike the proposed DREAM Act, DACA does not provide a path to citizenship for recipients known as Dreamers.
The policy, an executive branch memorandum, was announced by President Barack Obama on June 15, 2012. The US Citizenship and Immigration Services began accepting applications for the program on August 15, 2012. Anything that has Barack Obama's handprint on it was destined for the scrap pile by this jealous president. The fact that President Obama totally ripped him to shreds at the White House Correspondents' dinner laid heavily on his fragile ego. Becoming president gave Trump the opportunity to strike back, and he has in a big way.
The soul and morality of our country are at stake, readers. The human soul is that part of a person that is eternal — the part that lives on after the body dies and decays. Are we as a nation in the decaying stage? Is our human spirit in a steady decline? Do we really care about one another? Does politics take precedence over country? It seems so in this current environment where right takes a back seat to power and politics. I plan, in this work, to dissect these and other questions in a way that is thought-provoking, factual, and fair.
I can't remember a point in my life's history when racism, sexism, homophobia, narcissistic behavior, gun violence, and divisiveness were as prevalent as in this current political climate. Self-aggrandizement is the foundation of this administration.
Be as critical of past president Obama as you would like, but were these things happening to this magnitude under his watch? Be as anti-Obama as you would like, but you have to admit that he ran a tight ship during what was a very severe economic downturn. The low unemployment numbers and improved economy that Trump had taken credit for came as a result of the tough decisions made during the eight years of the Obama administration.
There is little doubt that this president, more than anything, wants to increase his own power and influence and draw attention to his own self-interests and importance. It is a fact, based on decisions and policies to this day, that President Trump is scaling a mountain of self-interest and superiority and wants his cabinet and the country to bow to and kiss his ring. His heroes are Vladimir Putin from Russia, Xi Jinping of China, and Israel's prime minister Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu.
For the first time in recent history and counter to the actions of those preceding him, this president is willing to give Kim Jong-un of North Korea an equal footing on the world stage simply to qualify himself for the Nobel Peace Prize. The summit between President Trump and Kim Jong-un did take place on June 12, 2018, though the result amounted to a photo op for the two dictators. Kim Jong-un, the ultimate dictator and human rights violator, will never denuclearize, having finally the long-term goal or aim of developing a warhead that can reach any point within the continental United States. As of November 2018, there has been no progress made toward denuclearizing in Kim's part, and he is thumbing his nose at the president of the most powerful country in the world. Sad!
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "The Demolition of Democracy"
by .
Copyright © 2019 Ted Bagley.
Excerpted by permission of Xlibris.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Preface, vii,
Acknowledgments, xi,
Chapter 1 The Dissecting of a Democracy, 1,
Chapter 2 Modern-Day Slavery: A Different Approach, 9,
Chapter 3 Mass Destruction and the NRA, 27,
Chapter 4 A Difficult Time in America's History, 38,
Chapter 5 Trump's Appraisal, 52,
Chapter 6 Russia's Influence on Our Elections, 60,
Chapter 7 An Increasing Swamp, 72,
Chapter 8 The Color Divide, 82,
Chapter 9 Kneeling Has Its Purpose, 100,
Chapter 10 Obama Fixation, 114,
Chapter 11 Neutron Trump, 127,
Chapter 12 Unconscious Bias, 138,
Chapter 13 Our History: Why the Word Negro, 148,
Chapter 14 The Black Perspective, 159,
Chapter 15 Fear as a Weapon, 176,
Chapter 16 Tolerance, 182,
Chapter 17 Implicit Bias, 187,
Chapter 18 The Star-Spangled Banner, 192,
Chapter 19 The Importance of Education, 198,
Chapter 20 Trump Tax Hoax, 205,
Chapter 21 Blind Loyalty, 208,
Chapter 22 The International and Domestic Perspective on Trump, 214,
My Final Thoughts, 243,
References, 249,