By Dan Hardman
dhardman31@gmail.com
www.theoklahomaeagle.net
Remember how Barack Obama used to say we’re not just a collection of red states and blue states, but the United States? Remember how he repeatedly reached out to Republicans to work on various pieces of legislation like health care and the federal budget? Remember how he took on big, bold initiatives like the Paris Climate Agreement and the Iran Nuclear deal, and got them done? Remember how we thought a President Hillary Clinton would continue the work he started? Remember the hopelessness and despair we felt the night of November 1, 2016?
Now, that hopelessness and despair has turned to desperation as we seek some way, any way, to remove Donald J. Trump from office and end this nightmare. As millions of Americans plead just make it stop, Trump continues unabated down the path to hell, dragging us along with him.
Media reports on Trump’s very bad week rarely mention our suffering. His approval ratings decline tells only part of the story. News of job growth, falling unemployment, and stock market highs may embolden his base, a minority of US voters, to claim vindication, yet it obscures the fact that Americans are demoralized to the -nth degree. The river of lies and deceit flowing from the White House, coupled with the constant stream of firings of White House staff and cabinet officials undermine public confidence in ways that may take years to fully realize.
With the Democratic National Committee still in recovery mode, there have been few bright spots from the political class since the tragedy that is Trump befell us. The failure of the Senate health care bill seems to have given Republicans a moment of clarity. They’ve wisely decided that it may be time to work with Democrats to actually fix health care for all Americans rather than repealing the ACA to appease this minority. Hats off to Senators John McCain (R-Arizona), Susan Collins (R-Maine), and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) for voting with all Democratic senators against the bill.
Jeff Flake (R), Arizona’s junior senator, has taken the unusual step of criticizing his own party’s president in his new book Conscience of a Conservative . Although the book has gotten mixed reviews, it’s heartening to see someone from the Republican party actually speak out. Senator McCain’s speech on the floor of the Senate just days before the vote that doomed the health care bill was inspiring to many including me. Although it, too, received mixed reviews, you have to give it to these mavericks for taking on, even in the timidest of fashions, a personality like Trump.
I was surprised when I heard McCain admit things were better under Obama. I was flabbergasted when I heard Bill Krystol (yes, that Bill Krystol) admit the same thing recently. When he wasn’t pillorying Obama in the pages of The Weekly Standard, he was verbally assaulting him on Fox News Sunday. So, take heart. Trump’s lies are catching up with him, and Republicans appear to be growing a pair.
