Don't Let Trump Hijack Our Country

Many people who don’t vote complain that it doesn’t make any difference, both parties are the same.

That excuse is demonstrably false given the actions of President Trump and the current GOP-majority Congress. Those who sit out the mid-term elections this year will abet Trump and the GOP in hijacking our constitution and country.Those who sit out the mid-term elections this year will abet Trump and the GOP in hijacking our constitution and country.Those who sit out the mid-term elections this year will abet Trump and the GOP in hijacking our constitution and country.

Trump and the radical Republicans are hell-bent on dismantling what they call, in conspiratorial terms, the “deep state.” They are the real conspirators. In their budget-cutting and ideological zeal, they are rendering impotent large swathes of federal policy. They are discrediting essential institutions and stripping federal agencies and advisory bodies of expertise.

President Trump is orchestrating a broad smear of the Justice Department, FBI and intelligence services to divert attention from the investigation of Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Not since Richard Nixon have we had a president so willing to obstruct justice to cover up suspected wrongdoing by himself and his hirelings.

In Nixon’s time, GOP members of Congress joined the search for truth and eventually voted with Democrats for articles of impeachment against the president. Today’s GOP, with the exception of John McCain, is working to discredit the investigation into President Trump and his campaign’s ties to Russia.

Trump states continually that he wants a Justice Department and FBI loyal to him, but the duty of those agencies is not to any individual but to the Constitution and the rule of law.

With Nixon, we learned that no man is above the law. Trump, a deep-rooted authoritarian, is incapable of understanding this constitutional principle. Nixon resigned. Trump shows every sign of dragging us through a constitutional crisis.

More danger looms at the State Department, where many key positions are vacant, including ambassadorships to dozens of countries: Australia, Indonesia, Egypt, the European Union, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, among others.

Trump rejected Victor Cha, a well-qualified candidate for ambassador to South Korea, because Cha criticized a pre-emptive strike against North Korea. Without Cha’s diplomacy, the fate of Koreans and the world is even more dependent on the macho posturing of Trump and Kim Jong-un.

Trump’s 2018 budget includes a 30 percent reduction in State Department funds. Dozens of foreign service officers, citing demoralization, have resigned. Former diplomats are warning of long-term damage to international relations. Trump says not to worry. He’s in charge, and his is the only voice that matters.

In many other areas, the government is being “denuded of expertise,” according to economist Paul Krugman.

Trump has disbanded the HIV/AIDS Council and the Advisory Committee for Sustained National Climate Assessment. At the Office of Science and Technology Policy, staff has dwindled from 135 in the Obama years to 45 today. The federal agency, which promotes research and public-private partnerships to advance science and tech, is rudderless.

Ten of the 12 members of the National Park System Advisory Board have resigned because Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke refused to meet with them. The board’s collapse is probably welcome to Trump and Zinke as the GOP wants more public lands open for development, not conservation.

For undermining justice, hobbling diplomacy and ignoring public input and expertise, Trump and his cronies have got to go. To speed their retirements and rescue our country, we need to get family, friends and neighbors to the polls this year.

Jamakaya is an award-winning writer and historian based in Milwaukee.