On Day One

Today is Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, December 7, 1941, a day that will live in infamy.

I watched a replay of the Republican Debate on YouTube last night.  Thankfully, I was able to play it at 1.5 speed, which saved me about 40 minutes.  As a Democrat, I don’t normally enjoy watching Republican Debates, but this one was different.  Instead of attacking Democrats, they were attacking each other.  They are all trailing Donald Trump in the polls by massive numbers, but instead of taking him on, they fought with each other.  They should have made Donald Trump regret skipping the debate by using the entire time just to bash him.  Chris Christie did use much of his allotted time to point this out, while he also mentioned that Donald Trump will probably be a convicted felon by Election Day.  He was heavily booed for his truthfulness by the Republicans in the audience.

Surprisingly, Ron DeSantis had, what I thought, was the best answer to the GOP Trump dilemma, though.  He said that Republicans should not just be thinking of the next election but the one after it, and that instead of pushing for Trump now, they should work to elect a President who could serve two terms.

I hope Joe Biden was watching.  It probably wouldn’t be a bad idea for the Democrats to also consider running someone who could serve two terms.  If Joe Biden drops out of the race, we might be able to elect someone who would occupy the oval office for the next 8 years, instead of having to renew the fight in 4 years with a new candidate.  This would be a great time for Joe to both “take one for the team” and retire with honor. He answered the call in 2020 when his country needed him, and now, like John F. Kennedy said, “It is time to pass the torch to a new generation of Americans.”

While most of the Republican debate time was spent yelling at one another, the moderators did occasionally bring up a few issues, one of which was the conflict between Israel and Hamas.  We learned days earlier that Israeli Intelligence was warned ahead of time that Hamas would strike Israel on October 7^th, Putin’s birthday.  The warning was ignored as being preposterous.  Reminds me of when our intelligence agencies were informed in 2001 that some Arabs were taking flying lessons, but were not interested in learning how to take off or land.  We did not act on the warnings and that led to September 11, 2001, another day that will live in Infamy.

When asked recently in a town hall interview with Sean Hannity if he intended to be a Dictator, Trump “joked” that he would only be a dictator “on day one.”  His words resonated with his GOP challengers.  I didn’t really get much more out of the debate, but I did hear those three little words, over and over again, and it frightened me.  The four hopefuls on stage didn’t go as far as Trump, but the GOP Presidential hopefuls all made bold statements on the sweeping changes to Democracy that they would make “On Day One” if they became President.

When I was a kid, the town siren went off at noon every day.  It was the same air-raid siren that they would use to make everyone aware of an enemy attack.  As kids, we always worried that our town, and plenty of other towns in America would be vulnerable if the Russians ever attacked us at noon.  I don’t hear the noon siren go off anymore, so that no longer worries me.  I am now afraid, instead, that our people, our country, and our Democracy will suffer a massive attack from within “on day one” if any of these GOP Presidential candidates captures The Whitehouse in 2024.  If that should happen, Tuesday, November 5^th, 2024, Election Day, should be added to America’s list of days that will live in infamy.  Please don’t ignore the warning signs this time and be sure to vote against those who are hell-bent to destroy Democracy.  The Country you save just might be your own.

Peace & Love, and all of the above.

Earl