How many of you find yourself smacking your head and mumbling, 'What the hell is happening to my country?' I know I'm not alone and it happens so often lately I have a perpetual headache.
Vacillating between fear and hope, laughing and crying, anger and despair is a tough way to live, day to day. As someone who has been a political junky for most of my adult life, this is very new to me. I don't like it.
Growing up during the cold war meant you never trusted Russia. Ever. I realize there have been moments of calm between dictatorships in communist countries but never trust. I feel the same way about our 'President-elect', never trusting.
So many things are wrong in our political world now and nothing is trustworthy, in my opinion.
Many of you elected the next President of the U.S. expecting he would honor the highest office in our country only to find out he thinks it's his new 'reality show'. He says he's so smart he doesn't need daily briefings and thinks you're a fool for believing he was really going to help you bring back manufacturing jobs.
His cabinet picks are the antithesis of what he campaigned on and none of those folks are going to help bring back your jobs or find new ones for you. You're screwed.
Let's start with his choice for Education Secretary, Betsy DeVos. A billionaire who has spent most of her adult life advocating for School Choice and Voucher programs, with the express intent of ending public schools as we know them. She is diametrically opposed to public education.
I realize public schools vary widely from community to community, and the variation depends on your neighborhood. Inner city schools can be war zones, it's no secret. Rural schools, like many in the Rust Belt, are as deficient as inner city schools. These children will not benefit from Ms. DeVos' programs.
Then there's his choice for Secretary of Labor, Andrew Puzder, who wants to eliminate the minimum wage. He owns a chain of fast food restaurants and thinks his ads with 'beautiful women in bikinis eating burgers is very American.' Richard Trumka, head of the AFL-CIO says Puzder's business record is defined by fighting against working people.
What do these two choices alone tell you about how badly Trump duped his core followers? And they're just the tip of the iceberg. I'm sure he chose Elaine Chao, Mitch McConnell's wife, to get on the good side with Republicans in Congress but, now McConnell is participating in the investigation of Russian hacking.
The latest choice for Secretary of State is an old buddy of Putin's. Rex Tillerson, head of Exxon, has very close ties to Russia and this seems so blatant it's embarrassing. I would wager a guess that this is what prompted the CIA to come out about their investigation into the election hacking by Russia.
What a tangled web they're weaving.
I know many of my left-leaning friends say, "Pence is worse!" and I used to agree but, I can't anymore. Trump has turned this into a reality show circus and put each and every one of us in a dangerous place.
Mike Pence was the VP choice because he's a sheeple in Trumpland. He knew he was going to lose his governorship in Indiana this year and couldn't believe his good fortune when he got that call from the golden tower. He brought all the religious right with him.
Yes, with Pence, it's going to be a fight for sanity on the Supreme Court and women's rights for starters but, we won't be looking over our shoulder fearing the return of the 1950's.
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