Most people know how to park in a lot or along the street — you pull into the middle of one space and turn off the car.
But every now and then, somebody who owns a monster truck or luxury car thinks they’re so special that they pull diagonally into two spaces — just so no one else will park close enough to (God forbid!) ding their door.
More and more, Americans are seeing their country acting like that jerk in the monster truck, domestically and internationally.
They see a Congress smitten by a president who horsewhips its leaders to push through legislation that is hundreds of pages long and has negative impacts to millions with most members never even reading it. At the same time, they see congressional lemmings so cowed by the same president that they adjourn, instead of considering a sex scandal that might tar that president, a convicted felon.
They see rampant graft, corruption and a steady stream of lies from this president who constantly uses his pulpit to bully, smear and ridicule. How can acceptance of a free Qatari 747-8 jet which will cost $400 million to upgrade and ultimately be donated to the president’s library for personal use be considered anything other than an in-the-open bribe?
They see a United States Supreme Court so cowed by politics that it is letting America’s much-vaunted principle of rule of law slip away, eroding like sand from a beach during a hurricane.
They see cuts to vital public agencies — from forecasting services at the National Hurricane Center to life-saving research grants at the National Institutes of Health — in a disgusting attempt to cripple the government that serves the people.
They see the U.S. Immigration and Customs Service morphing into a fear-mongering law enforcement agency that will get $150 billion over four years — higher annual funding than the militaries in 15 other countries, according to Newsweek. At the same time, they’re increasingly horrified by ICE agents who now wear masks when making mass raids that lead to deportations of law-abiding immigrants who want to be part of the American dream. Isn’t it surprising how the Republican party of law and order is fueling citizen fear of law enforcement? Not a good sign in a country that cherishes freedom.
On top of all of this, they hear a vice president who wants to take America back to the era of Jim Crow. Here’s how historian Heather Cox Richardson described it in late July:
“On July 5, 2025, Vice President J.D. Vance told an audience at the Claremont Institute he rejected the idea that being an American simply meant agreeing with the principles articulated in the Declaration of Independence. He complained not only that such a definition would include too many people, but also that it would exclude those who disagreed with it, even if their ancestors had fought in the Revolutionary War and the Civil War.”
Janis Joplin once crooned, “Freedom is just another word for nothin’ left to lose. Nothin’, don’t mean nothin’ hon’ if it ain’t free, no-no.”
We have a lot to lose. Let’s keep freedom strong and fight those who want our government to park like that monster truck. Let’s not die a death of a thousand cuts.
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