Take President Donald Trump at his word – act like he’s on the ballot during the midterm elections. It will help America become stronger.
If people remember that he’s on the ballot through a bunch of weak surrogates, then he should get a booming wake-up call at the twilight of his miserable political career. When millions of people in the November midterm elections vote to flip Congress to Democratic control, perhaps he’ll finally understand people are tired of his continuing shenanigans.
And what may be remembered as the straw that broke the back of infatuation with the orange camel? His Sept. 9 proposal for a $5,000 “dividend” payment to persuade American adults to vote Republican in November. It’s nothing more than a televised bribe – the kind of offer specifically prohibited by federal law (Title 18, Section 597).
Former Republican S.C. Gov. and Congressman Mark Sanford of Mount Pleasant said Sept. 11 that what Trump was proposing was just plain sick. Sanford, a fiscal hawk, knows paying $5,000 to 270 million American adults would add a walloping $1.2 trillion to the budget.
“Totally a bribe when we are borrowing 26 cents on every federal dollar we spend,” Sanford said in an early morning text. “It’s generational robbery and when the history books write on this, it will be seen for what it is – financial recklessness at new levels, codification of government-sponsored inequity and the attempt to just make it through the next two years without the roof caving in.
“This is an attempt at a calm before the storm of what’s coming financially and it won’t work.”
Sanford also didn’t mince words about Republicans who enable the Trump bribe: “That Republicans would put up with this and not decry it is also sick.”
What’s really dangerous about the kind of rhetoric that Trump is using – and you should realize that he has no intention of paying the bribe he’s offering because Congress would have to enable that – is that he continues to degrade the country’s moral fiber.
This man who holds Bibles upside-down, doesn’t go to church, criticizes respected religious leaders, continuously lies and intentionally inflicts emotional distress on a nation is a foundational cause of America’s strength being rotted away from the inside.
When others see him get away with rhetoric that pushes crippling proposals, they too go in for games of one-upmanship. And the once-strong United States continues a downward spiral.
But a come-uppance and return to sanity is just two months away as waves of mad and thoughtful American voters from Texas to Minnesota to Maine pull levers to bypass the GOP.
Maybe only then will Trump take off the partisan blinders and understand how frustrated people are with his truculent, nasty, narcissistic governing style. Maybe when Democrats take the House by a huge margin and recapture the U.S. Senate, will the mere calls for him to step down turn into attempts to formally remove him through impeachment or imposition of the provisions of the 25th amendment to the Constitution.
What’s happening across America now – and this week’s bribe puts icing on the cake – is the increasing likelihood that Trump will be toast during his last two years as president. That is, if his ongoing health challenges don’t drive him from office first.
Throw the bum out. Yes, remember that Donald Trump is actually on the ballot in November in the candidacies of a bunch of surrogates and enablers from sea to shining sea.
Absolute corruption is anti-democratic and something for which he and his GOP toadies must be held accountable.
Andy Brack is editor and publisher of Statehouse Report and the Charleston City Paper. Have a comment? Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com.
Help keep the City Paper free.
No paywalls.
No subscription cost.
Free delivery at 800 locations.
Help support independent journalism by donating today.
