The Man Who Would Be King—Vote Him Out Of Office
It’s critical to healing the nation and reclaiming the soul of America
Liberal vs. Conservative.
There is a simplistic way of defining the two primary ideologies — conservative and liberal — at each end of the SPECS[i] ecosystem (see endnote). Liberals tend to look at their nation’s past SPECS using contemporary (i.e., modern, progressive) lenses. While, conservatives are inclined to view their country’s contemporary SPECS using yesteryear’s (i.e., old, regressive) lenses. So, we have liberals in the U.S. — primarily those at the progressive end of the spectrum — judging political actions and policies implemented during the civil rights decade of the 1960s or the “tough on crime” decade of the 1990s with the hindsight that a more “woke” 2020 affords them. On the other hand, we have conservatives — particularly those at the fundamentalist end of the spectrum — bemoaning the state of a more diverse, modern-day America and yearning for the segregated “Leave it to Beaver” suburbia of the 1950s or longing for the “greed is good” decade of the 1980s without acknowledging the deleterious socio-economic impact those decades had on a majority of Americans outside of the top 1% from a wealth and income standpoint.
The SPECS pendulum and the Average Joe.
Neither of these ecosystems — when functioning at either end of the SPECS spectrum — are beneficial to our nation, especially when it is experiencing one of the highest levels of polarization in its history. We can’t afford to have the SPECS pendulum swing from one end to the other end every four to eight years without causing lasting damage to our national unity and our democratic institutions, as we have witnessed of late. In fact, the executive branch seems to be usurping more and more power than the Constitution intended it to, and a supine legislative branch is looking the other way — either because of an undivided or maybe due to a partly divided Congress. The Trump presidency and the Republican-led Senate have been very delinquent in this regard. Their negligence has resulted in a fissure in the decades-old conservative movement that has led many Republicans to either leave the GOP or turn into avowed “never-Trumpers,” as Trump seeks a second term. These disenchanted conservatives and independents are increasingly looking to the Democratic presidential nominee, Joe Biden, not necessarily their preferred choice under normal circumstances, but as their only choice given the dire situation that Trump has put the country in.
Liberal centrism.
In this vein, Bret Stephens, opinion columnist for the New York Times, in his August 17 editorial, “On Being a Biden Conservative,” stated:
“The success of liberal centrism now rests on the success of Biden’s candidacy; if Trump defeats him in November, the party could lurch far to the left, just as Republicans lurched far to the right after the successive losses by the McCain and Romney campaigns. Conservatives who worry that a Biden win will empower progressive Wokesters should fear how much more empowered they’ll be should he lose.”
Mr. Stephens speaks about the concerns of a lot of the folks in middle America, not in the traditional geographic sense, but to those in the middle of the SPECS ecosystem. Such centrist Americans — who probably constitute ~40% of the population — want the pendulum to stop closer to the SPECS center after the 2020 election. And, this big slice of moderates — made up of Democrats, Independents and Republicans — is looking to Joe Biden to provide that “liberal centrism.” They see it as critical to healing the nation and reclaiming the soul of America.
No more years for Trump!
It’s probably why the Washington’s Post’s Editorial Board, in its August 21 editorial, “A second Trump term might injure the democratic experiment beyond recovery,” made a cogent case against a second term for Trump without even mentioning his sustained assault on the First Amendment. While the Board wrote about Trump siccing “unbadged troops on peaceful protesters in D.C. and Portland, Ore.,” it left out his persistent denigrating of the press. By consistently labeling the media as “the enemy of the people,” Trump has attempted to condemn it as insignificant and unreliable.
While it is his First Amendment right to designate the media as he pleases, it is disconcerting when that right is invariably at odds with the truth. We have reached a situation, in which the president’s base of supporters — made up of tens of millions of Americans — trust him blindly. Trump lies repeatedly about — the coronavirus pandemic, nationwide protests against systemic racism, the state of the economy, vote by mail, the Mueller report, his impeachment, et al. — nearly every matter that affects his presidency.
Without truth “we don’t have a country.”
The truth is the foundation of our democracy: without it, we don’t have a functioning legislative branch, an effective judicial branch and, most importantly, an accountable executive branch — where a lot of constitutional power resides in a single individual, the president! If the president does not respect the truth, he is disrupting the very foundation of our democracy and when that foundation is weakened — to quote one of Trump’s favorite lines — “We don’t have a country!” So, I agree — with what a majority of Americans have indicated in most major nationwide polls per the RealClearPolitics (RCP) website — we’d like to keep our country but without Trump serving a second term in office. Let’s VOTE to restore honor and dignity to the White House and bring about a complete A to Z resurrection of the following:
The People’s Platform.
While the above table might seem touchy-feely, this commentary wasn’t meant to delve into specific policy positions under a Biden-Harris administration. Nonetheless, there is a ton of information available on Joe Biden’s website and the 2020 Democratic Party Platform covering policy details on various issues of concern to middle America — including, protecting Americans and recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic; building a stronger, fairer economy; achieving universal, affordable, quality health care; protecting communities and building trust by reforming our criminal justice system; healing the soul of America; combating the climate crisis and pursuing environmental justice; restoring and strengthening our democracy; creating a 21st century immigration system; providing a world-class education in every zip code; and, renewing American leadership.
Is Trump above the law?
So, if the choice is still not clear for wavering Americans, the conduct of the Republican National Convention (RNC) should make it much easier. New York Times columnist, Frank Bruni, lamented the spectacle in his August 26 op-ed, “The Epic Shamelessness of the Republican Convention” as follows:
“He and his loyalists will claim whatever they think they can get away with claiming. They will flout whichever rules don’t suit them. They will stage any stunt.
On Tuesday night President Trump pardoned — on live television — a former bank robber who now works with prison inmates, cheapening a big-hearted gesture by making it MAGA theater.
He emceed a naturalization ceremony — on live television — of five immigrants who belong to the sorts of ethnic groups or come from the kinds of places that he has routinely caricatured and vilified. This didn’t honor them. It reduced them to re-election props.
Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state, beamed into the convention from Jerusalem to gush over his boss, the kind of flamboyantly partisan act that had become unthinkable in this post. There’s no place for propriety when you’re pumping up this president.
Melania Trump spoke from the Rose Garden, never mind that the White House had never been used as a setting for a presidential nominating convention in modern times. Norms are for chumps, not for Trumps.”
Most importantly, the RNC had already resolved “That the 2020 Republican National Convention will adjourn without adopting a new platform…” and “…enthusiastically supports President Trump.” And, the 2020 RNC saw no irony in making a big deal of the law and order situation in the country — which the Trump administration has largely fueled — even as it repeatedly flouted the Hatch Act.
Reclaiming the soul of America.
In his tumultuous first term, our reality TV star president has repeatedly abused and debased the most powerful office in the world for cheap theater, illegal political advantage and self-glorification. Trump has made no bones about the fact that he would much rather rule like a king than a president. Fortunately for us, our Constitution does not allow for it — in fact, this nation was born in opposition to a monarchy. So, let’s do what the Constitution does allow us to do — vote this man, who would be king, out of office — and reclaim the soul of America!
[i] SPECS is an acronym for the overall Societal, Political, Economic, Cultural and Spiritual ecosystem that exists in a nation at any given period in time. I have used “spiritual” instead of “religion” in defining the SPECS ecosystem because spiritual encompasses a more generalized way of describing a plethora of faiths or belief systems, including agnostics and atheists, that either already exist or continue to evolve. Also, the environment (i.e., climate and nature) is considered to be an integral part of the economic health of a nation. Accordingly, a nation’s SPECS can lean in a direction ranging from very conservative to very liberal at different periods in its history. In a typical democracy, when the political ideology of its elected government changes direction, the corresponding changes in the nation’s SPECS are typically first seen in its economic policies. If the chosen government — with its reigning political ideology — remains in power for an extended period of time, the nation’s broader societal, cultural and spiritual changes could also be materially affected in the longer term. SPECS — which is also a popular short form in the techie world for specifications — thus define the primary features or specifications of a nation’s overall ecosystem.
