It's Clearly Time For Plan B

When learning the art of air traffic control, many trainers like to instill in their trainees the need for a plan B in case their initial plan for separation in a given scenario turns sour. You don't want to be so locked into making a poor decision work that you fail to utilize your alternate plan until it's too late. It's sound advice. And that's where I see us today as a nation, poised to reelect the most incompetent, unfit president in our history because many of you are insisting on making your initial plan work. I get that some of you voted for Trump as a protest vote or that you're a one-issue voter and that's all that matters (I was that guy once as well). I didn't agree with your vote because it was plainly obvious to most that he wasn't presidential material but given the built-in checks and balances of our democracy, I at least expected he would be prevented from acting on his worst inclinations.

I couldn't have been more wrong.

Trump has obliterated our time-tested system of checks and balances with a willing Senate and a Republican apparatus that's content to look the other way and give a pass to Trump's criminal actions in exchange for tax cuts for the wealthy and for packing our courts with a hard-right judiciary that also appears only too willing to go along with this grab for power. That's not democracy. It's authoritarian rule with a good amount of fascism added to the mix for flavor. It's not something to cozy up to or look upon with pride. You should be running from it.

I'm at a loss to understand what it is about the GOP in its present form that has people so beholden to it. They're not the party of fiscal responsibility they like to claim they are, nor are they the party of family values—not with a man like Trump leading them. They're pro-life you say? No, not when Trump has directed immigrant and refugee children at our southern border not be given vaccines and not when budgets are cut for needy and struggling families to help offset losses in tax revenue caused by irresponsible tax cuts rammed through by Republicans. How is any of that pro-life? It's been ten years that they've been tirelessly working to destroy the Affordable Care Act while offering up nothing in its place. Recall how Trump promised a new plan within a month of taking office. It was a lie. There was never a plan nor are they working on one.

I politely asked a friend recently in a Facebook discussion what it is about the Republican Party that has him in support of it. I was hoping to get him to ponder the question and while doing that, hopefully, maybe see that none of the things he once liked about the GOP still exist, if they ever did. He never responded to my question—I suppose, preferring to stick with his plan A, right into the ground.

It's clearly time for plan B.

That's all I've got.

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