Wrong Path

Have people lost their damn minds? What do you think?

President Abraham Lincoln, the founding father of the Republican Party, was assassinated this week in 1865, which means next year, the Maundy Monday Newsletter will be writing more about the events that surrounded this national tragedy. Go ahead and mark your calendars, friends.

Unfortunately, we are currently experiencing our next national tragedy, which includes the same Grand Old Party that can trace its history back to Lincoln. However, it is accelerating down the path to authoritarianism.

If we were picking paths, this would not be the one I’d want to be on.

As we wander down this path with our tour guide, former President Donald Trump, we find ourselves veering off into yet another legal proceeding – in case you can’t keep track, and I can’t blame you if you can’t – this one involves a sexual encounter with an adult film actress that Tour Guide President Trump wanted to cover up when he was a candidate for the job in 2016.  

Down another path, we see the Supreme Court is considering what to do with the people who listened to this narcissistic sherpa on January 6, 2021. Oh, in case you were wondering, one justice decided not to recuse himself from the case despite his wife being intimately involved in trying to overturn the election, showing, once again, how unethical he is.

A cloud of despair hangs over the 2024 presidential election, but this week has been particularly deflating. It began on Sunday when a few former Trump critics changed their tune.

On ABC's political round-up television show, New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu—nunu—nu said some disturbing things. Sununu—nunu—nu was a vocal critic of Trump back in the day, way back in 2023. He told people back then that if Trump were convicted of a crime, he would need to drop out of the presidential race.

While he still thinks Trump was at fault for the insurrection and that he hates the election denialism of 2020, Sununu—nunu—nu argued that Americans have decided that they needed a ‘culture change,’ and the Republican party was it because “Liberal Elites” are running America off the right path. It was about the Party, not about Trump.

Then, on Wednesday, former Attorney General Bob Barr told Fox News that he would support Trump because voting for the current president is “national suicide.” Like Sununu—nunu—nu, Barr told people back in July that he would not endorse a Trump administration. This is a guy who worked for Trump and, like the governor, holds Trump responsible for the violent takeover of Congress. But just like Chris, it was about the party, not Trump. So, both of these guys got back on the path of MAGA.

This is now the Republican talking point, and it seems to work.

I can’t help but think – Have people lost their damn minds?

The answer is yes, yes, they have. I do not understand the thought process of supporting this man at this stage unless you are for the authoritarian movement. Every single Republican is telling us over and over that Trump is an instrument in a symphony that will play music that makes your ears bleed.

Yet despite this, somehow, the needle is not moving in the direction of the guy who expanded overtime pay, instituted the first over-the-counter birth control pill, spent hundreds of millions of dollars on kids' mental health due to mass school shootings (the first one we remember today), cracked down on junk and overdraft fees, forced China to open their books if they want to be listed on the Stock Exchange, and many, many more (just read this list of 30 things). These are things that you haven’t heard of.

I’m not going down the path where I continue to rant because what’s the point? But this week, you should know no one is coming to save you from the Republican party and their desire to create a country based on nationalism. And they will not birth this new country through a Civil War or violence at all.

Trump isn’t out gathering up an army with tanks and weapons; he’s out cheating at golf and eating buckets of chicken while telling you Robert E. Lee is just now not looked upon unfavorably for some reason.

No, he’s the instrument for a 100-year reign. It’s Nazism without Hitler. It’s the people like Sununu—nunu—nu and Barr who will carry water and tell others it is okay to change their minds about Trump. It’s okay to vote for Trump because voting for Trump isn’t about Trump; it’s about the party. And it’s the party that is important.

You know who disagrees with that premise? Trump.  

But right now, where you live, precinct captains, the people who manage elections, are falling into the hands of MAGA supporters. The Republican party calls for investigations into disinformation and conspiracy theories, censorship, and is willing to shut down the government just for kicks.

We are not on the right path, and we need more people to see where we are and move in another direction.

Thanks for reading my TED talk.

Speaking of Lincoln, paths, my Irish citizenship, and making things happen, the Transcontentia Roailford was completed 155 years ago next month. It connected the eastern half of the United States to California. What used to take months of travel, either by sailing around the world or driving through on horseback, now took about eight days.

The guy who told us to create this path was President Abraham Lincoln. In April 1869, Nine Irishmen and a few Chinese laborers laid eight miles' worth of iron for the railway. It was a record and a remarkable feat of human ability to take an idea to make it a reality from the chief executive to labor that made our country better.

Not great again. But better.

How do we prop up the things that make us better rather than tear us down?

How did we get to the end of April? I love that it is getting warmer, but at the same time, it appears there is more of me than I like. So, this weekend, I will focus on not eating like a jerk and getting more exercise. This will not involve running outside, however.

I’ll see you back here on Monday and hope your weekend is a good one!

Okay,

Chris

Blue can’t be the only watchdog of our government