Today is the 50th anniversary of the Watergate break-in; hence the title of this post which stands for Committee to Re-elect the President. While detractors of late President Nixon feel the acronym is appropriate, I am writing today about the creeping change in our country that has made previously unimaginable conduct acceptable and even admirable. Fifty years ago Nixon could see as events unfolded that he would not survive impeachment and resigned in 1974. Just twenty-four years later Clinton went on to complete his second term when the US Senate failed to convict him in the wake of a sex scandal and charges of perjury. Less than twenty years later Americans gave Donald Trump an Electoral College victory in spite of his overtly boorish, amoral behavior and obvious aversion to the truth. Although the periods between these events may be looked upon as reassuring, the trend is not. This November could see the election at the local, state and federal level of candidates who seem to be saying they will not accept defeat at the polls and are willing to do whatever it takes to win. The question all of us need to answer is "Is this who we are?" If the answer is "No" then we need to take decisive action to reverse this trend. For starters, we can no longer afford to be apathetic towards elections. Absolutely nothing should keep us from voting. The issue of who to vote for is equally straightforward, in my opinion. As far as I am concerned, taxes, gun rights, abortion, education, the economy and other issues are all meaningless if we don't have free, fair and impartially conducted elections. All candidates with allegiance to Trump must be treated like the pariahs that they are. The uneven performance of Trump-backed candidates in the recent primaries shows that Trump and his ilk represent a minority of the electorate. They cannot win if the rest of us throw our collective weight into this election. And that calls for Republicans, Democrats and middle-of-the-roaders to show up at the polls and vote for a return to normalcy. The creep towards anarchy and chaos must be reversed.
- drrama7