By: Lisa M. Hayes
So, now we have to do our job.
I think you could ask any former President what the key to being a good President is and they would give you the same answer:
Surround yourself with the smartest people you can find.
As Trump started very slowly pulling together a cabinet and filling other critical positions in 2017 a lot of his selections were eyebrow-raising, putting it mildly. Steve Bannon, for example, took pride in his Alt-Right ties. His job, for as long as he had it, put a racist in the White House in broad daylight. Ben Carson, the brain surgeon, knows about as much about Housing and Urban development as any nine-year-old who’s proficient with legos.
Some of Trump’s choices are simply wildly unqualified. Some are blatant nepotism. Some appear to be openly evil. And many of them are gone or going. This is the most unstable administration in presidential history – and saying even that is an understatement.
With the departure of Rex Tillerson, it’s hard to know if we should laugh or cry. Let’s face it, Tillerson, the former oil tycoon, was probably hand picked by Putin. Many feel he did damage in his record-breakingly short stint in office that will have effects for not years, but generations to come.
So, maybe we should all breathe a collective sigh of relief – except we can’t. We can’t do that because Trump’s open demands for loyalty are making the hiring pool very, very shallow. It’s hard to trust anyone who passes the Trump test, let alone the Putin test.
Some say we are losing our standing as the leader among nations. I would say that ship sailed and the rest of the world knows that. Our President has made it very clear that “America first” is his foreign policy. Most Americans are left wondering what that even means but the rest of the world knows he can’t be trusted. As the leadership he surrounds himself with is dropping like X-Wing fighters being pummeled by the Death Star, what we are left with is a President surrounded by no one we can trust.
The 2018 mid-terms matter more than any electoral cycle in human history. Although that might sound melodramatic, it’s not. We are on a crash course with history. We will be judged for our action or inaction. In any election, the key to success is getting people to the polls. Millions of dollars are spent on get out the vote efforts.
So, let’s talk about the work of “real patriots”. In 2018, real patriots will get themselves, their families, the friends, and their neighbors out to vote. If this President isn’t capable or simply won’t surround himself with smart people who will help him lead this country, we need to do it for him. We need to turn the legislature blue.
Every departure from this administration, no matter how vile the human who is leaving, is sending us further into a death spiral of a failing democracy. Trump is not capable of designing a leadership team who will challenge him.
The good news about democracy is, it’s still built on people. Truth be told, we may have already lost our democracy. However, 2018 can be the year we took it back. This administration is openly hostile towards women. It’s also by most accounts openly racist. Women are the largest voting block in the United States. It’s time we take our power back, and in the process empower others.
