Aug. 25, 2018. That’s the day John McCain died and the day the Republican Party went on life support. After a long illness, the Republican Party died on Jan. 31, 2020. The Republican Party has now been replaced by the Trump Party, but Donald Trump is no longer president. Trump is now emperor. It turns out that Trump was correct when he said he could do whatever he wanted.
In a way, it is surprising that this could have happened. Trump lost the popular vote in 2016 by almost 3 million votes. But thanks to gerrymandering, voter suppression and our electoral college system, Trump was awarded the presidency. He now dictates to the Senate, whose members bow down before him. People like Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Sen. Dan Sullivan, and Rep. Don Young are nothing more than lackeys who serve the emperor. He is close to having the Supreme Court in his pocket, and the House of Representatives can complain but is almost powerless. It’s official. We had a republic but we were unable to keep it, as Ben Franklin had warned.
So what happens next? Can the republic be revived? Maybe, but who knows? The polarization here is symptomatic of greater problems throughout the world such as those related to overpopulation, effects of climate change and associated competition among groups for resources, race- and religious-related hatred and violence, government and corporate corruption, and the list goes on. It is difficult to imagine that things will be getting better anytime soon here or in the rest of the world. Anyway, sorry for the gloom and doom, but if someone has a solution, I’d be glad to hear it.
— Robert Rodrigues
Anchorage
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