I know it's imperative that SOMEHOW we not live with Trump in the WH for 4 years, and I'd feel optimistic about the Dems gaining at least the House except -- RUSSIANS and Russian election meddling as if the GOP didn't have enough tools of its own to thwart the REAL will of the people.
I feel -- strongly -- that right now, these last several days -- Trump is positioning himself for MAJOR power plays. Major. He's noticed that the more he piles on with his atrocities, the less able we all are to stop him, the more overwhelmed we become, the more successful he is.
He just defied the entire Congress by refusing to implement Russian sanctions and ignoring the requirement to build a new oligarch's list. Nothing's going to happen, which isn't all that tacit a permission slip to do more, go farther.
He found an alternative way to undermine the Mueller investigation -- and is apparently having more success with that than he should since the Republicans in Congress won't stand up to him and tell him to stop.
He seems intent on making ALL the part of the Executive Branch his personal playthings and again, no one will explain to him that that's not the way our government works.
I see this as a VERY dangerous time. Very. I'm more concerned than I have ever been and see not enough potential for fixing things. Mueller alone won't be able to do it.
There are 2 things we MUST fix if we survive this:
1. Enshrine in law all those time-honored traditions and norms that Trump thumbs his nose at daily and
2. De-overturn every damn thing Obama got done that Trump is overturning.
There's another thing I'd like to see: Some way to exert more pressure on our elected officials IN BETWEEN elections. They're not paying attention to us. They're ignoring us, thumbing THEIR noses at us, while all of us are getting utterly exhausted trying to make ourselves heard. Or at least I am.
Our system of elections was set up at a time when it took WEEKS for those who had to go to Washington to participate in the offices to which they'd been elected to get there, and Pony Express was the fastest way to get news.
But now things happen and news breaks at lightning speed, and we need something that will make these people more RESPONSIVE between elections. We're still stuck with Pony Express time frames.
Not sure what that would be, but what we've got is increasingly intolerable to me. Maybe open up the recall process or something. Maybe have formal (voter-driven) "report cards" and if they fall below a certain level a recall election becomes automatic (I like this one!). SOMETHING to make them more responsive. That goes for our Democrats too. Sometimes they don't listen so good either.
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