We need less political name-calling and insults -- encouraged by Russian bots sent out to destroy our democracy -- and we need more common-sense discussion. More wisdom.
Wisdom is out there, if we're open to seeking it from all sources. Quoting longtime conservative columnist George Will, a Republican until he resigned from the Republican Party, fed up with spineless colleagues who made too many excuses for Donald Trump and took too little action to censure him: “We shall learn from Robert Mueller's investigation whether in 2016 there was collusion with Russia by members of the Trump campaign. The world, however, saw in Helsinki something more grave – ongoing collusion between Trump, now in power, and Russia. “The collusion is in what Trump says (refusing to back America's intelligence agencies) and in what evidently went unsaid (such as: Stop disrupting Ukraine, downing civilian airliners, attempting to assassinate people people abroad using poisons … and so on.)” Why this collusion for all the world to see? Again, quoting Will: “The most innocent inference is that for decades Trump has depended on an American weakness -- susceptibility to the tacky charisma of wealth, which would evaporate when his (Trump's) tax returns revealed that he has always lied about his wealth, too. “A more ominous explanation might be that his demonstrated incompetence as a businessman tumbled him into unsavory financial dependencies on Russians. “A still more sinister explanation might be that the Russians have something else, something worse, to keep him compliant.” To keep him a puppet to Putin's puppet-master. Mueller's investigation must be allowed to proceed to the end. It's difficult to fathom that the 26 Russians now under indictment did not have contact, or coordination, or collusion from Americans. Putin himself, in the infamous Helsinki press conference where Trump threw our country under his bus, said that, yes, he did want Trump to become president. More wisdom … Quoting from the historical fiction novel about World War II, All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr – this passage comes from a chapter wherein a German leader of Hitler youth indoctrinates his teenage trainees: “You have minds. But minds are not to be trusted. Minds are always drifting toward ambiguity, toward questions, when what you really need is certainty. Purpose. Clarity. Do not trust your minds.” Trump demands certainty. Don't question why we need to tear children from families seeking legal asylum at the border. Don't believe the independent media. (They were silenced in Hitler's Germany.) Don't wonder why we need tax breaks for the richest and fewer services for those who are not the richest. And again from All the Light We Cannot See. In this passage, a member of the French resistance (an elderly woman) is arguing with someone who counsels caution and a head-down, wait-and-see attitude toward the German occupiers of their little town: “Do you know what happens, Etienne, when you drop a frog in a pot of boiling water?” “You will tell us, I'm sure.” “It jumps out. But do you know what happens when you put the frog in a pot of cool water and then slowly bring it to a boil? You know what happens then? “The frog cooks.” If you still believe in Donald Trump as the leader of America, much less the free world … If you believe that your 401K will continue to prosper long-term as Trump and oligarchic policies create fewer haves and more have-nots in America … If you believe that tariffs on our allies are the answer as more farmers, consumers, companies (i.e., Harley-Davidson) and workers suffer … If you believe that Social Security and Medicare will survive in an everyone-for-themselves America … If you believe that Trump really puts America first and not himself, then you are … Cooking. Paul Anger Metairie Indivisible
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