NO, IT IS NOT

     The laptop was ornery yesterday and my live in techie had to fix it. Afterwards, while I was reading some articles, he popped his head in to ask, "Is it working?" My immediate response, obviously influenced by the articles and news, was a great big resounding, "No, it is not!"
      And that is the greatest and most serious reality we face today. It is an existential issue related to our immediate present and future and no, it is not my laptop. It is the very question as to whether or not we are actually still a democratic republic and will we remain that way, or have we already lost claim to a legal and legitimate democracy?
     Elected officials are to run the country assisted by capable appointees and career professionals. And obviously, the top elected official was to be the President, whose concern for the country, whose love for the country, whose sanity, wisdom, gestures, were all meant to convince people within and without the country that we are good. That we exist. That our founding principles are still there.
     Yet today that is not the case, tragically so. We have, literally, a case of the inmates running the asylum. The President is himself demented and has been called this by many of his former aides, so many, that it is impossible to look away. However, the most blatant violation he has done is the turning over of the running of the government to appointees, many who agree with his terrible policies and try to get them through even as they prevent this man from blowing it all up. This is a major NO - NO and cannot be allowed to continue and yet what are we to do?
     The Republican Party has lost its connection to anything but the retention of power. They speaketh with forked tongues as they offer some timid, very timid statements of criticism, yet back away as soon as push comes to shove. There are three Democratic Senators who are afraid to voice any opposition to Trump because their state voted for him so all the garbage gets thru due to numbers, as it works that way in the House as well. And Graham? He should be visited by the ghost of the man he praised at the man's funeral, as he turns away and does the exact opposite of what McCain would espouse. He should be haunted by him!
     And what about Collins and Murkowski, two Republicans who can and have voted apart from the Party but what will they do this time, with Kavanaugh, a lying immoral individual who fits right in with the current crowd! Abortion? The right for women to make their own decisions over their own bodies, to gain family planning advice, to have clinics where they can get help for women's health issues? All these will be ground under should Kavanaugh get affirmed and yet, the numbers say he will unless some Republicans and all Democrats vote conscience and not abnegation and fear and all that is negative within our government today.
     Democracy is on its deathbed today. We have allowed it to get to this horrible point. Trump tells his supporters it is their fault if he gets impeached, again denying responsibility for anything and encouraging other means of keeping him in power. He and those who abet him in his sham Presidency, yet very dangerous Presidency, are the major culprits here and we, the people, must do something. Anything! But the situation cannot remain status quo. Frankly, he needs to be impeached, a temporary President put in place, and all those who engaged in this sham of an administration, who have, yes, prevented worse things from happening, but who have twisted the rules and morals, all must go as well, from Pence to McConnell, Ryan, all who knew what was happening, yet kept their mouths shut! All to our detriment and the world's as well.
     This is a very dangerous time for America. Indeed, for the world. Chaos can easily become the status quo and evil strongmen can become the ipso facto ruler - yes, ruler - of America. Congress will become the imitator of the Russian Parliament, the Reichstag, and all other parliaments of the authoritarian countries.
      It is way above my pay grade as to figure out all the details. There have to be answers. There must be for the alternative is not to be contemplated. Never. Truly, the whole thing is not working today, is it and we must fix it. We must find our own live in techies who the capability to fix this governmental existential threat and NOW.