By Ashley Herndon
OCEANSIDE, Calif. | Last month, Donald Trump was arrested in my home state of Georgia … his fourth indictment in 2023 alone. This one based on his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Herndon
We all remember the period following the November 2020 election where the defeated ‘occupant’, and his allies took multitudinous illegal and immoral actions, including trying to intimidate Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State, into overturning the duly certified Georgia results with bald-faced lies. That was not bravery or righteous, it was illegal, and the trials will most likely prove it. One of the defendants has already pleaded guilty, and we can most likely see more ‘fess up.
This is a deeply disappointing moment for the (our) country. When we look back, it is hard to fathom just how close we were to a total collapse of our democracy and constitutional rights – led by a losing former president, behaving like a spoiled child.
The criminal justice system will deal with Trump and his allies and toadies. However, whether one supports his heinous acts or not, the undeniable fact is, our democracy is under attack more than at any point in our nation’s history and is comparable to the greed hate that led to the Civil War.
Study and compare the national security of other countries in comparison to ours … select a period of 10 or 12 years when they were extremely polarized and their politics were a mess. They couldn’t get anything worthwhile accomplished. Now, sadly, our United States is in one of those periods – a decade of instability leading ultimately to a completely frozen House, with many members swearing to denude our children and seniors of their protections and many of the ‘others.’ How does a speaker of the US House get run off? How sad it is that the now “Gone Old Party” can only offer radical firebrands to replace him?
We will get through this, but in order to, we all must do a better job of protecting our rights as citizens, and returning civility around our country. And that begins with paying attention and working to elect honest and principled leaders who will safeguard the rights of ALL Americans. We need leaders who will organize and do a better job of laying out a strategy for protecting our most fundamental rights, our democratic institutions as granted in “The” Constitution. If necessary, re-read both of our founding documents’ preambles as a refresher.
As we think about today and the coming days, our history is in our own hands…not theirs. It is hard to overstate the importance of all 2024 races. Is there an open seat or a wobbly seat in a notorious swing state or district that could decide who controls the White House and Congress?
We must never stop fighting for honest and principled elected people that are leaders, not bullies and degenerates. Leaders deserve the position, so don’t buy it to misuse it.
We have a battle ahead. It’s going to take all of us working together to get ‘er done!
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