{"id":76742,"date":"2017-01-11T05:03:21","date_gmt":"2017-01-11T10:03:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=76742"},"modified":"2017-01-10T20:56:35","modified_gmt":"2017-01-11T01:56:35","slug":"column-from-here-and-back-again-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=76742","title":{"rendered":"COLUMN: From Here and Back Again"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Jim<\/a>
Jim Coufal<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What Have We Wrought? Part II: Trump, by his actions we know him; by your actions we know you<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n

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A recent Trump tweet provides a continuing clue to his style. Sen. Charles Schumer warned that repealing Obamacare would \u201cMake America Sick Again.\u201d Trump responded via Twitter that Schumer is the democrats’ \u201chead clown.\u201d<\/div>\n
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No substance, just another ad hominem<\/i> attack. Only a few days earlier, Trump said he liked Schumer better than the Republican leadership. The mercurial actions of an egomaniac, as so many times shown during the campaign and since.<\/div>\n
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Policy by Twitter.<\/div>\n
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I\u2019ll describe how we know Trump by his actions below. First, I\u2019ll boldly proclaim that those of you who voted for Trump, or voted for a third-party candidate, or cast no vote on principle, are bigots. Regarding racism, you may not consider yourself a racist, but you elected a clear racist. To paraphrase Tess Donnelly, you may not have put the lynching rope around the neck, but you brought it to the party.<\/div>\n

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You are at least an accessory to the fact, and, clearly, you are an enabler. While objecting to the thought of electing a socialist, you have elected a fascist. That Trump is a fascist is very obvious in comparing his actions to the history of the 1930s. It is there for those who have ears to hear and eyes to see, and it was well documented before election day.<\/div>\n
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While standing on a principle of conscience, you ignored other principles, such as protecting the common welfare.<\/div>\n
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A few examples must suffice here. While the major intelligence agencies provide proof of Russia hacking and manipulating the recent election, Trump poo-poos them because he is \u201csmart\u201d; hell, he doesn\u2019t even need daily intelligence briefings. What should be considered an act of war, Trump and his Republican cronies downplay out of fear the election should be called back as illegal; and it should.<\/div>\n
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Ideology and power before the people and the country. Imagine if the accusation had been proven that Putin helped Hillary get elected.<\/div>\n
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Trump\u2019s cabinet and other appointees don\u2019t get us out of \u201cthe Swamp,\u201d they simply replace the turtles with outrageous crocodiles. His 17\u00a0Cabinet appointees are worth more than about the lowest third of the American population en total<\/i>. They\u2019ll sure have the best interests of the lower and middle class in their actions, not.<\/div>\n
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While Obama called and calls for getting big money out of elections, Betsy Devos, Trump\u2019s nominee for Secretary of Education openly says, \u201cWe are buying influence (with election contributions) \u2026We expect a return on our investment.\u201d She has been consistently against public education, and, like all the appointees, is the antithesis of what the department stands for.<\/div>\n
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Acting as if he is already president (or king or emperor), Trump asked all of Obama\u2019s foreign ambassadors to pack up and leave their posts by inauguration day. This shows no regard for the ambassadors and their families, will leave us without representation around the world, and will create a rush to get new appointees (his cronies) in place with little, if any, vetting.<\/div>\n
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This is how he plans to preserve and protect the country. Sure it is.<\/div>\n
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Enough here. His words and actions are available to anyone who takes the time to look beyond Fox, Rush, Hannity and Limbaugh.<\/div>\n
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We have a man who has threatened to jail political appointees (shades of Hitler and Pinochet), who incited and licensed violence at rallies, told Russia to hack U.S. data, refused security briefings and cozied up to Putin, is looking to take health care from 25-plus million people, calls climate change a hoax and derides science in favor of his \u201csmarts,\u201d etc., etc., etc., and he will be sworn in as president in just a few days.<\/div>\n
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What have we wrought!!!?<\/div>\n
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I\u2019ll\u00a0 let David Boaz, CEO of the libertarian think-tank have the next to last word here:<\/div>\n
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\u201cFrom a libertarian point of view\u2014and I think serious conservatives and liberals would share this view\u2014Trump\u2019s greatest offenses against American tradition and our founding principles are his nativism and his promise of one-man rule. Not since George Wallace has there been a presidential candidate who made racial and religious scapegoating so central to his campaign. <\/em><\/div>\n
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“Trump launched his campaign talking about Mexican rapists and has gone on to rant about mass deportation, bans on Muslim immigration, shutting down mosques, and building a wall around America. America is an exceptional nation in large part because we\u2019ve aspired to rise above such prejudices and guarantee life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to everyone.<\/em><\/div>\n
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“Equally troubling is his idea of the presidency\u2014his promise that he\u2019s the guy, the man on a white horse, who can ride into Washington, fire the stupid people, hire the best people and fix everything. He doesn\u2019t talk about policy or working with Congress. He\u2019s effectively vowing to be an American Mussolini, concentrating power in the Trump White House and governing by fiat. It\u2019s a vision to make the last 16 years of executive abuse of power seem modest.\u201d<\/em><\/div>\n
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Last word goes to Viola Davis at the Golden Globe Awards; she pointed out a disturbing reality for the bigots who voted for Trump.<\/div>\n
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\u201cThere is no way that we can have anyone in office that is not an extension of our own belief system,\u201d Davis said. \u201cSo, then, what does that say about us? If you answer that question, I think that says it all.\u201d<\/div>\n
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If the shoe fits, wear it.<\/div>\n
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Jim Coufal of Cazenovia is a part-time philosopher and full-time observer of global trends. He can be reached at madnews@m3pmedia.com.<\/em><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What Have We Wrought? Part II: Trump, by his actions we know him; by your actions we know you A recent Trump tweet provides a continuing clue to his style. Sen. Charles Schumer warned that repealing Obamacare would \u201cMake America Sick Again.\u201d Trump responded via Twitter that Schumer is the democrats’ \u201chead clown.\u201d No substance, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35879,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23677,23808,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columns","category-opinion","category-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=76742"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76742\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/35879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=76742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=76742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=76742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}