Can the nation's women be our savior?

A new day and a new month. It's Tuesday, Aug. 1, as we lean into this final month of summer and grasp the inevitability of colder temperatures. The "nip in the air" comes about in mid-August evenings. We'll hear crickets in the night. 

Not much changes in the news. How horrific that we are in this holding pattern: another day, another month, the status quo of seeing top headlines about Donald Trump. 

My friends will moan: "You're still writing about Trump?" 

Why does this man command our attention incessantly? I'm not certain that America as we've known it is going to survive this. I call on the women of America to take the lead in suppressing the Trump element, the Trump movement, however you'd want to define it all. A total bull in the China closet? Tear everything down? 

Mitch McConnell (wikimedia)

Endanger the very lives of people who are known to vote for Democrats? Criminalize "left wing" political activity? Women have lost rights because of Trump as president and his nominees to the Supreme Court. Nominees taken from a list supplied by Mitch McConnell. 

We have to say a little prayer now every time McConnell approaches a microphone. Will he freeze up and his mind go blank? What kind of impression does this give to the rest of the world? Judge Kaplan in New York State has said it is accurate to say Trump committed rape. Women should have an appropriate response to this. Can they rise up in sufficient numbers? Could we finally get a female president? 

Why do so many people act so scared of Kamala Harris? A tremendously sharp mind, articulate, so compare that to old fossil McConnell of Kentucky, a state where the culture is discernibly different from our Minnesota. When McConnell faltered and had to be led aside from the microphones, the guy who took over was from South Dakota. John Thune took over and showed full mental capacity. 

But is that such a high bar for an important political leader? We might expect people from North and South Dakota, despite their Republican affiliation, to be more gentle and reasonable than the Deep South denizens. Why don't we hear more about the latter people being from "states of the old Confederacy?" Is that too sensitive to broach? 

Might we all be better off if the Deep South just detached from the rest of us, like they wanted to do in the 19th Century? Just watch when they realize they'd have to set up their own social welfare systems. So it's just a pipe dream down there. But they know how to "talk a good game." Is that all that is going on now?

 

America turns its lonely eyes

Again I would turn to women as the people best positioned to see through this. That's because women by nature are nurturers while men tend to be destroyers. Can you name one well-known national leader who was a woman in World War II? Women all through the stricken countries must have been just cowering and terrified. We see all the movies with the male leading characters leading their interests through the conflagration of WWII. Like the whole world revolved around those men. Which, as a factual matter I guess it did. Men simply had the power. Hitler, Mussolini, Churchill, Eisenhower et al. Fight, destroy, kill. 

Hitler had his own generals killed, so why on Earth did our Trump find it appropriate in contemporary times to say Hitler's generals set an example with their loyalty? I'll be the child saying the emperor has no clothes: Why is it that I as a faceless commoner type have better knowledge of world history than a man who would be president of the U.S.? 

Hitler as a matter of fact had significant trouble commanding "loyalty" from his generals. My God, household name general Erwin Rommel had to be put to death because he had knowledge of the plan to assassinate Hitler. It was the Nazi SS that might be said to have had blind loyalty to the Fuhrer - that was a primary reason for its creation. 

Russia does not get enough credit for putting down Nazi Germany. Or was it "Soviet Union" then? I get confused on that. It was the "Red Army." 

Kamala Harris (wikimedia)

How scared are certain people of Kamala Harris today? Newt Gingrich went on one of the standard right wing TV programs - ah, TV and its alternate reality - and said Harris' laugh was a disqualifier. Really the VP has a most pleasant and invigorating laugh. So does Hillary Clinton. The world needs more of that relaxed type of demeanor. And I think women would understand that. 

But on this first day of August, 2023, with summer hanging on - the fair around the corner - we in America are still dealing with Trump. So I take it upon myself to write more about him, this man about whom Judge Kaplan said it's accurate to say he committed rape. My Trump-oriented friends would just smile if I pointed this out. They always fall back on just laughing at me or saying "so what?" They can answer any charge with the two-word proclamation "so what?" 

So they are just going to support Trump no matter what. 

Women make up half the population. Maybe they are just electing to stay quiet for the time being. You don't tend to hear them thumping their chest about Trump like men do. Some will, of course, and I suppose it's sexist to suggest many of the women are influenced by their husbands/partners. 

You telling me the Apostolic Christian women aren't influenced by their husbands? Or the women in the pews of other self-styled "conservative" churches here? Our hope is that they'll do the right thing in the privacy of the voting booth. 

What is the extent of the peril now? The big headline this morning is that Trump is neck-and-neck with Biden in the polls. 

 

He keeps going

They say age is working against Biden. Some radio hosts take delight in playing some of Biden's gaffes or moments of disorientation in his speech. At least he keeps talking, does not seem outright comatose or in danger of hurting himself (like by falling) like Mitch McConnell. 

The Trump supporters are largely silent about McConnell. Why am I having to even write about McConnell here - he should be getting special care because of his advanced age and condition. He should be done with having his name in the morning news headlines. 

So here we go and it's just another day with the usual salad of news items emanating from Trump, the lawyers and the prosecutors who are busy with him. It crowds out everything else. 

Why don't people wise up? Wise up and demand a new younger generation of political leaders, for one thing. Rise up and demand simple character in our top political leaders, to push aside someone who can be considered a convicted rapist. 

Can you believe America has actually fallen to this level? Well, I have to believe that it actually has. 

Anyone disagree?

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com