Will Americans Vote for More War, Higher Prices and Fewer Public Services?

ACCORDING TO LIZ - In the wake of Lula da Silva’s historic win in Brazil over the Trump-supported son of the incarcerated Bolsonaro (who the White House helped flee to Miami to avoid prosecution on corruption and money laundering charges), and Serbian strongman Aleksandar Vučić’s crash-and-burn, both on Sunday, what will happen here?

Starkly, if the Republican trifecta is maintained, Americans will have voted for more war, higher prices, greater gutting of environmental and other safeguards, and dramatically less public services – safety, health and legal protections.

If they don’t, will Trump seek to emulate the whining felonious son of a criminal and stir up shit, or will he grumblingly accept, not his own abdication, but the diminution of his enablers in the House and Senate, undoubtedly with the inevitable finger-pointing blame against his perceived enemies in social media screeds? Or make like his evil crony-in-arms Netanyahu and cling on with his manicured fingernails until the bloody end.

And it will be bloody, both literally and figuratively.

When a series of surveys asked nearly 20,000 Americans in 39 competitive states and districts about presidential war powers and major aspects of U.S. foreign policy, they found bipartisan majorities favoring restricting presidential authority over the use of military force, including nuclear strikes, maintaining the global ban on nuclear testing, and maintaining arms control limits for Russia.

Trump’s deal for diesel that is pouring money into Putin’s war coffers is drastically escalating attacks on Ukraine. An action opposed by Democrats and Republicans alike, as is his desire to lift sanctions on Moscow-controlled slush funds to further cozy up to the neo-Bolshevik bully.

And was it Musk that pulled the plug on Ukraine’s military internet use, killing people and impacting the country’s survival? Or Trump, so he then could make a big deal about asking the wealthiest man in the world to reverse the throttling back the protection provided by Starshield satellites. 

Zelenskyy should prosecute Musk for murder and malicious interference, demanding damages that will allow his country to counter Trump grievously placing his fat thumb on Putin’s side of the scale in a monstrously misguided attempt to manipulate the outcome of the American election.

Now the president continues to stir the pot with further threats on Iran and pulling diplomats and staff from American missions across the Middle East.

If Americans want to send a clear message to Trump to show they don’t want their tax dollars wasted on more wars or destroying foreign infrastructures (which will only push up energy prices at home even higher), vote against ALL Republican candidate.

More than politics itself, the economy is why the winds are blowing Republican and independent voters away from Trump.

People recognize good government is what determines if they can afford a home, whether one job is enough to support a family, that all children have access to good public schools and everyone to the health care they need. That government must work for ordinary people, not just for the wealthy and well-connected.

Those issues aren’t red or blue. What people want isn’t unreasonable. It’s what their parents and grandparents had: leaders who understood their lives, respected their communities, and focused on solving real problems instead of stirring up more divisiveness.

They need to vote in opposition to Trump’s record on accelerating climate change at a time when wildfires flamed over nine million American acres and heat waves killed 50,000 in Europe. And his proposed lifting of methane emissions for his oil company buddies that will only accelerate global warming.

Plus, the administration’s mind-blowing venality. According to a pre-election Fox News poll, voters identified “corruption in government” as a more serious concern than even inflation.

Michigan senator Elissa Slotkin made the point that while a Democratic-controlled Congress should impose accountability on the Trump administration, but it can’t become the “whole personality” of the Congress.

Slotkin recommended using “signature” cases against those in the administration who enabled the extraordinary halitosis of sleaze spewing from the president to heel.

Trump will almost certainly issue pre-emptive pardons to shield his family, cabinet members, ambassadors, senior executive branch officials, and federal judges from criminal liability for any federal crimes committed during his time in office, and the bought-and-paid-for Supreme Court will undoubtedly continue to turn a blind eye to this egregious and egoistical gutting of the rule of law.

Instead of impeachment, the perils of which the president has wriggled corpulently free from before, Slotkin suggests public corruption cases should selectively brought in clear cases of malfeasance by public officials where the law is unambiguous and evidence overwhelming.

Yes, impeachment appears a more appropriate political remedy for “high crimes and misdemeanors” that would ban a convicted person from “any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States.” Unfortunately, the latter, more satisfying consequence is moot for a lame-duck president, and it’s extremely unlikely that any of his unqualified minions might continue in office once their benefactor was evicted from the White House.

Key to all this is the deterrence factor for the MAGA-world that never thought they’d be held accountable for their adulation and emulation of Trump’s offensive behavior. 

The pack mentality of the men who the president has chosen to surround himself, its bro-codes and blind loyalty, demonstrates that it is weakening in the face of its own failures but like the threatened animals they are, only strike out more viciously. 

The strength of democratic government rests on the belief that no-one can exploit the public trust, enrich themselves and harm the Republic without severe consequences, and claim accountability would destabilize the country.

Not to mention that Trump is a disgusting human being and his associates Jeffrey Epstein, Vivek Rammaswamy et al just reflect his putrid soul with his pettiness on full display when he taunted poorer Americans at a recent rally, saying voters wouldn’t even be able to afford “a hamburger and a small dessert” at his private Mar-a-Lago resort.

To paraphrase Michelle Goldberg in the New York Times, if even Republicans deem such moral depravity as disqualifying, it’s terrible news for Trump and those closest to him and, hopefully, the final kick in the tuchus onto the slippery steep slope out of office. 

Structural incentives inside government are currently designed to manufacture caution, not courage so, again, it is up to we-the-people to kick change into gear, making it more and more apparent to politicians that they can continue ignoring the public only at their own peril.

Check out a May article about the administration’s self-dealing], one that was probably already out of date when published due to the accelerating avalanche of scandals that never stop. The hits to morality and integrity just keep on coming.

(Liz Amsden is a former Angeleno now living in Vermont and a regular CityWatch contributor. She writes on issues she’s passionate about, including social justice, government accountability, and community empowerment. Liz brings a sharp, activist voice to her commentary and continues to engage with Los Angeles civic affairs from afar. She can be reached at LizAmsden@hotmail.com.)