If You Are a Republican Who Took an Oath to 'Preserve and Protect', We Need to Talk.

It was an oath to preserve and protect the country, not the marauders.

Photo by Anthony Garand on Unsplash

Hello, Republicans, it’s me. I come bearing critical truths. You won’t want to hear them but that word ‘critical’ says it’s time. Bad things are happening and it appears you’re not just clueless, you’re being deliberately culpable. I’ve held off on doing this for a long time—too long, I know now—and I admit that was foolish. I thought we could trust you all to put a stop to the madness afoot once you saw how truly destructive Donald Trump and his team of goons were going to be. Instead, you’re aiding and abetting.

I shouldn’t be surprised, I suppose, given your feigned cluelessness, your tacit approval of snarky arrogance and unreasonable hate, your odd respect for vicious bullies, your even odder dismissal of the pain those bullies have caused to the people you represent and have promised to protect.

As a citizen of this country for more than 87 years—with no marks on my record to indicate I’m anything but a good, concerned citizen—I feel I have the right and the duty to remind you that we’re not just a nation, we’re a society of citizens working to improve and maintain what we have, and we deserve better than what you’ve foisted on us.

I’m talking to you, Republicans.

In order to make my concerns as clear as possible, I’ve made a short list to remind you of who we are. Not who you are, but who we are.

I’ll keep it simple:

• We are a nation of human beings with a long history of trying to live together peaceably. We are not one color, one religion, one nationality, one gender, one class, one ideology, nor do we speak one language.

• We are a nation of rich and poor and everyone in between, we’re a people in need of safe, reliable goods and services, in need of good health care, good education, clean air, clean water, and, especially and most significantly, in need of a responsible government working for us.

• We are a nation held together by an official document called “The Constitution of the United States”. It strives to guide us on our quest to become that ‘more perfect’ nation. It sets mores and rules, assuming that our leaders have taken their oaths and their responsibilities seriously and will administer them appropriately for our common good.

• We work at being a nation of just rules and laws. No one is so privileged that they are above the law. We’ve worked throughout our long history to try to make sure that holds—not always succeeding, but, to our credit, we keep working at it. At the same time, if laws are unjust, if our leaders become corrupt, we are required to shove them out; and, again, our constitution gives us the means.

• We are a society that thrives only when everyone thrives. There are no serfs, just as there are no masters. Our elected leaders are and always will be public servants. You agree to that when you raise your right hand and swear to uphold your duties, so help you God. Even now, even after all this time, we still expect you to live up to those sacred words. Because you promised.

• We Americans need the world, just as the world needs us. We’ve staked our reputation and have built our power on that ideal. This planet is our neighborhood and you’re allowing foul garbage to be spread. The world is looking to us for answers, and the answers are in your hands.

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There’s more, of course, but this is it in a nutshell, easy to read, easy to understand. I think most of you know them as truths already, having been in government for many years, but you continue to balk at helping us out.

Well, the truth is, you own this now. It looks like you won it all. You’re running things, and already it’s not going well.

You’ve allowed a massive number of unseasoned heads into our government offices. You’ve waived any background checks or security requirements, along with any knowledge of government at all. You don’t feel the need to police them or even school them. It’s enough that they’re loyal to Donald Trump. That’s all you ask.

The majority of your newcomers are woefully uninformed, often to the point that could be dangerous to us. There was a time when those of you who have been there longest would school the others in protocol and decorum—at least as much as you could muster in order to get any bipartisan action done. Those days are gone. I know that.

But you’re still there.

You continue to encourage Donald Trump, declared the worst president in our history the first time around, with every indication that his second term will cement that title in place, but even worse, you’ve allowed an unworthy, unstable billionaire, quite possibly the richest man in the world, to take over our own government and ruin everything.

Less than a month in, there are wholesale firings for no good cause, there are attacks on hundreds of thousands of innocent people, there are blatant break-ins and theft of our secrets thanks to Elon Musk’s influence, and you pretend not to notice that this man, with no real authority, is gathering confidential data on every aspect of our lives for reasons you choose not to want to know.

You belong to the party holding all the power. All of it. Every bit. That’s a huge responsibility, but you’re showing no signs of being responsible. So you should know, if you don’t already, that there are millions of us ready to resist the actions you’ve taken. We’re growing in numbers, and we won’t back down.

I don’t have to spell out the details of the horrors inflicted in your party’s name. You know what’s going on better than I do. You know they are, indeed, horrors. You’ve seen them firsthand. You know the damage they’ve already done. You know there’s even worse to come.

Now you have to make a choice. As your Dear Leader likes to say, you’re either with us or you’re against us. But this time it’s America talking. You’re going to have to choose sides and you’re going to have to do it soon.

So which side are you on?