The Role of a Patriot<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s gotta settle down for the good of America\u201d \u2013 Governor John Kasich, Ohio<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cThe most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic.\u201d \u2013 Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Tradition holds that Americans argue \u2018like Hell\u2019 about the Presidential election, then, after the votes are cast and the dust settles, take the win or swallow the loss, and bind together in support. Even after the highly questionable Bush v Gore election of 2000, with the dubious outcome decided by the Supreme Court, the country came together behind a President in crisis nine months later on September 11th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n Trump supporters, with historical justification, feel that the nation owes the same to the current President. They are increasingly frustrated with the growing drumbeat of opposition to Trump, not just with the Mueller investigation, but the daily commentary from Twitter to the New York Times. The publication of Michael Wolff\u2019s book, Fire and Fury, <\/em>rubs even more salt in the wound. They feel that Trump is the duly (fair and square) elected President, and America should get behind him, or get out of the way.<\/p>\n Leave aside, they say, the eight years of President Obama when the opposition used every means to thwart his agenda. Let go of the \u201cbirther movement,\u201d Merrick Garland\u2019s Supreme Court nomination, the sixty times the House of Representatives voted to abolish part or all of the Affordable Care Act, and Trey Gowdy\u2019s $8 million Benghazi investigation. \u00a0Get over the Russian involvement in the 2016 election from Facebook to voting machines. \u00a0The behavior of the right should not determine the norm. More simply, two wrongs shouldn\u2019t make a right (or a left).<\/p>\n An American Patriot is someone who believes in this country and the historical foundations that make it \u201cspecial.\u201d A Patriot believes in \u201cAmerican Exceptionalism:\u201d that the United States is unique as an example of Democracy and a leader in the world, a \u201cshining city on the hill\u201d (as President Reagan would say.) So what should be the role of a Patriot in the Trumpian world?<\/p>\n The Patriot\u2019s problem is this. Should they follow the lead of Ohio\u2019s John Kasich, a Republican conservative who has been a leader in opposition to President Trump? Kasich states, despite his opposition, that we must \u201csettle down,\u201d and get on with the business of governing America. Even Democrats have taken a similar stand, with Leaders Pelosi and Schumer remaining focused on the agenda, and dampening loose talk of impeachment and removal.<\/p>\n Following that traditional line, Democrats need to concentrate on the election of 2018, win the House and even the Senate, and return the Government to the \u201cstatus quo\u201d of shared power. In this way, they can protect the causes that the Trump administration seems so determined to destroy. Whatever Mueller comes up with (given that the current Republican Congressional investigations will ultimately be rigged) we\u2019ll deal with then.<\/p>\n Others feel a more immediate terror with Donald Trump at the helm. Not only do they see America\u2019s progress being rolled back, from voting rights to environmental advances to medical care; but they see a Presidency barely in control. The greatest fear: what if there is another 9\/11, will this President, through action or neglect, put us in even greater danger? Tweets about the size of his button and stories about a five hour White House workday, do nothing to alleviate that fear.<\/p>\n What then, should be the role of a Patriot, of a loyal American citizen? Is it \u00a0to sit silently while the United States is dismantled behind the cloud of Trump tweets and the chaos of the White House? Or should the Patriot speak out, calling out each failure and each abridgment of citizen rights. Supreme Court Justice Holmes stated that free speech does not extend to shouting \u201cfire in a crowded theatre.\u201d The exception, of course, is if the theatre IS on fire.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"