Recently, we did lots of driving, my wife and I just spent the last 3 days driving up from our home is Fort Myers, Florida to Wisconsin for my wife’s 50 year class reunion. My wife and I share the driving but we only drive about 8 hrs a day so that is why it takes us 3 days. We hit six states and got to see the price of gas along the way. The most expensive gas we purchased was actually in Fort Myers, Florida where we actually living. Everywhere else it was cheaper. Normally the most expensive gas is in Illinois but not this time. I found it even more interesting that gas was about 20 cents a gallon cheaper in Tallahassee than it was in Ft. Myers.  We did drive right through the Big Bend Area and right through the city of Perry that got slammed by the hurricane. Sad to see all that damage and like the Ft. Myers area, it will take years for some of them to recover.

Sitting in the car I had a lot is time to look at the news and to look at social media. One of the things that jumped out at me was Trump saying that when he is elected President he is going to throw all of “them” in jail. All of them must mean all of the people in the Justice Department that investigated him and brought their findings to a Grand Jury who, thought there was enough evidence to warrant Trump being charged along with others. Now, in all four indictments I believe that the evidence in each case was brought before four different Grand Juries. In each case a Grand Jury determined there was enough evidence to charge Donald Trump with multiple crimes. Is he going to throw all those people in jail? The people that impeached him not once, but twice are they going to jail too? Do you notice a pattern here? Anybody that wants to hold Trump accountable he wants to put in jail. He talks about the Constitution but has he ever read it because his style of justice is not in the Constitution. What Trump intends to do if elected is to throw out the Constitution.

We are a nation of laws or at least we used to think we are. I have witnessed about 16 presidential elections and this the first one that I ever heard a crowd chant to lock someone up with the “Lock Her Up” chant aimed at Hillary Clinton. Some of his supporters are still chanting “Lock Her Up”. A candidate that truly believed in our Constitutional process would have stopped that chant as being un-American and being not part of our Constitution. We are a country of laws. But Trump didn’t say those things; instead he called her “crooked Hillary”. What he was doing was saying that it was OK to turn your back on the Constitution as long as it wasn’t in support for him. I remember all the talking heads stating that we could have a Constitutional crisis if Hillary was elected President and was under indictment. Hillary of course was never under indictment and didn’t even get close to it. There was a short investigation that didn’t merit bringing anything before a Grand Jury to decide if a real crime had been committed. Trump to this day still calls her “crooked Hillary”. Why? Because he is deflecting that attention away from himself. Today none of the talking heads are saying that we will have a Constitutional crisis if Trump is elected. I wonder why?

When Trump is saying that he is going to throw all his so called political opponents in jail he is really saying that he is going to exercise power that a President does not have? I have never seen a single President send anyone to jail. Our Constitution does not grant him that power and he would know it if he had ever read the damn thing. His supporters would know he doesn’t have that power if they had ever read that document. The way he talks it is like if he is elected he will do away with the Constitution and appoint himself the supreme leader. Could anyone do that in this country? If it would happen would we still be the United States of America? We were founded on the principles of due process that Trump has been able to enjoy. If we are like the Soviet Union or North Korea Trump wouldn’t be going through a judicial process like ours? He would already be in jail or would have been shot. That is what Putin does or what Kim does. That is exactly what he wants to do if he is elected, he will act like some communist dictator. He doesn’t want to be the President of the United States of America.  

The former governor and right wing commentator Mike Huckabee has a program called “Huckabee” on the TBN Network. During his monologue he stated “If these tactics end up working to keep Trump form winning or even running in 2024, it is going to be the last American election that will be decided by ballots rather than bullets”. I don’t know about you but I have a real problem with his statement from a number of directions. The first one is that he made these statements on the Trinity Broadcasting Network which is an International Christian based network. He goes on this Christian Network and turns his back completely on the teachings of Jesus by threatening civil war against the United States. Where in hell if that in the Gospel? This man is supposed to be a Reverend and he should know better. The second is that he has turned his back completely on the Constitution of the United States of America which when he was Governor he swore to protect. Everything that has happened to Trump is in support of the law. In August Matt Gaetz was speaking at the Iowa State Fair in support of Trump said “Mr. President, I cannot stand these people that are destroying our country. They are opening our borders. They are weaponizing our federal law enforcement against patriotic Americans who love this nation as we should. But we know that only through force do we make any change in a corrupt town like Washington D.C., and to all my friends here in Iowa, when you see them come for this man, know that they are coming for our movement and they are coming for all of us”. I don’t know about you but that sounds like a man that is promoting violence and that has turned his back on the Constitution that he had sworn to defend and protect.

What I see is a movement to destroy the Constitution of the United States and sadly it seems to be being led by the Republican Party. The very thing that the Constitution stands for is under attack. From voting rights to freedom over our own bodies. We were built on the premise that no man is above the law and that we settle things in a court of law, not on social media, and, not violently on our streets. Our political system should never be used as a means to escape justice. We were a nation that was built on the truth and the due justice that is denied under a monarchy or a dictatorship. We were supposed to be a government of the people, by the people, and that is slipping away. Today, to say that sounds almost corny but that is what the principles we were founded on.