The New Year brings with it new challenges: a new
government, a new President, and new battles to wage both at home and
abroad. This is a list of what I feel
needs to be emphasized as we press into 2017 and grapple with these challenges,
and I put these forward mostly to keep both myself and everyone reading focused
on the important things, making it easier to filter out all the noise going
forward.
First: I support the causes of freedom and liberty in all
forms. To define this: I will oppose,
both publicly and otherwise, any effort to curtail the freedoms and equal
protection under the law of people of color, of LGBTQ citizens, and really
anyone else threatened by the Trump administration or others. We are all Americans and all deserve the same
protections from oppression in any form.
Second: I support the exposure and tearing down of the
corporatocracy in all its forms. The
preceding five presidents have done plenty to cede the power held by us as
citizens to corporate interests of varying stripes, and the incoming Trump
administration promises to be the most nakedly corrupt administration yet. Not since the days of Teapot Dome was a presidential
administration so seemingly entrenched in graft and corporate interest above
all and it is incumbent upon us as citizens to not only oppose, but to bear
witness and tear down every instance of corruption and graft as they come up. Dictatorships function in the shadows, so we
must cast light on corruption every single time it comes along.
Third: I oppose the bombing of citizens anywhere, either by
drone or by plane. I am against war in
almost every circumstance, unless it is a targeted defensive strike in
retaliation for a direct attack. Offensive
wars and proactive conflicts in which we invade a sovereign nation without
provocation and/or as a result of flawed or false intelligence, such as the war
in Iraq starting in 2003, are wrong and I will oppose them as well.
Fourth: Russia is NOT our ally. While I did not support the Hillary Clinton
view on Russia, I also do not support the Trump plan of cozying up to a despot
who oppresses his own people. This is
not a New Cold War, and I would never be so ignorant as to suggest that it
is. However, Putin’s Russia is a rival
power that is frequently working to thwart American interests abroad, and has
done so throughout his term in office.
Dubious accusations of hacking aside, I do not support Putin and will
oppose anyone who does, up to and including Trump himself.
Fifth, and finally: I demand that Trump immediately and
visibly sever any and all connections to his for-profit businesses and disavow,
in public and on television, any interest in said businesses, adding released
and independently verified legal documentation proving that he has done
so. Anything less than this is
obfuscating the blunt reality that he and his family have, and are poised to
profit immensely from his time as president, which is an insult and a
perversion of our most hallowed founding principles. The presidency ought not be for sale, and
Trump continuing to delay and redirect the plain truth that he is running a
multinational for-profit business while he is also acting as our elected head
of state is unacceptable, and ought to be disqualifying. If he refuses to do all of this, it is
incumbent on Congress to impeach him and remove him from office. The framers of the Constitution were crystal
clear on this as a central tenet of the Executive Branch, namely that the
President works for us and not himself, and it will be upheld.
The year 2017 promises a lot of hard work ahead, and I for
one am ready to roll up my sleeves and begin.
--Joe
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