PEARLS OF WISDOM

We are now officially in another Pearl Harbor moment. The pictures from Kabul are too brutal to ignore. This is more than an assault on our forces, this is a humiliating defeat showcased to the world on live television. No one, other than the sacrificial lambs chosen by the Pentagon to respond to this insanity is even pretending this is acceptable. Joe Biden is, somewhere. Kamala Harris is somewhere. I remember when Ronald Reagan was shot. Alexander Haig gave a stupid speech where he implied, he was now in charge. He never recovered. Fortunately, George H.W. Bush showed up quickly, and he reassured the country that everything was under control. In addition, Reagan made a quick and miraculous recovery. We were lucky to have  President like Ronald Reagan and a Vice President like George H.W. Bush. This time the President is Joe Biden and no one in either party believes he is remotely capable of handling this. Then, to make things worse, the person next in line is Kamala Harris and she is one of the few people on this planet that makes Joe Biden look good by comparison.

In any other country we would have a military coup. But that is not possible here. In addition, none of our top military commanders are remotely capable of inspiring confidence in their leadership. I really do not know what will happen, but one thing is certain there has to be immediate change. This is now a full-blown crisis and that demands leadership. In Great Britain, the government would fail, and a new leader would be chosen. On May 10, 1940, under similar circumstances, the British Parliament reluctantly turned to Winston Churchill. But our congress is not remotely capable of doing something like this. Neither is the Supreme Court. We have already ruled out the military taking over. Sadly, Donald Trump has also botched this. I understand why he was furious after the 2020 election. But instead of handling this with dignity, he has been throwing hissy fits. If he had shown more class after the election, there would now be loud cries to restore him to power. But even though his arguments about the election are valid, he also is incapable of uniting the country. Neither is Mike Pence. It was Mike Pence who spiked any change for congress to do its job and answer serious questions about the 2020 election. He is proud of certifying the election. He should be begging for forgiveness and weeping in shame.

This is what happens when people fail to do their sworn duty. The problems with the 2020 election were obvious. Far too many people chose the easy out and let Joe Biden become President. Many of these people knew he was not up to the job. Many people in the DNC knew he was not up to the job when they gave him the nomination. The Supreme Court could have intervened and demanded that congress investigate this and do their job, but they punted too. Everyone punted and the result is that Joe Biden is President, with predictable results, and there is no known constitutional provision for fixing this. We threw that away when congress refused to even investigate the obvious problems with the 2020 election. Instead, they chose to accept the unacceptable as if this was the wise and honorable thing to do.

We now know the price of this mistake. When you add in the fact that Kamala Harris is guaranteed to be worse, this is a perfect storm. A perfect storm with nothing resembling a safe harbor.

Yet, although our constitution offers no solution to this mess, something must be done, and it must be done now. We are literally reaping the whirl wind because we forgot that the number one duty of a Commander in Chief is to be capable of being in command. Capable of making difficult decisions. Capable of gaining trust. Other countries going through things like this ended up with a dictator. But we don’t have anyone remotely capable of pulling that off. Democrats and Republicans are not capable of working together in a realistic manner to deal with this. I suspect that there are already some Democrats and Republicans secretly meeting in desperate search for tomorrow. They all know the problem; the question is what, if any, options are available. There are certainly no good options.

My suggestion would be appointment of an emergency cabinet and the immediate scheduling of another national election, one that does not include mail-in ballots. They would need to find someone capable of being Commander-in-Chief, but also willing to stop down after the election. Who could possibly do that? Certainly not Barack Obama. Certainly not Donald Trump. Perhaps George W. Bush would work. He has credibility, he has no interest in running again, and he has shown a capacity to unite the country. But the question is whether he would even do this and a bigger question is could he get enough support from both Democrats and Republicans? It doesn’t help that Donald Trump trashes Bush on a daily basis.

Hold on, pray, and prepare for almost anything. Sometimes in a time of real crisis, people finally stop playing games and work together. That happened after Pearl Harbor. We definitely need some Pearls of wisdom.

TDM