Are we great yet?
Guest column by Mark Becker, host of Civic Media’s “Rational Revolution.”
The Recombobulation Area is a thirteen-time Milwaukee Press Club award-winning weekly opinion column and online publication founded by longtime Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. The Recombobulation Area is now part of Civic Media.
These remarks were featured in an upcoming episode of “Rational Revolution,” a weekly radio show and podcast on the Civic Media network, hosted by Mark Becker, the former chair of Brown County Republican Party. “Rational Revolution” is broadcast from 2-3 p.m. on Saturdays and 1-2 p.m. on Sundays.
As part of this weekend’s show, Becker is joined by Ben Wikler, the chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, for an extended conversation. Find more about the show and stream every podcast here.
It has been just about one month since Donald Trump’s inauguration for his second term as president and so far, these are some of the things that our nation has done courtesy of Trump and co-president, unelected billionaire, Elon Musk.
On Day One, more than 1,500 people who stormed the Capitol in an attempt to overthrow an election in the biggest threat to democracy since the Civil War were freed, pardoned, and had their sentences commuted. Including, as CBS’s Margaret Brennan said as she interviewed Vice President JD Vance, “someone who plunged an electroshock weapon into the neck of a police officer, and was sentenced to twelve years in prison, and someone who hit a cop while wearing reinforced brass knuckle gloves, and held a cop down on the ground as other rioters assailed the officer for over 20 seconds causing a severe concussion.” When the Vice President responded, he denounced not the rioters or abusers of the police, but the “Joe Biden justice department.” Yes, this from the party of “back the blue.”
Are we great yet?
They fired 300 people who are in charge of our nuclear stockpile. These people were so important that when government officials found out that they were axed, they had to find these people, which is actually turning out to be pretty difficult. They're resorting to trying to reach them on personal cell phones and through social media.
Are we great yet?
They are eliminating USAID, and firing the thousands of employees who work for the agency. Some staffers detail harrowing exits from Democratic Republic of the Congo amid violence as the Government hastily abandoned them.
USAID programs, including the following, are being eliminated:
Aid for victims of Agent Orange in Vietnam
Schools in conflict zones, including one that educated 414,000 children in Lebanon
A program that purchased $2 billion (or more than 475,000 metric tons) of U.S.-grown crops such as corn, soybeans, wheat, etc. for humanitarian aid to help feed the nearly 282 million people in 59 countries that experience extreme food shortages — massively impacting Wisconsin farmers
PEPFAR (President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief), which has saved more than 26 million lives in 55 countries
Democracy and human rights efforts across the globe to help people spread the word about atrocities in places like Myanmar and Ukraine
A program in Brazil called the Partnership of Amazon Biodiversity, which focuses on conservation and working with Indigenous and other rainforest communities
Schools, vaccination programs, medication and medical equipment, media organizations, literacy programs that benefit the most needy that spread goodwill and American ideals to every corner of the world
Check out the latest episodes of “Rational Revolution” with Mark Becker.
I ask, are we great yet?
Our fearless leader has been quoting some of the worst tyrants in history and vowing to become a dictator himself, even if only for one day. He’s following it up by appointing people not for their wisdom and worldly experience, but for their allegiance to his ideals and willingness to put himself and his goals over the very rule of law they swore to uphold.
Friends…are we great yet?
He’s firing tens of thousands of federal workers in an alleged effort to save money, while spending millions to attend the Super Bowl and the Daytona 500
Certainly that makes us great?
Investigating every facet of the American experience up to and including accessing you and your family’s tax records, Social Security numbers and most personal information, all while being blissfully ignorant about the $18 billion dollars that Elon Musk takes in from the federal government in the form of subsidies and government contracts. We only investigate those who don't believe, right?
Does that make us great?
We've abandoned our best friends. Insulted our closest allies. We've negotiated with tyrants over victims. Told sovereign nations to give up their own land. We've broken up ironclad unions of nations. Destabilized the fragile network of order. All in just over a month.
Are we great yet?
They have done all these things, focused on everything other than what was promised during the campaign; to make life easier, to lower the cost of living, slow the growth of inflation, allow communities to thrive without having to worry about whether or not they can simply make it.
They have decimated 60 years of progress in expanding civil rights and equity in our society in a head-spinning array of executive orders in an unprecedented effort to roll back democracy and the rights and liberties of American citizens.
These efforts are masked as an attack on so-called DEI policies — which diversity, equity, and inclusion used to be shining American values that would make Mr. Rogers proud.
One of the first executive orders the president signed was to eliminate “affirmative action,” eliminating from the federal calendar things like: Black History Month, Women's History Month, Pride Month, Hispanic Heritage Month, amongst others. They’re ,mandating schools end diversity programs, and only engage in “patriotic education,” echoing shades of North Korea.
Surely we must be great now?
Because if those things make us great, I shudder to think what happens when we lose.
Mark my words: America wins when this man, and the people who enabled him, are left for the ash heap of history. It is up to us to make that come to be. Don't you dare give up. And don't you ever give in.
As I have always said, this is not about left vs. right, it's about right vs. wrong.
Mark Becker is a small business owner, former Brown County Supervisor, and former Chairman of the Brown County Republican Party. His work has been featured in numerous publications, most notably for his article in The Bulwark where he discloses Ron Johnson personally admitted won the election, but couldn't risk "political suicide." Mark now hosts the Rational Revolution, a weekend feature program on Civic Media.
Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @ therecombobulationarea.
Already subscribe? Get a gift subscription for a friend.
Part of a group who might want to subscribe together? Get a group subscription for 30% off!
Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer and at BlueSky at @danshafer.bsky.social.
 |
|
I wrote that because I was using his own words. I'm keenly aware that he has continued that trend throughout his abysmal first month in office. Thanks for reading! Keep up the fight.
https://apnews.com/article/trump-hannity-dictator-authoritarian-presidential-election-f27e7e9d7c13fabbe3ae7dd7f1235c72
"Our fearless leader has been quoting some of the worst tyrants in history and vowing to become a dictator himself, even if only for one day."
Not sure why you wrote "to become": defying Congress, defying the Constitution, defying the courts: that is what a dictator does...and that's what defines being a dictator.
He is already a dictator, and has been, since Day One. He never did say he'd stop on Day Two, did he.