Divided We Fall

Little snake Jeff Van Drew is boasting that the Trump Wildwood rally has elicited 100,000 requests for tickets.

I am seeing now at first hand the divisions that are searing the American conscience. Brendan Sciarra is chairman of the Cape May County Democratic party. He is organizing what he hopes will be a 10,000-person anti-Trump rally on January 28th. His family owns several businesses in Wildwood, including restaurants, and when word got out about his plans, social media erupted with threats to boycott his businesses, as well as support and pleas for moderation. 

Heretofore, Trump rallies have been almost abstract events – crazed gyrations of hate and evil – but now they have come home to me, roiling this five-mile island and deeply underlining the divisions in the American soul. 

In his last public speech, the great American patriot Patrick Henry quoted Aesop's warning that “United we stand, divided we fall.” This has never been more true in America. While party differences have always been sharp and deep, never have they been more hate-filled and irrational as they are today.

Donald Trump has instinctively descended into the dark recesses of the American experiment and stirred them to the surface, giving them a gloss of pseudo-patriotism that is the shame of our nation today.

Trump will come and go in Wildwood, doubtless leaving the Convention Center rent unpaid, which is his custom across the nation, as he sleazes in  and then stiffs his hosts and anybody else he can find. He will leave behind a footprint in the Wildwood beach sand of hate and stupidity.

Yet there is still in America a will toward decency and true patriotism. Even now this would-be monarch is the craven subject of an impeachment trial. Granted, there is little hope that he will be found guilty by the Republican Senate, but if witnesses and documents are presented -- which looks like a long shot at this point – the American public will see on television factual evidence that Donald Trump has, in fact, sold out the country he has sworn to protect. His word is vapid, false because he is a proven liar of the worst and most treasonous stripe.

If in fact there are no witnesses or documents allowed, the court of public opinion at this point is 70% in favor of both, and this court's inescapable verdict will be: First Degree Cover-Up.

The November election will be a referendum on America. Do we want to continue as a democracy or let ourselves descend into a maelstrom of  chaos and evil? Do we want the American republic to  wither and die after what would be in fact a very short life, compared to the true empires of history like Greece, Rome, China, and Egypt?

As the great Elijah Cummings never tired of reminding this country: we are better than that. America has a chance to prove its  true greatness in November by turning out this swine and all his stinking henchmen. Anything less than this is a capitulation to all the dark forces that have emerged under Trump's encouragement and example. We cannot let this truly small and treasonous half-man steal our democracy. Never has it been more true: United we stand, divided we fall.