According to Three Dog Night, Jeremiah was a bullfrog.
According to my Bible-thumping friends, he was a harsh social critic who constantly held the people of Judah to a higher standard.
A champion complainer, in other words.
It’s this latter Jeremiah that many of us follow in our criticism of Donald Trump (there’s not much “Joy to the World” in Trumpland!).
Relatd story:
McCabe kept memos on Trump dealings; Mueller now has them
The U.S. president’s current orgy of dismissals pushes the ‘Jeremiah button’ of U.S.-watchers because it looks very much like Stalin’s purges of the late 1930s.
Trump is beginning to panic, seeing the Mueller probe coming closer to his own person, and his senior staff are not giving him the unconditional support he demands. So the president is trying to replace his top officials with sycophants who are willing to break the law for him.
One of the problems with this strategy is that those who will swear personal loyalty to him are unlikely to have the qualifications to carry out the duties of their office, any more than he knows how to carry out his own.
Without qualified cabinet members to govern the complex administration of the country, injustices multiply, services are not provided, departments are paralyzed, and the nation grinds to a halt. If the U.S. is to be governed by the whims of a fickle and uncomprehending president, then it will lose its place as a beacon of democracy to the world.
When the FBI and the Justice Department lose their autonomy, and are required to follow the orders of an egomaniac, the U.S. democratic system ceases to exist.
We are repeatedly being asked to “give him a chance,”, or to “let him do his job,’ but I think it’s too late for that. Trump’s attack on the constitution and the Rule of law will set back the political and social evolution of the United States of America by a century or more. And that will allow other nations to rise to the challenge of leadership.
I’ve no rooted objection to seeing China step in to fill the void, but I’m sure many Americans will find it a painful awakening.
God bless America, indeed!
Ed Healy
Marystown