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OPINION

Thomas Wolfe wrote: “You can’t go home again” 85 years ago. The novel’s meaning is clear: things change and people change, so it’s not possible to return to the past.

Nowhere is this truism more evident than at town halls across America in recent weeks…from Georgia to Wisconsin and Texas to Idaho. Republican Senators and Representatives are getting booed…by Republican voters...their constituents.

In just two and a half months, Republicans are admitting for the first time the chasm between what Donald Trump says and what he does. Of course, it has always been there. No one likes getting lied to…and now people - a consortium of Republicans, Democrats and Independents - are pushing back on the actions of President Trump and Republicans.

(DON THOMPSON / iNFOnews.ca)

The Trump Administration is doing dumb stuff…lots of it. Some samples: more than 300 employees of the National Nuclear Security Administration - tasked with managing America’s nuclear weapons - were fired last month…on a Thursday.

The agency couldn’t function without them, so 275 of them had to be re-hired. The problem, however, was that the Donald Trump-Elon Musk Whiz-Bang Team of Efficiency Experts didn’t have their contact information…telephone numbers, email addresses and physical addresses.

The crack team had deleted them when they were fired. Eventually - mostly through news media reports - the fired employees contacted the Trump folks…and by the following weekend were re-hired.

More? On the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the United Nations General Assembly voted on a resolution that called out Moscow’s aggression and demanded an immediate withdrawal of Russian troops. The U.S. voted opposite of every member nation of NATO…favouring Russia and other authoritarian nations, like Hungary, North Korea and Syria.

Another? The United States’ Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, has never held a position in any of the country’s 17 intelligence organizations…not the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), not the National Security Agency (NSA), not the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). Republicans confirmed her appointment.

Then, there’s this. The U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services - a Cabinet level position - is Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., a man who decries vaccines, claims cell phones cause cancer, and says a worm ate some of his brain…died…and is still in his brain. Tens of thousands of physicians and health care professionals opposed his confirmation…but Republicans passed him with flying colours.

Or, this. The Director and Deputy Director of the F.B.I., Kashmiri Patel and Dan Bongino, have no F.B.I. experience…though both have been Right Wing podcasters. There are too many examples…in less than three months…to list here, but you get the gist of it.

Increasingly, Americans are becoming alarmed. Many have been all along. A brief reminder: Trump received just under 50 percent of the votes of Americans. Hardly a mandate…but Trump and his MAGA cult say it is. Unfortunately, for Trump and his minions, most Americans are saying, “No!”

In 2009, a raucous crowd showed up at Democrat town halls…protesting most anything President Barrack Obama did…parroting criticisms from Right Wing media. What’s going on today is similar…but building faster.

Trump’s honeymoon is over. The people who voted for him - in true Republican MAGA fashion - wanted retribution…vengeance…but not targeted toward themselves. I love dark humour. The things that reasonable people - all Democrats and Independents - tried to tell Republican voters were, in fact, facts…truths.

Make no mistake, the Trump Administration is rife with accomplished serial liars. They are, as my dad used to say, “crooked as a dog’s hind leg.” Co-President Elon Musk and his band of not-so-merry men (by the way, there are no women) are already lying about the savings from the ridiculous cutting of Federal employees.

Republicans - who seem to prefer a king or dictator - will continue to lie, cheat and steal…whatever it takes to press their hateful agenda. But I predict America will not like kings any more today than 250 years ago.

The founding fathers no doubt thought the road to a more perfect union might include some zig-zags…but never the switch-backs of Trump and the MAGA Republicans. But that’s where America is today. And we all have to trust that the sheer incompetence of Trump and his clowns won’t blow things up before the next election.

Meanwhile, more elected Republican officials will soon find what Thomas Wolfe knew 85 years ago, you can’t go home again.

— Don Thompson, an American awaiting Canadian citizenship, lives in Vernon and in Florida. In a career that spans more than 40 years, Don has been a working journalist, a speechwriter and the CEO of an advertising and public relations firm. A passionate and compassionate man, he loves the written word as much as fine dinners with great wines.

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