Mr and Ms America, we really need to talk about your son...

It is the worst nightmare of every parent. The school district called to ask for an emergency meeting with you and your spouse about your beloved child.  The meeting is serious because it is not at the child's school but at the district headquarters. You have had plenty of meetings with the Vice Principal and your child's teachers over the last few years so you know the difference between childhood pranks and expulsion meetings. Your beautiful child who you comforted after a sandbox scuffle, bathed, and watched take their first steps is a "hand full" and is regularly in trouble at school. The Superintendent and the district's child psychologist want to have a sit down to talk about your child's status.  They need to "get clarity" about the latest "incident" that is causing concern among the teachers and the other students. There was great stress and urgency in the secretary's voice who made the appointment, but your child is not saying anything. You are feeling extreme anxiety and dread for this meeting and what it will mean for the future of your loved one who you held during a high fever in the rocking chair and read to almost every night.

It is time for that school district meeting to take place between our civic leadership and the supporters of the little trouble-maker, Donnie Trump. It is more of an intervention before a crisis. I am talking about the need for radical change similar to when a mandatory reporter recognizes a possible school shooter.  I am suggesting a change in the American Democracy; a revision in the Constitution, so a seriously mentally ill person can never take control of our government again.  After the racist tweets against elected officials, tearing up international agreements, beginning a trade war with China, and the encouragement of racists chants at a political rally, we have reached that point in our history when we need that meeting with the school superintendent for the white Midwesterners who are angry at the world. We have reached the breaking point and we have to have a heart-to-heart with the MAGA crowd. Someone has to set the record straight on the benefits of immigration and how seeking asylum in the United States is legal. We need an intervention with white people to show them the nefarious ways their spoiled little rich kid got elected. We must demonstrate how with the help of a hostile foreign power, this super-charged used car salesman used every straw man to pray on people's fears,  We need to show how he broke long standing alliances, and the fact that no one wants to work with this guy or how corporate interests are running the government.  We the people must show the Trump's Twitter followers the harm he is doing to our farmers, our health care industry, our financial stability and our preparedness for natural disasters.  We must show them the lies, the corruption and how he is only looking out for himself and his rich friends. We have to figure out how to nicely convey to the Reagan Democrats how so many norms in this country have fallen and the long term damage this guy is doing to our climate, our politics, and our leadership role on this planet.

We have read about this very scenario play out in the Philip Roth's Plot Against America with a demagogue assuming the US Presidency bringing his racist ideology with him.  At this point in the novel, we are one violent outburst by the progressives, anti-fa, the resistance or a well known Democrat and the match is lit. Trump will have the ability to suspend the Constitution and declare marshal law. Or he will put armed "Brown Shirts" at every mall, government office, school, and library to "protect" us against the white supremacist that he stoked in the first place. He will be able to expand his internment camp program to include holding individuals identified as possible threats to state including media figures.  He could postpone the next election while his followers find the terrorists within our own government.  Since no one has been willing to stand up to this man from within the Executive Branch, he believes he has the power of a Dictator. He has successfully flushed from his administration anyone who would say, "No, Sir, I cannot legally carry out this order." He believes that Article 2 of the Constitution gives him unlimited power and he can never be charged with a crime.  He has never been told "No" by his party, the sycophants who work in the White House or the Republicans in Congress and so he believes they will follow him even when Trump suspends habeas corpus or the right to assemble.  He has already declared the media "the enemy of the people," but will he act against this perceived enemy? MSNBC and the Washington Post do not have a standing army to protect their right to broadcast/publish. He was able to capture the Supreme Court through dubious means and thus neutralized the judicial branch of government.  We are not being creative enough if we cannot imagine the many ways in which he keeps his hands on power past its natural expiration date.  After all, he is fighting to protect his own freedom or bankruptcy or the incarceration of his children at this point.  Someone has had to have told him that if he loses the election, there is a good chance that the next Justice Department will indict him for his many crimes in office.

I know that this all sounds crazy, but so does identifying a great American city like Baltimore as a rat infested place not fit for human habitation. Could anyone imagine an elected official would go to a city that was in shock over an attack by one of Donnie Trump's supporters and compare the crowd he got for a rally to those of the protesters outside the hospital? Or would you sound demented if you predicted that a candidate would make a campaign video focused on visiting families grieving after their children or parents were murdered by a man inspired by the candidate's hate? Or that this same campaign video would be full of smiles by the candidate and giving a thumps up after visiting the site of a national tragedy only 100 hours after the shooting?  That is some twisted deep seated mental illness. Who would have ever thought that a man credibly accused by over a dozen women of sexual assault would occupy the Oval Office? Who could have imagined that an American leader would lend credibility to a previously isolated dictator starving his people in North Korea? It sounds crazy that a US President would take the word of a Russian oligarch over his own intelligence community. There are so many things that have happened over the last two years that are insane to the point that suspending the Constitution is going to sound reasonable to many.  Little Donnie said that he could end the War in Afghanistan by wiping the country off the planet.  Every 24 hour news cycle brings amazing revelations and new depths of depravity being discovered.  From praising Neo Nazi rally organizers to insulting a heroic prisoner of war or the parents of a fallen soldier, there is no bottom to the debauchery of the Presidency. There is no one around this guy to say "This might not be a good idea, Mr. President."

I know that we brought this on ourselves.  We got complacent in the routine of the two parties at odds with each other. We thought that it was someone else's job to provide checks and balances.  It became a sport to put the blame both sides for our failures, and we did not spend enough time protecting our democracy.  We allowed corporate lobbyists and powerful people to take over our elected office holders by purchasing them with donations.  We vilified government and did not call out those who did not pay their fair share of taxes.  We have allowed our legislative bodies to get paid to do nothing except to run for re-election. I know that Republicans have failed to do their patriotic duty to stand up to this tyrant, but we are all to blame for allowing that party to fall into the abyss. Fear has guided us for years.  We are always looking for the boogeyman who is keeping our wages stagnant, shackling us with student loan debt, de-stabilizing our health care safety net, and it turns out we need only look in a mirror.  We have not voted in significant numbers. (I know this is because our leaders have given us no reason to vote, but it is still our problem that we have not solved).  We have allowed corruption and inaction to become the norm.  We are easily distracted by crime while our government slowly incarcerates a larger number of our citizens.  All the real problems around us are ignored in favor of football and entertainment.  If we knew as much about who funds our elected officials as we know about Tom Brady's warmup routine or the Kardashian's love interests, we could actually live up to our reputation as a free country. Instead, we are beholden to those with money who control our society.

Time is up. I was in Puerto Rico during and after Hurricane Maria and was shocked how docile and accepting the Americans who happen to live on this island were to being knocked back to the 19th century.  I could not believe there were not street protests after a week of no electricity or regular food donations on the streets of San Juan. The financial system was halted by the hurricane, but they were peacefully waiting to pay for gas, food, and to attempt to get money out of the bank. There is no way a person living in Cleveland, Detroit or Santa Fe would have accepted the lack of running water 10 days after a Hurricane or an airport that was paralyzed with only one flight leaving a day.  American citizens would have blamed their own government and would have ousted the Mayor or elected official across the US if they had experienced what happened in Puerto Rico.  It took two years, but justice finally came to Puerto Rico. It is strange that Ricardo Rossello' was kicked out over his abhorrent texts and not the deaths, destruction and chaos he presided over after Maria, but the outcome is what matters.  If the people of Puerto Rico can rise up and throw out their horrible leader so can the mainland Americans.  Let us take a lesson from our fellow Americans and rally against this New York Con Man.

by Brian Davis