America on the Brink: Part II

Part II

BY LOUIE OVERSTREET

We discussed AI, elections, economics, and governance in this space last month. This month will be health, peace, religion, and war. 

After we suffered through the world’s greatest health crisis in 100 years, Trump chose to appoint a Secretary of Health and Human Services who once stopped on a highway to extract a dead raccoon’s pecker. 

If not for his supremely unfit choice for Secretary of Defense (we’ll get to that in a bit), the appointment of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to the HHS post would be the worst cabinet choice in the history of the United States. Case in point: his decision to sow doubt on vaccinations is causing preventable deaths. 

Our president’s antagonistic behavior towards longtime allies is causing instability in the Northern American Treaty Organization (NATO). Need I mention his threat to invade friendly countries or laughable penchant for painting everything gold and changing the names of gulfs, lakes, and states? No wonder, it is highly doubtful there will be peace during his remaining time in office. 

Attempts by tax-exempt religious organizations to become political movements, in my lifetime, date back to 1979 with the formation of the Moral Majority by Jerry Falwell. The movement gained considerable influence but stagnated and was replaced by the far more hateful and divisive Christian Nationalism movement and its omnibus presence in today’s Republican Party. 

However, the scariest matter of all facing our nation is the totally unqualified person serving as head of the Defense Department — which he has taken to calling the Department of War, as if this were the 19th century. Further, he was a zealous proponent of initialing a war with Iran, without the requisite amount of planning. Predictably, our nation’s history is that we do not fare well in conflicts of this nature; we suffer huge losses to prestige, treasure, and most importantly the lives of young Americans. 

Unlike the hit Johnny Mathis song, chances are that our chances at surviving this current mess aren’t awfully good!