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OpEdNews Op Eds    H1'ed 7/18/18

Republicans should never again recite the Pledge of Allegiance

Message Michael Payne

Republicans should never again recite the Pledge of Allegiance


"I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."


When you recite that pledge you are, as a citizen of America, promising to be loyal to this country, to obey its laws, and never betray it in any way.


If this country comes under any kind of attack by a foreign government, we the people will come to its aid in any way we can. We will never allow any country to attack our major institutions or our democracy.


Sad to say we have been watching as the president of the United States and the Republican Party, while they are fully aware that Russia did launch an attack on our democracy by interfering in our election systems, refuse to do anything about it.


By dismissing that threat and by their inaction, they are failing to fulfill this pledge of allegiance. Instead of being enraged and fighting back against this intrusion by Russia, they show that they are not the least bit concerned.


Trump continues to call the Mueller investigation nothing more than a witch hunt and is doing everything to try to discredit it. And the majority of Republicans fully support this treachery.


Republicans are not showing loyalty but, rather, clearly exhibiting disloyalty. When they refuse to do anything whatsoever to strongly address this problem and condemn Russia and Putin for this meddling, they are no longer pledging allegiance to this flag and this country. They are, in fact, going against everything for which this pledge and this country stands.


We watch as the president and the Republicans appear to be engaging in what could very well be considered to be a form of "aiding and abetting" a foreign adversary.


I will let the experts determine if this could be the case and if they are violating any laws by this behavior. One thing is certain, what they are doing is totally against the best interests of this country and its people.


Since the start of his investigation, Mueller has issued 191 criminal charges against 32 individuals and 3 companies. 5 of these individuals have pleaded guilty to the charges brought against them.


July 13, 2018: Mueller indicted 12 more Russians. Trump was told of this development before he traveled to Britain. Was he extremely disturbed by this latest revelation? No, he gave the distinct appearance that he didn't care at all and repeated his remarks about a witch hunt. And, of yes, "there was no collusion."


In recent days and weeks, Trump has insulted and denigrated our European allies and some of their leaders. He has accused Germany and its Prime Minister, Angela Merkel, of being held captive by Russia because Germany imports a portion of its oil and gas from Russia.


He has also recommended that Russia should be allowed to rejoin the G-7 group of nations and has unfairly criticized NATO.


Has anyone ever heard Trump say anything bad about Putin or Russia? Perish the thought, it hasn't happened and never will. It's not difficult to conclude that Putin and Trump are joined at the hip and that Trump, because of many years of shady real estate dealings with Russia, is now under the control of Putin.


He says Putin is no enemy but that he and Putin are competitors on the world stage.


So why is it that Republicans are strongly supporting Trump and joining him in calling for this investigation to be terminated? The reasons could not be more clear.


It is all about the November elections. Republicans are aware that polls indicate that a significant portion, of Americans, other than Trump supporters, are not at all pleased with how their political party is failing to address this country's many problems and that will send many Republicans home for good.


Republicans are beginning to panic as they see the handwriting on the wall. They know that Trump has his supporters staunchly behind him and no matter what he does to harm this country they will support him. And so they closely align themselves with Trump.


So that's it in a nutshell; these third class politicians know they must be submissive and subservient to Trump or they will suffer the very painful consequences.


Presidents of the past including Reagan, JFK, and others, together with prior competent Congresses, would be absolutely infuriated with what has happened and would be taking swift and powerful action to condemn Russia and Putin, and pull out all the stops to block any further hacking.


But these gross incompetents in the White House and Congress are doing nothing of the kind and that's why they deserve to go down in American history as aiding and abetting these attacks on our democracy. How can they fail to come to the aid of their country at this most critical time?


Trump's strong alliance with Putin could not have been better illustrated when a reporter in England recently asked him if he was going to bring up this meddling situation to Putin in their upcoming meeting. Now if Trump were of the same caliber as those presidents of the past here's how he would have answered that question:


"Damn right, I'm not only going to bring it up to him but I'm going to make it clear that he better cease and desist right now or he and Russia will suffer great consequences. America is not going to put up with any more of these attacks on its democracy."


But He said no such thing; he merely stated that he would bring this meddling to the attention of Putin by, and get this will you, he said, "I'll firmly ask Putin about election meddling but don't expect a Perry Mason moment."


And then he added, " I don't think, but you never know what happens, right? But I will absolutely, firmly ask the question, and hopefully, we'll have a very good relationship with Russia."


After just having seen the Trump/Putin press conference in Helsinki I am appalled and thoroughly disgusted at the disgraceful remarks that Trump made throughout that session. He didn't even blink an eye when Putin made the outrageous statement that Russia had never, ever, meddled in any of America's internal affairs.


Then the most disturbing portion of this press conference was when Trump indicated that he did not believe U.S. intelligence agencies who have provided concrete evidence of this Russian intrusion and he then accepted Putin's denials. That does, as some have said, borders on treason.


John McCain, fighting cancer, couldn't have said it better: he called Trump's words and behavior, "one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory."


Republicans had a choice, they could have done what was right for their country and fought back against this gross intrusion. Secondly, they had the choice to side with Trump to give the Russians and Putin a free pass, to allow him to continue meddling in our elections.


They chose the latter option and why? They chose to do what was right for themselves, not their country. And that is why they must never again recite the Pledge of Allegiance.


Michael Payne







(Article changed on July 18, 2018 at 15:46)

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