This opinion piece reflects the views of John Hazlehurst only and are not endorsed by the Pikes Peak Bulletin.
Let’s see; Trump and his co-conspirators have only been in power for three months, and they’ve already demonstrated a level of stupidity, incompetence, incoherence and ignorance unmatched in American political history.
It’s quite a feat. To do so, the President and his cronies had to find cabinet members and other appointed officials who could be trusted to screw things up.
Start with anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and let him sit passively while a measles epidemic starts killing kids in a Texas community of dedicated vaccine opponents.
Then appoint Kristi Noem, the notorious dog killer who served as Governor of South Dakota, to be Secretary of Homeland Security.
Noem was doubtful, but what about Fox News host Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defence? He has military experience, and he promised to fire any “general, admiral, whatever that was involved in any of the DEI woke [expletive].” Women? Not in combat – it won’t make the military “more effective” or “more lethal.” C’mon, Pete – I’ll bet Kristi Noem could cheerfully kill any enemy combatant.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright has said that “there is no climate crisis, and we’re not in the midst of an energy transition either.” He’s 100% supportive of Trump’s campaign pledge to “drill, baby, drill.” Yet consider Texas, where energy demand is predicted to double by 2030. No problem, the State has increased its energy supply by 35% over the last four years, and 92% of that supply came from solar, wind and battery storage. Wright is the founder and CEO of an oilfield services company, so it’s not surprising that he’s a fan of fossil fuels.
And for the Education Secretary? Linda McMahon, the founder of World Wrestling Entertainment and longtime Trump ally. She’s all for shutting down the education department and is now leading Trump’s attack on Harvard and other “woke” private colleges. Better watch out, Colorado! Just to make sure our colleges and universities are safe, appoint C.U.’s Deion Sanders as our educational liaison to the White House. Trump doesn’t much listen to college presidents, but nobody ignores Deion!
And then there’s Elon Musk, the reptilian centibillionaire who embodies everything that we peasants detest in our present national leadership. He has 14 kids from four different women, apparently believing that he’s doing the world a favor by creating as many descendants as possible. He clearly believes that women are merely reproductive organisms useful only for transmitting his DNA, which he believes dominates any of his offspring. It’d be interesting if he hooked up with an equally powerful and intelligent woman, but it won’t happen. Why? Because he is, in the words of feminists a couple of generations ago, a male chauvinist pig. I’ve known many powerful women, and none would have consented to be one of Musk’s broodmares.
This is all perfectly awful, so we should be delighted that our local elected officials are capable, reasonable, well-informed and accessible. I had the great honor of serving on the Colorado Springs City Council during the 1990s, and I treasure those memories. We did our best, as did those who preceded us and those who followed. That’s the way democracy works in our city, and in thousands of other cities across the nation. It was heartening to see our new Council sworn in a few days ago, and to wish them well. Hope I can stay alive until 2028, celebrate the departure of Donny the National Nutcase, and vote to install a boringly competent successor.
Eisenhower, JFK, LBJ, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, George W. Bush, Obama and Biden – all well qualified, interesting, and ferociously competent. Wouldn’t it be great if both parties nominated such candidates in 2028? Dream on.
Yet I fear that our beloved nation may never recover.
Macbeth said it best.
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
