Royalty & Loyalty

The Death of Queen Elizabeth II has been in the news a lot recently. At first, it amazed me how deeply the British were affected by her passing. Her age of 96 certainly forewarned them that the Grim Reaper was hiding around the corner, waiting for the chance to pounce.
Watching their response clarified how we all deal with losing someone we love deeply. We may see it coming, but that does not relieve us of our grief. I was eleven years old when she became the monarch of the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Whales, & Northern Ireland), often referred to as Great Britain. I remember seeing her coronation on TV and all the grandeur that accompanied it. Now, her oldest son, Charles (73), is their new king, and the Brits have pledged their love and devotion to him.
We Americans are dead set against having a royal family, forgetting or not knowing that some may have wanted to make George Washington a king. With his Revolutionary War victory, it’s rumored that a group of our citizens wanted to make him the monarch of our new nation. He reportedly declined and, after serving two terms as our president, retired to his home in Mount Vernon, Virginia. According to legend, old George said, “I did not defeat King George the III, to become King George I.”
The story has a grain of truth, but historians agree it is exaggerated. It reminds me of the fervor some of our citizens have for Donald Trump. I have no doubts they would like “The Donald” to be coronated 😊. I respect my fellow citizens that are Trump fans, but I fault them for not seeing his destructive impact on our form of government. During my eighty-one years on this wonderful planet, I have never witnessed so much division within our ranks. Our Congress is so bipolar that they can no longer work together to resolve our nation’s problems. We seem to be like a car in “limp mode” that functions just enough to get us back home.
How do we resolve our current dilemma? In my humble opinion, we take part in the upcoming mid-term elections. Then wait for our presidential election in 2024, hopefully turning out for it in even greater numbers than the last one. We should all resolve to ignore the pleas of a “rigged election” and accept the results, knowing they will monitor the electoral process as never before. I encourage my fellow citizens to refrain from blindly following any politician. That cannot be good for our nation. We have to get back to accepting that the results of our elections cannot be correct only if our candidate wins. It doesn’t take much insight to understand that concept. My seven-year-old great-grandson can understand that logic.
We have three separate branches of our federal government (Legislative, Executive, and Judicial). The Republican part of the Legislature is screaming that we cannot trust the FBI, CIA, and our voting process. All this distrust emanates from one person (Donald Trump). The Washington Post says he lied or told half-truths 30,573 times during his presidency (21 times per day). I cannot understand how anyone can respect him, much less vote for him. He could never be my friend, nor would I ever support him. Anyone that believes he should have top secret documents in his closet at Mar-a-Lago is also willing to let him shoot someone on 5th Avenue and go unpunished. Mr. Trump would call me a RINO (Republican in Name Only). I don’t need an acronym for him, I just think he’s an evil person and probably has done more harm to our country than anyone that has ever been our president. I strongly suspect that nothing I’ve said will change the mind of the MAGA fans. I can only hope that the sane members of our great nation are determined to vote in the mid-term elections and in 2024.