Greetings. I am a voting constituent in rural west Texas.
While pondering the new Trump rally chant of ‘Lock him up’, referring of course to Obama, I’m also pondering the history books to come. Because we know history is written by the winners, and you and yours are assuredly not going to be on that side.
Case in point. A new Atlantic article interviewing Alexander Vindman. He will be an example of what America should be. Not afraid to stand up for what he believes to be right. Which I always assumed to be a given. But these days, his conscientious, unwavering belief in the American values of truth and justice is a golden unicorn.
His patriotic actions spoke way louder than any pseudo-patriotic pablum y’all spout.
Re: the ‘perfect’ phone call: I just had a visceral reaction to what I was hearing,” he says. “I suspected it was criminal, but I knew it was wrong. President Trump knew that Zelensky needed a meeting with him in Washington to strengthen his position vis-à-vis the entrenched opposition at home. So Trump was putting the squeeze on this leader to conduct a corrupt investigation. Trump knew he had them over a barrel. I found it repulsive and un-American for an American president to try to get a leg up by pressuring a foreign leader to get dirt on an American politician. I knew by then that Giuliani was somewhere in the background. But I refused to believe that the president was party to what Rudy was doing. I learned in that phone call that the president was the driving force.”
He says he was untroubled by the consequences of his reporting. “I had to choose between the president and the Constitution. I was aware of the fact that I could be compelled to testify. But I chose the Constitution. No Army officer wants to be put in that position, but there I was.”
“I was drawn into this by the president, who politicized me. I think it’s important for the American people to know that this could happen to any honorable service member, any government official. I think it’s important for me to tell people that I think the president has made this country weaker. We’re mocked by our adversaries and by our allies, and we’re heading for more disaster.”
“Authoritarianism is able to take hold not because you have a strong set of leaders who are forcing their way,” he says. “It’s more about the fact that we can give away our democracy. In Hungary and Turkey today, in Nazi Germany, those folks gave away their democracy, by being complacent.”
He goes on, “Truth is a victim in this administration, I think it’s Orwellian—the ultimate goal of this president is to get you to disbelieve what you’ve seen and what you’ve heard. My goal now is to remind people of this.”
What do you have to say to him? I’m sorry might be a start.
Instead, we get this for leadership.
“In the Army we call this ‘free chicken,’ something you don’t have to work for—it just comes to you. This is what the Russians have in Trump: free chicken.”
