I, and many others, are not very happy about what is happening with our government. Why is that? That is a question being asked by those who seem to be happy - even delighted - with those first 100 days of the Trump Administrtion, and with our current president, and with what he is doing, and with how he is conducting the government.
Besides the Facebook posting I have duplicated above, which focuses in on one area of unhappiness, here is a "Letter To The Editor" that appeared in the May 6, 2025, edition of my hometown newspaper, the Santa Cruz Sentinel:
To respond to the question about DOGE - that question about why anyone might be "against" DOGE - I am absolutely willing to state that while I am, in fact, "against DOGE," this is NOT because I have been "stealing from the taxpayers for years." Actually, I have NOT been stealing from the taxpayers (ever). There must be some other reason, then!
And what about that "Letter To The Editor?" I think I can accurately be designated as a "liberal Democrat," and I am certainly very much opposed to almost every action taken, so far, by our current president, although I do NOT believe that he is "destroying America." I hope I have made it clear to those who might regularly read my blog postings that it is quite important, in my opinion, to "resist" and to object to what our current president is doing, without stipulating to any kind of "success" on his part. Our current president is not "destroying America," he is just doing some really bad things as our president. "Democracy" has not died, just because "liberal Democrats," and lots of others, including a lot of "conservative Republicans," are mightily distressed by what's happening in our government.
So, while I do not like the substance of the decisions made by our current president, and I am similarly distressed by his "modus operandi," it is the "modus operandi" that I find appalling, much more than the substance of what our current president is doing.
DOGE has proclaimed that its objective is to eliminate what our president portrays as mammoth governmental waste. Things like providing humanitarian assistance to people who are starving. I am in favor of such humanitarian aid, but if the Congress, which is supposed to represent "we, the people" were to vote to eliminate it, I wouldn't have the same kind of distress that I currently feel. Our representatives, who, in fact, established the humanitarian aid programs abolished by DOGE and our current president, have the right to change their minds, but there is a process for that. Government by fiat is most definitely not the "American Way." I am against DOGE because a bunch of unelected people, accountable to no one, have presumed to act on behalf of the American people. DOGE has acted to usurp the powers of our democratically elected government.
As for the list of policy "accomplishments" touted by the writer of that "Letter To The Editor," I have more or less the same reaction. I don't, first, believe that any of the "accomplishments" cited have, actually, been "accomplished." The current president and his supporters, like the letter-writer, have claimed that such measures have been achieved, but I don't believe that they actually have. But even if they have (and I do disagree), the problem is that the changes do not represent what "we, the people" have decided we want. Actions have been taken, by Executive directive, which are only properly authorized when accomplished by virtue of laws enacted by the Congress.
WHY? Why are so many so upset? They are upset, I believe, as I am, because our current president thinks that his election was a directive (to him, and to him, alone) to take whatever action he wants to take, irrespective of what "the people" may want.
Some DO want what the president has been doing, eliminating efforts to make our society more "inclusive," for instance - and providing humanitarian aid to people who are starving. Many do not.
If change is demanded (and some changes are needed, I'd have to agree), then they need to be made in the good, old-fashioned way, as specified in the Constitution. The "I, alone, can fix it" approach leaves all of those with different views out of the process.
That's why we don't like what's happening. The president has asserted the right to decide all questions, and to do what he thinks is best.
Even if he were right on the substance (which he mostly isn't, in my opinion), the decisions are ours to make. Not his!
Got it?
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