I Need Someone to Trust, but Who?

Op-ed by TheWiseOldFart

What have I learned at the age of 78? I cannot trust anyone.

I am no different from millions of other Americans when I admit that I have no faith in anyone in Washington. The government of the United States has become the most corrupt in all free and developed nations. Although the men and women who who are elected to serve the American people, to help us achieve our needs and wishes, promise to do just that during their campaigns, but when they are elected they ignore us and focus on the goals and ambitions of their political parties.

Polls prove that the entire right side of the aisle is opposed to every issue of importance to the majority of our nation’s people. Included are fair taxation, protecting Social Security and Medicare, universal healthcare, sensible immigration reform, free or affordable education, protecting voter rights, and guaranteeing the right of all women to decide the future of her personal mental and physical health. Instead, “Republicans” are concerned with protecting special interests: the super-rich, corporate profits, the Christian Religious Right, and the NRA gun lobbies.

LAW ENFORCEMENT

I don’t trust law enforcement, in fact I have no faith in our country’s entire judicial system.

Prior to Trump’s illegitimate presidency, I was fully aware that the rich and powerful are treated differently than low-income or impoverished Americans, minorities, and ethnicities other than pure whites by law enforcement, and the court system. However, the fact that Trump is by definition a traitor, a convicted felon, and is loyal to a foreign nation, not to the American people, but remains a free man, is irrefutable proof that the rules are far different for those of us who are not in positions of great wealth and power.

MOST RELIGIOUS LEADERS ARE HYPOCRITES

I was raised a Catholic. Until I was in my teens, and I discovered the “fairer sex,” I thought I might want to be a priest. By the time I was a senior in high school, my questions, without acceptable answers, convinced me that religion was a scam.

Over the last 60 years I learned that my rejection of organized religion was valid. Today, I am one of more than 100 million Americans who choose not to join any religion.

The Christian Religious Right has convinced me that most religious leaders are nothing more than opportunists and hypocrites. I need only one fact to prove that Christianity in general is led by hypocrites.

Evangelical Christian leaders continue to support Trump, although he is a convicted felon, a confirmed sexual predator, a pathological liar, and by his own actions a fascist and therefore an atheist.

THE FOURTH ESTATE

Our Founding Fathers offered protection for the press in the First Amendment. The purpose of the “fourth estate” was to expose corruption and violations of the people’s trust in Washington. That was then, this is now.

The mainstream media can no longer be trusted. It fails its purpose, to expose corruption in Washington. Advertising revenue is priority number one. The mainstream media continues to tell lies of omission, and refuses to expose the worst of the worst, including Trump, Moscow Mitch McConnell, Ted Cruz, Marjorie Taylor Green, Matt Gaetz, Jim Jordan, Lauren Boebert, Kevin McCarthy, and others who are openly opposed to our nation’s democratic future. It has become rare to hear the truth coming from the lips of any television journalist.

WHO CAN YOU TRUST?

You trust yourself. Do the research, trust your feelings, and when all is said and done, do the right thing. Our country needs you and your vote. Changes are mandatory, but without patriotic leadership, and working together, nothing of greatness is ever accomplished.

Op-ed by James Turnage

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