Thanks to Massie, Paul for standing up to Trump. Now it’s McConnell’s turn | Opinion
Canada as our 51st state. Taking over Greenland. American troops invading Mexico to “deal with” the drug cartels.
When we first heard such things, I considered it little more than silly political theater designed to grab headlines and soundbites. Just ignore him, I thought. Stay focused on fact and reason. Now I realize my naivete.
Now I recognize that Project 2025 – a document candidate Trump claimed not to know about and one I underestimated – is succeeding in systematically dismantling the hard progress our country has made over the decades. It is thoroughly reassembling American life in support of a vision of a politically authoritarian, largely white, largely Christian, certainly heterosexual, pro-business nation.
This is the message to Greenland and the world: We want your mineral wealth and strategic location, and we have the power to take it. Here is the message to Venezuela and the world: We want your oil, and we have the power to take it.
But wait! American oil companies are now saying they are not so very interested in making the significant, long-term investments in the Venezuelan oil infrastructure needed to turn the tap back on. Perhaps they believe better long-term investments reside in other energy directions, but too bad because really even they, powerful oil industry executives, won’t have a choice because Trump has determined they will do his bidding.
The pattern is already clear: all institutions will fold before him, be they government agencies, tech companies or universities. This is Project 2025: the systematic identification of the multiple strands of the American cultural fabric —and the willingness to brutally yank them — regardless of legality or public outcry.
Such is the “leadership” that has nations trembling and compliant in this new world order. Venezuela is ordered to release political prisoners (a good thing) and Nicaragua, unasked, releases far more. In Denmark and Europe, leaders are fearful of pushing back too hard on the Greenland issue, while the Ukraine issue still desperately needs American support. Even Putin is quiet on Venezuela, seeking his own, opposing favorable terms on Ukraine. No one wants to risk a rupture with President Trump.
This new world order is a brazen Tit for Tat and Quid Pro Quo while millions of lives hang in balance. But at the end of the day, won’t our president simply do whatever his whim-of-the-day dictates, regardless of any prior agreement, much less guiding moral principle? Even the concept of American First has become fuzzy as it reveals itself to be Trump First.
Meanwhile, here in Kentucky, we find ourselves in the strange moment where the courageous moral voices are those of Rand Paul and Thomas Massie. These unique, unpredictable Republican leaders appear to possess the only backbones that have managed not to fracture under the considerable political forces of the MAGA world.
Andy Barr failed us long ago and continues to fail us each day, as his long, sad, fawning search for Trump’s endorsement reveals. How is he unable to see the true, and truly quite desperate, needs of so many Kentuckians?
And where the heck is Mitch McConnell? This could be the perfect swansong, a legacy-defining/redeeming moment for this powerful long-term politician to take a stand. He briefly held one in the days following Jan. 6, 2021, so we know (or hope) it remains somewhere in his heart of hearts. Mitch: it is time to re-take (and this time hold) the line against what you know is wrong and deeply dangerous for our country. Mitch: Can’t you see how much we need you?!
Kelli Carmean is a local horsewoman, and a recently retired Eastern Kentucky University professor.