Donald Trump’s orbit collapses
Arnold Schwarzenegger’s moving, eloquent video is circulating on Twitter. Schwarzenegger is and always has been a Republican, but in this speech, he showed that first, he is an American. He told us about his upbringing, reminding us how blessed we are to live in a country like the United States, but more importantly, he laid out how our public servants should behave. Schwarzenegger shared the phrase “a servant’s heart,” which refers to the desire to serve something larger than ourselves. He added the word “public,” describing how we must elect officials who are in office to truly serve, not to gain power or money for themselves.
Donald Trump is one who ran for office for personal gain. He took advantage of the system to make millions of dollars for his failed businesses. We will likely never know the full extent of Trump’s haul, not just from taxpayer dollars, but money he bilked from his own donors. More importantly, Trump relished the power the office of the presidency gave him. He used it to punish his enemies and to cower men and women who should have had the guts to stand up to him but did not. Wednesday, January 6 further revealed Trump’s lack of a servant’s heart when he incited a riot at the Capitol, again, for his own selfish, personal gain. He took advantage of people that he knew were driven by conspiracy theories. He told them what they wanted to hear, and he got them fired up. Many have been arrested, and Trump will not be serving their time for them. They will, hopefully, learn something from the experience.
Our government is no place for conspiracy theorists, yet several states elected known QAnon conspiracists who have now entered our government with anything but a servant’s heart. They refuse to wear masks, even though it is the rule in chambers, and they—like Trump—claim the election was stolen. Newsweek published an interesting piece on Paul Gosar, the representative from Arizona who claimed irregularities in voting. Three of Gosar’s siblings reportedly contacted the Democratic Rep, Raul Grijalva, requesting that their brother be removed because of his “extremist” views and “parroting the exact same lies that Trump has.” While no relatives of Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley have yet similarly contacted anyone, they too must be expelled.
People need to wake up and elect representation on issues. In Georgia, Republicans ran on fear while Democrats targeted specific issues of concern to voters. We must find those who have the public servant’s heart as described by Schwarzenegger—representatives like Reverend Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff. Both learned of a servant’s heart from a man who spent his life in service—John Lewis, who mentored Ossoff and attended Warnock’s church. We must find others, or we will have no hope. We will continue to be governed by people like Donald Trump, Josh Hawley, and Ted Cruz, who are only interested in power and money or people like Paul Gosar, Marjorie Taylor-Greene, and Lauren Boebert, who live in an alternate reality. They must be removed from office, or we will never move forward and begin to heal.
Shirley is a former entertainment writer and has worked in the legal field for over 25 years