My Lanes - 331

Since my column is a climate column, I have stayed in my lane. Since climate change will continue to impact everything we experience, the "lane" is a multi-lane freeway. The cure to climate change will come down to international, national, and local government policy. Policy is set by and directed by politicians.  In a democracy,  the voters have the power.

In direct opposition to 10s of thousands of climate scientists and all reputable science organizations, Donald Trump tells us climate change is a hoax. As a person who respects science and has sourced the best science materials available, it is well within my climate lane to say he is scientifically incompetent to lead the United States of America.

We have warmed the earth past 2 degrees Fahrenheit and feel the repercussions. We had the hottest El Nino year last year and experienced the warmest year on record. For a person who does not winter down south and loves winter, last year was a bust. It was a bust for my friends working in the winter sports business and our local economy.  The rapid warming of our winters is well documented and will continue if we continue to power our economy with fossil fuels.  Democratically elected leaders capable of reading and understanding the science and economic solutions are the people who will make the solutions happen.

Dictatorships with Fascist leaders will not make the changes needed. Where oil is the primary economic driver, totalitarian governments dominate. The ugliest example is Putin's Russia, where there is no movement away from climate-killing fossil fuels. The reason is money. Oil company money flows to autocratic leaders who push more drilling. Donald Trump has promised oil companies free rein if they fund his re-election. And if he is reelected, he and his authors of Project 2025 have committed to moving us away from democracy to fascism.

As a person who has spent much of his life in our nation's uniforms and sworn allegiance to our CONSTITUTION, I have been worried for a long time about our commitment to democracy.

Our first American Author to win a Nobel Prize, Sinclair Lewis, warned that fascism would kill our democracy. He wrote of America's politics, "When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross."

His most famous novel, "Mainstreet," was about his hometown of Sauk Center, MN.  His 1935 dystopian novel, "It Can't Happen Here," is about a Fascist who becomes president of the United States, eerily representing what is happening today.   

As a Christian, I doubled down on my worries. I picked up a book about the great Lutheran Theologian Detrich Bonhoeffer. With the rise of fascism in NAZI Germany, the German Lutheran Church rolled over and became an accomplice of the Nazis.  Bonhoeffer was the Lutheran counterpoint to the German Lutheran Church capitulation. A movie on his life is coming out in November, but I suggest picking up whatever books on him you can now.

You may also want to pick up or listen to "In the Garden of Beasts," a history of the American Ambassador to Germany and his family before WWII. If you like scary this Halloween, skip the haunted house and read In the Garden of Beasts.

I am calling attention to this threat because three four-star generals who worked closest and longest with Donald Trump have warned us he is a horrific threat to our nation. General Mark Milley was the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from October 1st, 2019, to September 30th, 2023. He says Trump is a "fascist to the core" and "the most dangerous person to this country."

The longest serving Chief of Staff to Donald Trump, retired four-star general John Kelly, also called the former president a "fascist" with no concept of the rule of law or constitution.

James Mattis was one of the highest-ranking generals in the United States who found Donald Trump unfit.  Upon his retirement as Secretary of Defense, he wrote, "Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people -- does not even pretend to try," Mattis wrote in June 2020. "Instead, he tries to divide us." Mattis said Trump had made "a mockery of the Constitution."

It is one thing for me to say, "I believe Donald Trump is a threat to our nation”, but when our most intelligent men who dedicated their lives to the Military and service to country, men who Donald Trump appointed to the highest levels of our government, now warn us he is a danger to our country, it is time to sit up and listen and take this threat seriously. 

My dad and his brothers served in World War II to stop fascists from taking over our country. What a shame the threat to our country now comes from a politician running for president.     

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