To The Editor:

“Living in the United States today is like being in a boat on the Niagara River above the falls. Our engine is sputtering and threatening to stall, and Republicans and Democrats fight about what kind of fuel to put in the tank and who should be steering the boat. Meanwhile, the ominous roar of the falls grows louder every day.”

I wrote that in a letter during the summer of 2009. At the time, the Obama Administration was beginning to lead our country out of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, despite relentless obstruction from “conservative” Republicans. Without the support of a single GOP member of Congress and despite their non-stop criticism, our economy quickly stabilized and began growing again. I had hoped that Republicans might learn something and decide to  co-operate with Democrats, rather than reflexively opposing everything they did. My hope was futile. Instead, my worst-case scenario came to pass and we careened over the falls.

In 2016, the totally corrupt Republican Party chose a malignant, prating fool to pilot the United States. He immediately grabbed the wheel, aimed the bow straight at the edge of the falls, and gunned the engine, shouting, “Make America Great Again!” So here we are today, falling like a rock. It’s impossible to predict how this will end, but it can’t end well. There are three possible outcomes when we hit bottom – bad, awful and catastrophic. We surely will experience at least one of them.

In the bad scenario, our nation will be battered ferociously during the next few years. Then,  we will emerge from the COVID-19 crisis, bloody and wounded, but still alive and prepared to rebuild the United States better than it ever has been. In order for that to happen, we must vote Trump and his cult out of office in November. It won’t be easy, but it must be done.

The awful scenario will happen if Trump and the GOP manage to cheat their way back into power this fall.  That will leave our democratic republic mortally wounded – its lifeblood seeping away under barbaric tyranny — while we drift helplessly downstream until we die, alone and at the mercy of the hostile world Trump has helped create. 

The catastrophic scenario is obvious. Global capitalism collapses in the coming years,  while human civilization spirals backward toward the Middle Ages. That’s not likely, but it is possible. We are now in history’s boiling cauldron. There’s no guarantee we won’t get cooked.

Rev. Robert Plaisted   

Bath and Bridgton