Positive Thinking in the Midst of Chaos and Destruction

My life philosophy begins with gratitude. I remind myself every morning that it is a miracle to be alive, to receive just the right amount of light, warmth, and energy from a sun that is 93 million miles away, to breathe in the same oxygen that the ancestors breathed (thanks to the plants, trees, and phytoplankton), to drink the same water that has been circulating since time immemorial, and to stand upon the same ground that our ancestors did on this beautiful, precious planet. I pray out of gratitude each and every day I am alive.

Yet I am struggling, like a lot of Americans, to make sense of what is going on with the current administration. Many of the core, original values (which I argue in Original Politics were appropriated from Native America) such as liberty, equality, and natural rights, are now being trampled on by our blatantly corrupt and incompetent leaders. This administration wants you to believe that the last administration was weaponizing the Department of Justice. That is a falsehood. President Biden may have pardoned his son Hunter, but that was only after he refrained from interfering while his son was being investigated. Can you imagine Donald Trump standing back and allowing the DOJ to investigate his own sons? I cannot. The truth about this administration is that it accuses others of doing exactly what they are already doing, or intend to do. The accusations are thinly veiled attempts to cover up their own abuses of the justice system.

There is blatant corruption going on in broad daylight. The selling of insider information to the highest bidders is just one of the more obvious crimes, enabling financial supporters to cash in. The Trump family also launched multiple cryptocurrency projects while simultaneously engaging in scaling back enforcement and penalties against crypto companies, resulting in a massive gain for the family, but not the investors. The administration has also engaged in outright selling of pardons to the highest bidders, and while this went on in the first administration (and other administrations) to a lesser degree, it is now occurring on an unprecedented scale, with no attempt to hide it. Whomever has the cash gets the pardon, including the former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández, convicted of large-scale drug trafficking.

The pardoning of January 6^th rioters was particularly alarming because it basically justified political violence, while also ensuring that Trump could again call upon violent insurrectionists. Like so many egregious actions, it was nearly forgotten until the administration attempted to set up a slush fund that would potentially compensate the rioters because of the supposed weaponization of the Department of Justice.

Why have we not held this administration accountable for their crimes? Other countries – Brazil, France, and South Korea – to name a few, have jailed political leaders who tried to institute a coup or were otherwise found guilty of corruption. Balsonaro, Sarkozy, and Park Geun-Hye were all sentenced to prison. Why not here? In my view, it is because the United States has become an oligarchy, and those with the means to escape or delay justice are taking full advantage. The courts have wittingly or unwittingly enabled criminals to escape accountability. With their immunity decision favoring the president, the Supreme Court committed the most egregious injustice of all. To the day I die, I will never understand why SCOTUS would grant legal immunity to the president for official acts, an action that effectively undermines their own authority as the supreme law of the land.

CBS analyst Dan Abrams, a self-described moderate, claims the Supreme Court is not as biased as liberals think. I used to think the same, but have changed my view. While SCOTUS has ruled against the president a large number of times, they have also taken significant action that undermines our rights as citizens under the guise of granting the executive branch increased power, justifiably so in their minds, or in the case of overturning Roe v Wade, supposedly returning power to the states. The dramatic rollback of Roe v Wade reversed fifty years of legal precedent, but more importantly overturned an existing right. More recently, we barely survived a blatantly unconstitutional attempt to overturn birthright citizenship, a right that is clearly enshrined in the 14^th amendment.

Then, just a few days ago, SCOTUS allowed another absurdly unconstitutional executive order to stand, at least for the moment, by pausing a lower court ruling that blocked key directives of Trump’s executive order empowering Homeland Security to obtain lists of eligible mail voters from states. The Constitution clearly delegates the power of elections to the states. Article I, Section 4, states: “The Times, Places, and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations…” The president has no role in determining rules for voting, by mail or otherwise. The Constitution is clear on the matter, so how did SCOTUS rule this way? They could because they made this ruling on the shadow docket, avoiding ruling on the merits of the case. Their decision may not change the reality on the ground, but it is still scary, for inaction from the courts in the face of an executive power grab is exactly how authoritarian governments take root. If the federal government ever obtains the right to purge a mass amount of eligible voters off voter rolls, we can kiss our republic goodbye.

Wrong is right, up is down, and black is white in this administration. The president and his minions are completely unmoored from truth. I grew up believing it was my duty to stay informed, but my heart cannot abide much of what passes for news today. The media treats the unethical and illegal activities of this administration, as well as the clownish and incompetent activities, much like they did in past administrations. With the removal of Stephen Colbert from late night TV, only the most moronic blunders are occasionally lampooned on late night TV. The president recently declared that he will change policy with “The Islamic Republic of Japan.” That is not a typo. He said that. We are watching a human being fall apart in real time. I feel compassion for such a pathetic figure and I would pity him if he were not so dangerous.

None of what is going on makes sense. There is not now nor has there ever been a plan for getting out of the Iran war. Discussions of the latest threat or announcement of an impending peace deal are laughable. Why follow events at all? Because that is their plan – to flood the zone with so much outrageous stuff that the people will eventually check out and march to their own destruction like lambs to the slaughter house.

When it came to light how tremendously low the morale was aboard the US Lincoln, stranded at sea for nine months, I could relate. But I am not jumping overboard like one sailor did, even if I understand how difficult it is to maintain a positive attitude when all is crumbling.

Why Should We Be Positive?

Why should we remain positive? Because it is always better to water the seeds you want to see grow in the world, and give them the light, air, and fertile soil to flourish. Positive thinking is the only way to imagine and bring to fruition a better future for succeeding generations. Nothing beneficial ever began with negative thinking. I pray daily for a shift in consciousness, one that understands, as Jimi Hendrix did, that the power of love is greater than the love of power. When we fully realize this truth and act from a place of love, respect, and compassion for all, we can mobilize and support genuine candidates with integrity and vision. We can also effect change outside of politics, and that change in consciousness will eventually result in better candidates. In a representational republic, our elected officers are ultimately a reflection of the people.

While the guardrails protecting the constitutional republic have been dramatically eroded, there is still an opportunity to turn things around. It begins with coming out en masse in the upcoming midterms, and being vigilant in guarding against any attempt from this administration to suppress and/or rig the vote. Victor Orban, the authoritarian leader of Hungary, was recently voted out of office in a landslide. Something similar must happen here. And that is only the first step.

Ever since the creation of the Heritage Foundation in 1973, there has been an effort to consolidate power in the executive branch. Project 2025 has roots in a document called “A Mandate to Leadership” that was first promulgated in the early years of the Reagan administration. Project 2025 proudly acknowledges this heritage. The effort to consolidate power in a unitary executive is tied to an effort to consolidate power in an oligarchy. This movement has been a surprisingly successful. Our current president was used to bring this long range plan into fruition. So what can we do other than vote in the midterms? This has to be only a beginning.

I hear a lot of talk today about how both parties are moving toward the extremes. I ordinarily would have some sympathy for this point of view, because I view liberals and conservatives as two aspects of one whole. However, the current administration has moved far to the right in eroding the rights of ordinary citizens. They have moved so far right that a compensation to the left may be necessary. I liken this era to that of the robber barons at the turn of the 20th century. It was then that Teddy Roosevelt was elected president, and proceeded to break up Standard Oil. I now believe we need a similarly determined leader who recognizes the moment and moves swiftly to rebalance what has gone awry. Here is what I would suggest.

As soon as the Trump administration ends in disgrace, we need a second Constitutional convention. A truth and reconciliation commission is not enough, and attempts to make amendments to the Constitution would move too slowly. There must be a second Constitutional convention with the express purpose of protecting against the abuses of power that have occurred in the past fifty years that have dismantled the checks and balances that were intended by our founders. Among the many actions I might envision, the Supreme Court must be completely revamped, with no Justices enjoying lifetime appointments and some basic rules for ethical conduct established, overseen by a committee composed of emeritus and emerita members of the Congress and Supreme Court. The immunity decision clearly must be reversed and the tenet that nobody is above the law, not even the president, reaffirmed. Moreover, the current Department of Justice practice prohibiting indictment of a sitting president must also be rescinded; even a sitting president must be able to be prosecuted if they are egregiously ignoring the law. Congress must also no longer give presidents a blank check for war powers, reasserting their Constitutional authority as the only branch empowered to declare war. And if Congress establishes a department, such as the Department of Education or the Environmental Protection Agency, there should be reasonable limits as to how much the executive branch can restructure the agency. Any government department or agency that has been legally established by an act of Congress should not be cut by more than 15% (or some other reasonable agreed upon percentage) during any one term of the presidency.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the 2010 Citizens United Supreme Court decision must be overturned, for as soon as unlimited corporate contributions became possible, the imposition of an oligarchy became inevitable. All these changes and more must be done to ensure the reconstitution and continuation of a representational republic that, despite its faults, was once the envy of all democracies throughout the free world.

Love and blessings to all,

Glenn

---------

A few paragraphs from this essay were reproduced with permission from ReVision Journal, Winter 2026 edition Dancing with Uncertainty. See revisionpublishing.org