The term Whiskey Tango Foxtrot derives from a military term describing circumstances gone completely awry (what the f*ck). This would certainly apply to the state of our country at this present time.
With half the population believing lies over facts, a pandemic that has a means of prevention that almost 50 percent of the country won’t accept, rampant wildfires, a stifling heat wave, catastrophic flooding and powerful hurricanes spurred on by climate change, and a whacko wannabe despot stirring the pot at every turn, this is definitely a WTF moment in our history.
The thing is, if this continues, we are going to destroy ourselves as a nation.
(Listen to the article)
The 2020 Election
Nothing screams WTF like the 2020 presidential election. It resulted in the bloody January 6th insurrection, has many Republican-led states engaged in actively suppressing voter participation in future elections, and has divided the nation to its worst point since the Civil War.
Meanwhile, as Democrats in Congress, along with a few Republicans, attempt to get to the causes of the insurrection, you have Republicans threatening companies who cooperate with the committee. They refer to those who are currently being held for their role in the insurrection as patriots, heroes, tourists and even martyrs while demanding charges be brought against the Capitol police officer who defended their very lives.
Even as Republicans seek to stymie any attempts to investigate their roles in the insurrection, they are using a two-pronged attack on the election results. First, many Republican-led states are implementing measures to suppress voter participation in future elections. Laws have been crafted to allow local officials to negate election results that are disputed, as well as making it more difficult for minorities to vote.
Second, there are efforts, in several states, to revisit the 2020 election results by demanding recounts. Arizona, Georgia, Michigan and Pennsylvania are among the states either conducting recounts or considering them. Not surprisingly, these are states where President Biden won.
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.
Climate Change
Climate change is real. Wildfires, fueled by extreme drought conditions plague the Western United States while more and more powerful hurricanes and catastrophic flooding are wreaking havoc in the South and Northeast. Despite this, there are still those who continue to deny Climate Change exists, including multiple members of Congress. (Here's a great resource about wildfires from EcoWatch.)
Even massive destruction in their home states will not dissuade these Climate Change deniers. Instead, they will condemn the Green New Deal as a Socialist plot to attack your freedoms, destroy air travel, and even force a vegan lifestyle and take away your steak and hamburgers .
Scientists claim that we are at a tipping point when it comes to saving the planet. Despite these dire predictions, many Evangelicals welcome Climate Change as a sign of the apocalypse, and seek the end of the world to fulfill a Biblical prophecy.
With this mindset, it will be difficult, if not impossible, to convince some people to alter their lifestyles to accommodate the issues associated with Climate Change. Instead, they will selfishly embrace apocalyptic rapture in hopes of realizing the illusion of a heavenly reward.
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.
The Pandemic
With over 600,000 deaths and a raging pandemic, you would think everyone would embrace a vaccine that promises to prevent or make less severe the symptoms of the coronavirus.
Sadly, that is not the case.
Instead you have anti-vaxxers who refuse to get the vaccine and comply with mask mandates enacted by many companies as we endure a fourth wave of coronavirus cases due to those who refuse the shots. Yet, they are willing to take fake and unproven “cures” such as hydroxychloroquine and the medication used to deworm livestock, ivermectin, because they are hawked by right wing media.
Those opposing masks are not doing so quietly. Instead, they are causing major disruptions by shutting down school board meetings and vaccination clinics while threatening board members and politicians who support mask mandates with violence. They declare masks to be “an attack on their freedom”, while they continue to be the main contributors to the shocking rise in coronavirus cases around the nation.
The governors of Florida and Texas have gone as far as to ban schools and businesses from enacting mask mandates. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, of course, has gone so far as to threaten the funding of school districts that defy the ban and have masking requirements.
WTF!
Afghanistan
Talking out of both sides of their faces, Republicans are alternately blaming President Biden for failing to evacuate all those who assisted the American efforts in the Afghan war and accusing him of allowing terrorists into the country along with the evacuees.
The chaotic pull-out from our 20 year involvement in Afghanistan has some GOP senators calling for President Biden to either resign or be impeached. They conveniently ignore the fact that it was the previous administration that negotiated with the Taliban to withdraw from the country.
The purpose for going into Afghanistan was to track down those who planned the attacks on 9/11. Once that was accomplished, there was no reason to remain there, yet the Obama and Trump administrations failed to make the moves for which President Biden is being slammed by the GOP.
Whiskey…you know the rest.
Executive Privilege
Executive Privilege refers to privileged communications between the president and his staff. While it was exercised by George Washington on down, the first time it was argued before the Supreme Court was when Richard Nixon sought to invoke this right during the Watergate Scandal. The court upheld this right and it has been used by every president since to allow them to have a fair and open dialogue with their staff without fear that it would somehow be used against them.
Donald Trump used, and many say abused, this privilege to prevent members of Congress from forcing members of his cabinet from testifying at number hearings and both impeachment proceedings. By invoking this privilege, many facts surrounding the Trump administration may never come to light.
Now, Trump is attempting to invoke the same privilege as a Congressional committee seeks to investigate the January 6th insurrection. Despite no longer being in office, a reason Republicans gave for not voting to convict Trump at his second impeachment trial, he still claims he maintains that he has that right.
In a bizarre twist, the Biden administration is actually considering supporting this. Trump has so blatantly twisted the role of president that abandoning this privilege could irrevocably damage the Executive Office. Therefore, while he does not support Trump’s actions, Biden may allow him to use it to protect the office of the President of the United States.
…Tango…
Immigration
Whenever Republicans want to distract from an issue, they will invariably point to the Southern border. They blame it on everything from the pandemic to an influx of terrorists as evacuees arrive from Afghanistan. In the past, immigrants have been blamed for economic woes as well, but with the Biden administration in charge, and the economy on the upswing, Republicans are conveniently ignoring this; something that they did not do during the previous administration.
Immigrants, both legal and illegal, have been a convenient scapegoat. The Trump administration took this to a new level. His 2016 election campaign was based largely upon stoking fear in his followers while making the wild claim that a border wall, to be paid for by Mexico, would be the answer to the “immigration crisis”.
By labeling the coronavirus the “China virus”, Trump distracted from his inept response that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands. He also caused multiple attacks on Asian Americans who were blamed for causing the virus to proliferate.
While President Biden has been criticized for not getting every eligible Afghan out of the country, it was Trump aide Stephen Miller, the architect of the horrific separation of families at the Southern border, who actually prevented thousands of Afghans from entering the United States.
…Foxtrot
And the Rest
Gun control, abortion rights and so many other issues are at the feet of Republicans who are trying to evade responsibility at every turn. Instead, they are attempting to thwart President Biden at every opportunity in their insatiable lust for power and control, no matter how many Americans are harmed or die in the process.
Yes, we are indeed at a crossroads in our nation’s history. It has many of us muttering, if not screaming…