Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff. 

By Britt Nelson

Seems as if losing the presidential election is not enough for the Democrats. They are continuing with their racist and bigoted rants over every named staffer, advisor and potential cabinet member announced by Republican President-elect Donald Trump.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has faded into retirement since losing the presidency but fellow Democrats Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and others are leading the Democratic charge against all of Trump’s picks with total contempt. Their attitude is one of the main reasons the Democrats lost the presidency and failed to gain control of the U.S. Congress in the first place.

Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, Trump’s choice for U.S. Attorney General, is coming under intense Democratic criticism for having been denied a Federal judgeship in 1986 for allegedly making racist remarks 30 years ago. That did not stop Sessions from going on with becoming Alabama’s Attorney General and then being elected to the U.S. Senate in 1997, where he presently serves. Even when Sessions speaks, he is labeled a racist, bigoted white man by the New England Democrats just because of his Alabama-style Southern accent. This man is no racist and his appointment as the nation’s Attorney General is a good one, but he will need U.S. Senate confirmation along with many others.

“I am ready to fight,” Sen. Warren said in relation to Trump’s ongoing cabinet appointments. Those five words tell a much larger story, don’t they? When it comes time for U.S. Senate approval of Trump’s cabinet positions, the Republicans will need to speak with one voice.

Sessions has accepted the responsibility of taking over the U.S. Department of Justice whose leadership under Attorney General Loretta Lynch has been tainted with questionable interference with the FBI’s investigation of Clinton and her controversial private email system that put national security at risk during her time as secretary of state and the ties between the U.S. State Department and the Clinton Foundation. These issues will not go away after Sessions is confirmed as the nation’s top cop.

On the streets of New York City, in front of Trump Tower and inside the lobby, a circus-like atmosphere has developed with hoards of reporters, curious on-lookers and even the guitar-playing Naked Cowboy watching and waiting for who knows who to walk in for an interview with Trump upstairs in the penthouse. Media speculations fly with each new person that comes and goes as we all wait to see what the Trump administration will look like.

Interviewed by Trump over the weekend, in nearby New Jersey, was four-star Gen. James “Mad Dog” Mattis for Secretary of Defense. Mattis and Trump appeared briefly following the interview and Trump gave high marks to Mattis and his stellar 44-year career as a U.S. Marine. If selected for the position Mattis would need a special congressional waiver to serve as Defense Secretary. According to Title 10 of the U.S. Code, the Secretary of Defense must be out of military uniform for a period longer than 7 years to reinforce the norm of civilian control. Mattis retired from the Marine Corps in 2013 after serving as commander of the United States Central Command having replaced disgraced Gen. David Petraeus, according to Wikipedia.

As far as the quality of this Marine goes, he earned that nickname “Mad Dog” for a reason. If he makes it to Secretary of Defense, ISIS and all of radical Islam will have met their match and Trump knows this.

Meanwhile, retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn has been picked by Trump as Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs. He is also apparently on the list for director of the National Security Agency.

For director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Trump has chosen former Kansas congressman Mike Pompeo, who was a sharp critic of Hillary Clinton while he was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives’ Benghazi committee, according to CNN.

Flynn, Mattis (if selected), Pompeo and Sessions will require congressional hearings and confirmation by the Republican controlled U.S. Senate before they can take office at Trump’s side.

On Saturday, former presidential candidate Sen. Sanders released an eye-popping statement on social media that clearly shows there will be no peace in national politics anytime soon.

“Here is the simple truth. Trump’s reactionary agenda will not be defeated in the halls of Congress. It will be defeated when millions of Americans, at the grassroots level, come together to oppose xenophobia and attacks on the immigrant community. It will be defeated when we stand together against racism, sexism, homophobia and Islamophobia,” Sanders said. “It will be defeated when working people throughout our country – black, white, Latino, Asian-American and Native American – demand a government and economy which works for all, and not just the 1 percent. Our political task now is to educate, organize and mobilize.”

There is something kinda spooky and downright Godless about Sanders’ statement that doesn’t ring true with American patriotism, standing for the national anthem and kneeling to pray. That more than anything else is why Trump is picking his cabinet and Clinton is not.

 

About the Author

Britt Nelson relocated to Costa Rica in 2011 from Florida, where he served as news editor for the Palatka Daily News, a newspaper owned by the New York Times Regional Newspaper Group (NYT-RNG) for 20 years.

Nelson served the NYT-RNG for 18 years in Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina and Florida as a correspondent, reporter, staff writer, senior staff writer training new reporters, copy editor, page designer, editorial writer, editorial page editor and editorial board member.