Republicans finally got their messiah in 2017, a president who will implement their dogmatic policies no matter how harmful they are to the planet, the economy or the wellbeing of our citizens.  If they continue to control Congress, they will change America in ways that will even appall many conservatives.  We can’t let that happen on November 6.

When I think about the outrages that have occurred under President Trump and his congressional enablers – attacks on the press, the Justice Department, the FBI, etc. — it’s easy to speculate on what will happen if this trend continues for another two or more years.  The dire scenarios are too numerous for one blog, but where better to start than the results of last December’s massive tax cut for corporations and the wealthy.

As critics predicted, revenue losses from Trump’s so-called tax reform are massive.  Yearly federal deficits are spiking into very dangerous territory – more than a trillion dollars year – with the national debt growing toward 100 percent of the nation’s yearly economic output (GDP) by 2028.  This level of debt has not occurred since the end of World War II.  Yet, House Republicans recently passed a second round of budget busting tax cuts that will become law if they have their way.  Runaway deficits will become their excuse to severely cut Medicare, Medicaid and other social safety net programs, even Social Security.

Those voters who think Trump has brazenly abused his power since the inauguration better brace for what will come in 2019.  After the midterms he is likely to fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions and deputy AG Rod Rosenstein.  Trump’s objective, of course, is to further obstruct justice by shutting down special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.  With a Trump sycophant speaker of the House like California Republican Kevin McCarthy, Mueller will be gone.  Consequently, if Democrats don’t take control of the strong oversight powers of the House next year, we may never learn what crimes Trump and his campaign committed during the 2016 election.

A recent report by the United Nations scientific panel on climate change predicts horrific consequences for our planet due to greenhouse gas emissions, perhaps as early as 2040.  The U.S. is the second largest emitter of these harmful pollutants.  Rising seas, drought and exacerbated food shortages would cause massive poverty and destabilizing refugee problems as tens of millions are forced to evacuate areas that are under water or will no longer support human populations.

Trump has called climate change a “hoax” and has begun withdrawing the U.S. from the Paris climate agreement.  His EPA is axing regulations intended to reduce emissions from coal-fired power plants and other sources.  Yet, the U.N. report is clear, according to Drew Shindell — a Duke University climate scientist and an author of the report — “There is no way to mitigate climate change without getting rid of coal.”  To make matters worse, U.S. rejection of climate science and emissions regulations gives other countries license to do the same.

So long as Republicans control Congress, their head-in-the-sand attitude on global warming will prevail as government policy, as will Trump’s war on immigrants and his nationalistic foreign policy.

Seven million job openings in August show that our domestic industries and farms need immigrant workers, even illegal ones.  U.S. colleges and universities aren’t producing sufficient skilled citizens to fill the vacancies at high-tech companies and most Americans aren’t willing to supply the low-skilled labor for our farms.  Trump’s immigration policy is not only cruel, it doesn’t make economic sense.  But Republicans don’t care so long as it minimizes the nonwhites who frequently become Democrats.

Globally, Trump is withdrawing from the leadership of the free world and the protector of the liberal democratic order established by the United States after World War II.  This will open the door for other dictators like those in Venezuela and Syria.  These depots could send even more immigrants fleeing into Europe and clamoring at our borders for asylum.

Comments by conservative Republicans who have left the GOP tell it all.  Columnist George Will was one of the first to go in June 2016.  “This was not my party anymore,” said Will, when Speaker Paul Ryan(R-Wis.) endorsed Trump after he attacked a Latino judge in Indiana.

After strongly criticizing the Democrats’ handling of the Kavanaugh nomination, conservative Tom Nichols, a U.S. Naval War College professor, observed: “Republicans, however, have now eclipsed the Democrats as a threat to the rule of law and to the constitutional norms of American society.  They have become all about winning.”  Like Will, he is now an independent.

Conservative columnist and writer Max Boot gave his reason for leaving the GOP: “The Republican Party will now be defined by Trump’s dark, divisive vision, with his depiction of Democrats as America-hating, criminal-coddling traitors, his vilification of the press as the “enemy of the people,” and his ugly invective against Mexicans and Muslims.”  Boot sees extremism as the governing ideology of the party and strongly advocates voting for Democrats.

I believe the current leaders of the GOP — and most of their caucus — are more focused on their power as a political party than the strength of the nation’s democratic institutions and more protective of an unfit, autocratic President Trump than the Constitution.  The best way to preserve our democracy is to vote them out of office.

Footnote:  Click here to see what Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said about cutting Medicare, Medicaid and SS to reduce deficits.