In last week’s blog I wrote about DEI programs, but it was not about DEI per se. Instead, it was about the fact that Trump’s attack on them is a prime example of the fact that he does not believe in or embrace the values our country has been trying to live up to since it founding.
Trump’s sick response to the tragic death of film maker Ron Reiner and his wife, Michele, proved how right I was to make that point. Writer Mary Geddry put it succinctly when she wrote that Trump is “what happens when we lose our moral character.”
This is the most important point for every American to get. Moral character matters, and it especially matters when it comes to public leaders, and Trump has no moral character at all.
Let me put it this way. The fact that Trump lies about everything is far more of a threat to the survival of our nation than the lies themselves that he tells.
This is what should define his presidency for every American. Trump could be as great a president as he imagines himself to be and it would not matter because nothing matters more than the moral values on which a life or a nation rests.
We know that whatever a man or woman who lacks moral character does, nothing can make up for his or her personal corruption. The same holds true for nations. Our moral foundation, the values by which we live, matter more than anything else.
This is why Trump’s assault on our values as a people represents the greatest danger we face. It is not hyperbolic to say that Trump is to America what Adolf Hitler was to Germany, an evil force whose very existence is an assault on everything moral, decent, and civilized about our national life.
This is what his attack on DEI programs tells us plain and simple. The whole concept of DEI was our government’s way of putting the 1964 Civil Rights Act and its modern updates into practice.
Rubin Law, the nation’s pre-eminent firm specializing in employment and labor law cases describes DEI as being about “removing barriers to equal opportunity by ensuring fairness, representation, and belonging in the workplace and prohibiting discrimination against employees because of their race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, age, disability, or any other protected category.”
Rubin goes on to say, “It’s about providing equal opportunity to people from different backgrounds, while also creating an environment where everyone feels valued and can succeed.”
This is the kind of America most of us want to live in, and it is why making the claim that DEI programs cause “reverse discrimination” is an unfounded lie. By law DEI programs cannot discriminate for any reason, as stated explicitly in the Title VII section of the Civil Rights Act on which they are based. Those violations include discrimination against anyone based on race, sex, religion, national origin, whether favoring majority or minority groups.
If anything, DEI seeks to prevent discrimination in any form, whether biased hiring and promotion, unequal pay for equal work, in consistent standard performance criteria, hiring quotas, or any kind of preferential treatment of individuals or classes of individuals.
Based on the facts, the simple truth is, Trump has made DEI a political issue because of his own corrupt values that make him an enemy of diversity, equity, inclusion, which makes him an enemy of those American values that are the foundation for our being the great nation we are.
Our founders trusted that we would elect trustworthy people. Donald Trump represents our failure in living up to their hopes and expectations. That he was elected twice highlights the degree of our moral decline.
But it is not too late for us to recover from the damage done via his election. Polls are telling us the majority of us now see the mistake those who voted for Trump made that put the nation in the mess we are in.
That’s the only good news there is at the moment, but hope for better days grows stronger by the day as we see the nation’s negative reaction to Trump’s lack of character. The chances of his impeachment and conviction increase as his amoral words and actions increase, something we’ll talk more about after the first of the year.
People’s awareness of the danger Trump’s lack of moral character and enduring values poses to America must continue to grow, along with people’s disgust over what he keeps saying and doing.
If it does, then we all can rest assured that when he is gone, his stain on our national character will be washed away and what he dreads the most will happen to him – he will be largely forgotten, with anything he said or did remembered with appropriate and even colorful expletives to describe them.
linnposts.com 
I hope you are correct that when the wicked warlock is dead that most things will return to “normal.” With the likes of JD Vance and the other sycophants, I have my doubts. At almost 78 YO, I don’t see it in my lifetime, even if I make it to my 90s.
Between the MAGAs and those who philosophically or otherwise will never support a Dem for whatever reason, I don’t see the country coming together without a threat like WW II or Sputnik. Despite Strump’s declarations of American superiority in any number of areas, maybe the threats of China will provide that impetus, but I don’t see it.
Otherwise, I agree and understand with your comments.
I’m a bit older than you are, but I refuse to give up hope that I will see Trump and Trumpism gone and America back on its feet. Not that I don’t have doubts as you do. Anyone who cares about the country has to wonder what the future holds. But I will never believe Trump will have the last word and I believe I will live to see it. Thanks you for the comment.
In case you don’t already, read or listen to Heather Cox Richardson’s “Letters from and American,” see the one dated 12/18/2025 that begins “These are the times that try men’s souls.”
https://open.substack.com/pub/heathercoxrichardson/p/december-18-2025?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
I do read her. Thanks.
totally agree Jan, but what scares me the most is trump’s total lack of any hint of morality, and his total control over our nuclear arsenal
Should scare us all!
Well said Jan. He is such a sick, unhinged child. That he is President of this great country is heartbreaking at best. I think an impeachment is a pipe dream though. His supporters are too wealthy and influential to let that happen. He’s just the point man. There’s a huge system behind him. Project 2025 showed that.
You may be right, Wilbur, but I believe he will be so unpopular at the start of 2027 that impeachment and conviction will be possible.
Hey Jan. Happy holidays to you and Joy. Appreciate your last blog. I absolutely hate WordPress though. I’ve tried numerous times to write comments th
You, too, Wilbur. And I hate WordPress as well. I have considered another platform. I do have a Substack blog I post at the same time. I could ask everyone to switch to that one, but haven’t yet. I will decide near the time WordPress has to be renewed.
After reading your apology of DEI, you seem to equate equity with equality. Most people are fine with Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion. A belief in equality is a belief in meritocracy. A qualified student or employee would advance or be admitted based solely on their qualifications, regardless of race, gender, or sex. If you find discrimination abhorrent, it’s hard to support equity. You don’t fix the ills of discrimination by continuing the practice on the other side. As John Edward’s famously said, “ if you want to end discrimination by race, you end discrimination by race.’ At Thomas Jefferson High School in Fairfax qualified Asian and white students, especially Asian, were not admitted so that less qualified students could be. This is equity.
DEI is a concept, much like socialism, that sounds fantastic. However, when it is put to practice, the results are the opposite of what was promised
Apparently, you missed the section in my blog where I noted that what you described that can (and perhaps does) happen is illegal based on Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights act on which DEI is based. DEI does NOT permit unqualified students or workers to be selected over others based on their race. Equity means everyone has an equal chance. Quotas were ruled unconstitutional a long time ago.
Jan,
Without doubt Trump is a man without a moral framework of any description. If the Democrat resurgence occurs in the midterms, we may well see a third impeachment, but it will likely not result in conviction. Further, I believe it will take a long time to rectify the damage he had done, and will further do. Longer, I believe, than my remaining years, with have been many. I would like to see part of them redone, and also to see him incarcerated, if he lives long enough.
Gene
Gene, what you say may happen, but I think when Trump is gone his amorality and general arrogance and self-conceit will become more loathed by more people. No one will remember him with kindness because he will not deserve it.
Jan,
I hope you are right.
Gene
Jan, your continued optimism is now becoming highly contagious. Who would have thought just six months ago that Trump would be executing his own demise at this point. But I now believe that his demise is inevitable. To me it is just a question of how long will it take for him to be gone. And how much more damage will he produce in that length of time.
I now agree with James Carville, who said yesterday ” He’s done! It’s over! He is nothing more than a lame duck president at this point. He is now the ultimate loser”. Of course this is just “one person’s opinion” (now two). But reality is now settling in and he is self-destructing at a record pace. In my mind he is a lame duck president with nowhere to go but out. Yes he still holds the power of the presidency and over the “Republican Party”. But I think we have now reached the point where something has to “give” for the “Republican Party” to now survive.
But I also agree with Wilbur when he says “His supporters are too wealthy and influential … He’s just the point man. There’s a huge system behind him. Project 2025 showed that.” Yes there have now been “Republican defections” beginning to take place. And I think this is a strong indicator that Republicans must come to grips with their own future right now, not later. If Trump is allowed to ride out his term in the next three years, Democrats will probably control three branches of government by that time and the “Republican Party, Trump and MAGA will become a distant memory. I don’t think Republican power brokers will let that happen.
I have been trying to dig into why Susie Wiles, Trump’s press secretary, “allowed” all her comments to go public just a few days ago. Most of the press seem to think what she did was just another example of incompetency on her part. But I now feel that she felt it was time to protect her own legacy. And what better way to do it than how she did it. The first thing it tells me is that she may be beginning to set the stage for a break with Trump. That may be wishful thinking on my part, but what did all of Trump’s leadership team do after she criticized each and everyone of them? They rallied to her support!
So, to me “Republican Leadership” has three choices:
Just continue to bow down to Trump, do nothing different between now and the midterms, and hope and pray that damage will be minimal. To me that would be suicide on the part of all “Republicans”.
I think it is reasonable that Democrats will deliver a “Blue Wave” in the midterms. If that happens, the first thing they will probably do is to impeach Trump for the third time. This will now put immense pressure on “Senate Republicans” to convict him. Yes it would take maybe 8-10 “Republican Senators” to convict. But if they do so, J. D. Vance will become president for the two years leading up to the 2028 elections. Trump’s lame duck presidency would be over and they could mount a powerful message to their constituencies that they should remain in power.
If I am reading the handwriting on the wall with anything close to reality, the “Republican Power Mongers” should do what they did with Nixon and force Trump to resign, yes by the end of the first quarter of 2026. They will of course say they will protect his legacy and he will be pardoned by Vance (if he doesn’t pardon himself). Trump will then ride out in style, taking all his grift with him, and he can live happily thereafter. In my mind this would be the best alternative for the survival of the “Republican Party”.
But, then again, this is just one person’s opinion.
John Hamerski
Thanks, John. Given Trump’s declining mental state, your third suggestion may actually be what happens, but I’m hoping for the second one – impeachment and conviction. At the end of the day, though, all that. matters is that he will be gone.
Jan, to you and Joy, to Gene, and to your readers:
Merry Christma, Happy Hanukkah, and my best for a prosperous New Year.
John
And also to you, John. May the New Year bring brighter days for everyone.
John,
I hope you are right, but I think it will take a long time to right the wrongs he’s committed and put in place.
My best for you.
Gene