It is time for the Democratic presidential candidates to stop taking swipes at each other and focus on the real enemy -- Donald John Trump, the just impeached president who has co-opted the Republican Party and turned it into his own personal cheering section.
This stuff with Mayor Pete Buttigieg taking shots at former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders needs to stop. All of these candidates should have a singular objective: take down Trump.
Yes, Mayor Pete, you are an impressive, young, dynamic candidate with a lot to offer our country. And, yes, you just might pull the biggest upset in political history and become the first mayor of a city of just 100,000 people to win a major party's nomination for president.
But please, have some respect. Stop with the sly little daggers about Sanders' and Biden's age, and for heaven's sake, stop declaring victory before the results are in as you did in Iowa. It's just unseemly and you should know better.
The American people are searching for a leader, someone who will take this country out of the morass in which Donald Trump has created. Someone who speaks out strongly and follows through with action. Someone they can trust and count on.
All of this isn't on Mayor Pete. Other candidates are fighting each other over such issues as Medicare for All, for example. Yes, there are policy differences among them. But the important point is this:
Every single one of the Democratic presidential candidates will fight to make healthcare available to more and more Americans. But, Trump? He and his GOP ass-kissers are trying to do away with the coverage upon which millions of Americans rely; The Affordable Care Act (ACA) and its guarantee of coverage for pre-existing conditions.
Trump and the Republicans have tried for three years to replace the ACA, that signature achievement of President Barack Obama, and despite his promise to always protect such coverage, the Trump administration is in court trying to undue the ACA in its entirety.
Trump is a liar and cares nothing about the American people. This evil man should be the unrelenting target of every single one of these candidates, and as long as they continue to fight among themselves, they are avoiding the real target: The impeached Trump and all that he's done and continues to do to harm our nation and our democracy.
And they are betraying the nation, as well, because Trump, as he basks in his acquittal by the Senate, will be unrelenting as he whips up the fervor of his base, and unless he's effectively countered, will win election to a second term.
Then, my friends, there will be no restraints. His effort to bully Ukraine to help him against Biden will be child's play compared to what lies ahead.
You like living in a democracy? Well, cherish every moment, because if Trump is reelected, democracy, as we know it, will be gone.