Having lived through Watergate, I’ve often wondered if we’d see a national crisis of that significance again in my lifetime.  The Trump era is an order of magnitude worse than Watergate.

The thing about Trump is, there are so many scandals going on simultaneously, any ONE of them would have brought a different president down.  There’s the violations of the emoluments clause, his blatant racism, the Stormy Daniels payoff, refusal to implement sanctions against Russia, money laundering with Russian banks, playing agitator in chief with N. Korea, his horrible hires for his cabinet.  I literally don’t have time to remember them all.

I firmly believe he will go down as the worst president in American history.  I have no doubt in my mind.  And there won’t be a close second.

I’m consistently tough on the republican party.  The reason is, I hate the republican party.  Plain, simple, and honest.  I didn’t used to.  All it took was to have some semblance of an honorable man in the office and I could easily agree to disagree.  But I didn’t hate the party.  Now I do.  I believe at the core the party is founded on one of the seven deadly sins: greed.  I see it in every piece of legislation they produce.  It’s all about lining their pockets, at the expense of the poor.   I believe my hatred is well founded and backed by factual information.

But here’s where the rubber meets the road.  During the Trump era, I have come to admire many, many Republicans.  Ana Navarro.  Rick Wilson.  Bill Kristol.  Mitt Romney.  Cheri Jacobus.  Why?  Because they have the guts to speak out against their own party.

Rick Wilson is hilarious.  He’s a Reagan conservative, but he refuses to normalize the clown car that is the Trump administration.  Same thing with Ana Navarro.  She’s a once proud Republican.  John McCain is her hero.  But don’t mess with her on T.V. and try to normalize Trumpism.  She’ll kick your ass.

Bill Kristol is on Twitter daily railing against the Trump administration.  He knows all too well that this is not normal.

I sincerely admire these people for their courage to speak out when something isn’t right.   Before it becomes the popular thing to do.  What it does for me is, if they have a conservative opinion about something, I’m listening closely.  I don’t just write them off as a far right loon.  I really want to hear what they have to say because they have demonstrated courage to call out criminal behavior at the risk of being ostracized by their own party.

That’s my takeaway from the first year of Trump.  There are a few patriots within the Republican party and I am so glad to see it.   Hopefully more will emerge as time goes on.