Do Any Ends Justify "by any means necessary?"

Trump knew about hush-money payments to women, and lots of other sleazy criminal acts, but he chose to do anything necessary not to hurt his campaign. He wanted to win, by any means necessary.

Sen. Mitch McConnell sat on Pres.Obama's nomination of Merrick Garland to SCOTUS and willfully, with malice aforethought, refused to allow action on this Constituional nomination. He had another goal: turning SCOTUS to the Right. He got extremists Gorsuch & Kavanaugh on SCOTUS, by any means necessary. It was ugly.

Sen.Rob Portman (R, OH), funded by Kochs, NRA, Devos, Big Pharma, et al, had his eyes on the Republicans' PRIZE: A TAX CUT for billionaires & corporations. He called it a "middle class" tax cut that would help "working Americans." He still lies about it. He dismissed concerns about an exploding deficit, a rising national debt. Although he knew the truth, had the CBO report, experts' analysis, he went after the prize, what his funders literally demanded, by any means necessary.  

When the Russian cyber attacks were exposed in 2015, and Russian connections to trump campaign as well, FBI & Intel agencies briefed Pres.Obama, McConnell, Ryan, top Congressional leaders, & candidate tRUmp. James Comey confirmed they had the intel but chose to ignore it, "refused" to act on it. The cover up continues to this day. These Rs support a criminal con who lies like they do to achieve their own ends, by any means necessary. 

Ebony Magazine. 1965

There was a time I thought this philosophy and approach to achieving an end had merit. There was a time I believed that achieving equality and justice for all Americans was a moral imperative that justified "by any means necessary." 

As cherished as some ends are, I now see how wrong I was. I see how this Machiavellian view, especially when applied in a contentious political arena, is dangerous to democracy, contrary to Rule of Law, unethical. It's how alt-right Republicans, the Tea Party, Evangelical extremists took over State houses, Congress, the White House. They justified outrageous partisan gerrymandering, tampering with the right to vote and voter suppression, power grabs and abuse of power, lying and cheating to high heaven to get there.  

But no end justifies these means in a democracy. They in fact undermine democracy. They are contrary to our moral duty to be good citizens, contrary to the ethics and character of our actions.   

Ted Cruz's father Raphael Cruz heads a ministry called "The Purifying Fire International Ministry."  It's a form of Evangelical extremism (called Dominism) that calls on Christian leaders to take over the State and make the goals and laws of the nation "biblical."  It seeks to reduce government to defense and the protection of property rights.  It fuses the Christian religion with American imperialism and nationalism. It's impervious to reason and fact (wikipedia).They seek to achieve their ends by any means necessary.

So we have the Christian version of extremist Islam "Sharia Law."  So we have Ted Cruz, Mike Pence, the Alt-Right and Evangelicals who support Trump no matter what he does or says, no matter how contrary to traditional norms, values and morals. The end, a Biblical Christian State, justifies the means. 

Does it? Really? We can sure get far off the moral road of life when we abandon our values to achieve a self-serving end. We start playing on the terrain of evil, where  criminality, dishonesty, immorality triumph. Is this what we want? 

As Michelle Obama reminds us, achieving an end, achieving success, "doesn't count unless you earn it fair and square."  You can't take shortcuts or "play by your own set of rules."  We need to remember this as we continue to resist the Trump regime and its Republican enablers, work for change, try to salvage our tattered democracy. It's a long and winding road. But MLK believed that "the arc of history is toward justice."  Hard as it is, I believe it, too.   

Throughout the mid-term elections, Trump and Republicans said they would protect people with pre-existing conditions, all the while pushing a lawsuit to have the ACA declared unconstitutional. Texas Republican judge Reed O'Connor did the deed, waiting until AFTER the elections to declare the ACA "unconstitutional," a goal achieved by any means necessary.