Tim Summerlin: What If?

If you can lose an election and spend four years
denying the truth after all appeals prove you wrong,
If you can trust the intelligence reports of a hostile autocracy
above the intelligence of your own CIA,
If you can agree that Ukraine started a war
and that Russia is only interested in peace,
If you can prefer the values of autocrats and dictators
above those of democratic allies,
If you can praise free speech one moment
and attempt to silence your detractors the next,
If you can deny knowledge of Project 2025
and implement when in office,
If you can dream and turn your dream
into a national nightmare,
If you can turn the keys of government
over to an unelected plutocrat to dismantle it,
If your ideas are so malformed
that you are repeatedly willing to do one day what you undo the next,
If you worship stock market success measure today
and debunk it tomorrow,
If you are so obsessed with balance of trade
that you can sacrifice American prosperity to pursue it,
If you have such contempt for the Constitutional balance of powers
that you seek to close Congressionally established offices and programs,
If, when the judiciary challenges your actions,
you threaten to impeach those who negate your actions,
If you so despise the Constitution
that you would ignore citizenship rights and discuss a third term,
If you can claim your personal vision to be conservative
when it is truly a radical departure from tradition,
If the well-being of your nation
is less important to you than your own hold on power
Yours is the illusion of greatness, for a time, and—which is more–
You have become the Emperor with No Clothes.

Tim Summerlin
Kerrville