As I watch the ads for the latest “Wicked” movie, I find myself reminiscing about my childhood when we watched the “Wizard of Oz.”

The annual TV broadcast was the only time we were allowed to eat dinner in front of the TV. We followed the Yellow Brick Road on our black-and-white television.

The whole movie is a journey to meet the great and powerful Oz, who can solve all problems. When Dorothy and her companions finally get there, they are intimidated by the bluster and theatrics of Oz – only to find he is a little man behind a curtain who can actually do nothing.

A slight majority of Americans elected another “Wizard of Oz” to be our president. They believed in his bluster and strong pronouncements that he can make our country stronger and safer, and that he can make us more prosperous.  They trusted him and believed his anti-government rhetoric about corruption, incompetence and excessive waste.

The other half of Americans saw a charlatan interested in self-promotion and self-enrichment.  While the campaign promises were universally attractive, they saw no credible or concrete plan of action to achieve such promises. They saw no intellect, humility or knowledge won through experience that could develop such plans with an understanding of possible unintended consequences.

We are starting to pull the curtain back and see what we really have leading our country and it’s painful. 

I recently watched a news story about our farmers. Everything they need to plant a crop – machinery and supplies – are more expensive due to tariffs.  At the same time, prices for their crops are lower thanks to the world’s largest customer – China – refusing to buy American soybeans.

This has put our farmers in a financial crisis of low prices and high costs.  Some fear the loss of farms that have been in their families for generations. Farmer suicides are skyrocketing. Farmers heavily supported Trump in our election.  Many still trust him but don’t clearly see the end result for which they are making sacrifices. Others are starting to wonder what they hoped would happen.

I recently helped a friend sign up for health care insurance on the government marketplace. He paid $700 a month this year for insurance. Next year, the price is $1,350 and doesn’t include some of the benefits.

Anyone under the age of 65 who doesn’t get health insurance from their job has to buy it themselves.  Obamacare gave them a marketplace to buy the insurance, financial help if it wasn’t affordable, and access to insurance even if they had a pre-existing health condition. Some people who say they are against “Obamacare” don’t realize they actually have their insurance through the government market, because their specific policies bear the name of participating insurance companies.

Republicans have almost universally called for the abolishment of Obamacare since its inception, yet profess to support healthcare help for Americans. And now 15 years since the act was passed, you still cannot find a single Republican who can specifically define an alternative and better plan, or how it will work.  

Over 24 million Americans bought Obamacare plans this year. Do you still believe the Republicans have a better plan, or do you suspect another little Oz behind the curtain?

Immediately after the election, the Trump Administration started to eliminate “waste” by firing federal workers and eliminating whole agencies. Virtually nothing was said about what these people did or how necessary it might be.  More recently, our government shutdown illustrated how important our government is in keeping things running.

Even though the stock market looks great, there are signs tour economy is headed for trouble. These signs are harder than ever to see because we have eliminated the government departments that gather data we need to make intelligent economic decisions – or we have fired people if we didn’t like the data. Based on good data, our government has mechanisms to help smooth out economic distress. We won’t be using those mechanisms because Oz isn’t controlling them.

The Republican Party today (not your grandfather’s party) is conceptually bankrupt. They are good at identifying ideological soundbites that are attractive to voters. They have no clue how to put a concrete plan into action that would actually help Americans.  They have no clue how to govern, and they are aligned behind the worst of them – pulling levers at a whim and deluding himself that he knows what he is doing.

More than 75 million Americans already knew Donald Trump is a sham act – not a world leader with the intellect to understand complex issues, the creative genius to imagine better solutions, or the humility to build consensual support for positive change.  

If you don’t see it already, what is it going to take for the other 77 million Americans to figure it out?

Please, please look behind the curtain before the damage is too great.