Remember when it seemed as if Richard Nixon was going to be impeached? Rather than take his chances, slug it out on the floor of the Senate, risk the country being torn apart, he resigned his office. I remember being at a party that, by pure coincidence, was thrown the night he announced he was quitting. God, did we cheer.
Remember when Bill Clinton was impeached? Remember when he remained in office but gave a subsequent speech in which he apologized for having put the country through everything, all because he couldn’t keep his genitals zipped up and then lied about it?
Ultimately, both of them were men who put their country’s needs above themselves. Nixon could have chosen to fight. Clinton could have sworn revenge on Ken Starr and the GOPers who had made his (and his wife’s) lives a living hëll. But they saw beyond their own needs and desires.
Representative Susan Collins of Maine seems to be under the impression that Trump will have learned a valuable lesson after being impeached. Lamar Alexander shares that belief, certain that Trump would never want to do anything to risk further impeachment actions.
They and other members of the Senate apparently have not been paying the slightest bit of attention, because any observer can say with absolute certainty that Donald Trump is incapable of learning anything. All they were doing was deluding themselves, attempting to justify their spineless devotion to either holding onto their jobs or not being trashed by Trump, as Mitt Romney currently is.
And of course Trump didn’t learn. Of course. On Thursday he attended the annual prayer breakfast, which is typically a non-partisan event. He instead used it as an opportunity to trash Democrats in general and Nancy Pelosi and anyone else on his enemies list.
You remember Nancy Pelosi. After she was forced to endure seventy-five minutes of his Apprentice-esuqe State of the Union which was filled with everything from at least thirty lies and the abominable sight of Rush Limbaugh receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom—which is one step from hanging it around the neck of a KKK Grand Wizard—she calmly tore up her copy of the speech. She displayed far more restraint than I would have. Had it been me, I would have sat there with a paper shredder and loudly destroyed each page as he finished. This perfectly legitimate commentary on Trump’s lengthy histrionics was immediately criticized by the right wing, claiming that she had broken the law by destroying the document. Of course she hadn’t actually broken anything; at its purest form, it was commentary covered by the First Amendment. But paltry matters such as free expression or legal accuracy don’t matter to the right wing who insisted on trying to find Pelosi in violation of the law. Because they’re so sensitive to insults, you see. Except when it’s Trump doing the insulting, which he does whenever he tweets or indeed opens his mouth. Calling your opponents “traitors” and “evil?” That’s an insult, jáçkáššëš. How dare a strong woman stand up to Trump. How dare anyone does.
But hey, Trump’s going to learn from his mistakes.
No, he won’t. Because Trump never admits he makes mistakes. His “perfect” phone call to Ukraine was made the day after he dodged a bullet from the Robert Mueller report. The ink was scarcely dry on one decision and he turned around and did something even worse which forced Pelosi into impeaching him, even though she knew how it would turn out. Because Mitch McConnell doesn’t give the slightest of dámņš about doing his job. He cares about one thing and one thing only: Winning. Doesn’t care if he’s a hypocrite. Doesn’t care who knows. If he wins, that’s all that matters. Can’t appoint a Supreme Court judge in an election year…unless Trump is president, in which case if Ruth Bader Ginsburg passes, it’ll happen in a heartbeat.
In “1776,” when South Carolina insists the clause in the Declaration that would do away with slavery be dropped, John Adams tells Ben Franklin that if they give in, history will never forgive them. To which Franklin agrees that it’s likely, but “we won’t hear it. We’ll be long gone.” That’s the attitude of McConnell and his array of spineless lackeys who in private despise Trump, but in public twist themselves into oratorical pretzels to avoid holding him to account. Their attitude has nothing to do with anything as wise as doing away with slavery. It has to do with holding onto their power.
In the meantime the Democrats were shot down yet again this week as a civil suit about Trump’s uncaring attitude toward the emoluments clause was tossed by the Court of Appeals. It’s easy to say that it’s because Trump has been stacking the courts with conservative judges, but the three judges who ruled unanimously that the Democrats had no standing to sue were appointed by Bush the first, W., and Clinton, so so much for that. I’m no lawyer, but from a purely civilian standpoint, it makes no sense to me. If the courts won’t uphold the constitution and the President won’t uphold the Constitution and the Senate won’t uphold the constitution, who the hëll is left?
Us, the voters, I guess. On election day.
It’s becoming evident that Trump’s plan to get Biden has worked. His fourth place finish in Iowa is likely attributable to Biden fatigue: whenever you hear his name now, your mind associates it with corruption even though there is no basis for it. There’s just an instinct that says he should be avoided because he’s tainted. Plus you just know the Senate is now going to go after him and his son, freed of Democratic control and knowing that it’s what Trump wants. It seems unlikely that he’ll be able to triumph in November if he’s spending the next months fighting battles with investigators. Between that and polls indicating Bernie Bros are unlikely to vote for anyone who isn’t their man on election day, and the Democrats may well be handing Trump another four years. Which he of course will try and turn into eight years because he’s still insisting the Democrats took away his first term, and who knows what a Trump-appointed Supreme Court may decide? Especially when one considers that the Democrat could win by as much as five million votes and still end up losing.
I wonder if a Democratic president could issue an executive order abolishing the Electoral College? Why not? The current Senate has basically said the President can do anything he wants with no concern over recriminations. Hail to the chief. Or maybe, in the current case, Sieg Heil to the chief.
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