The Trump Conundrum: It’s Up to the Voters to Correct This Mistake
Forget Impeachment, or 25th Amendment. The GOP will not undo this presidency; it is up to the electorate to correct the course of the nation.
Watching the course of events over the past few weeks; I have become convinced — along with MSNBC’s Joy Reid and others coming to the same conclusion — that any hope for the Republican members of Congress to “grow a spine” (or a conscience) and vigorously pursue the two pending committee investigations into Team Trump collusion with Russia, leading to possible Articles of Impeachment is a pipe dream. Indeed, the recent referral by two prominent senators (Grassley & Graham) of former British intelligence operative, Christopher Steele, for criminal investigation by the FBI, is proof positive of the cynical deal the Republican Party has now signed and sealed with the President.
Just as those who assert that Donald J. Trump has served as a “useful idiot” for manipulation by Vladimir Putin; the same dynamic is being exploited by the Republican controlled Congress,…to further their draconian social and economic agendas. Those who wonder aloud about the constant, cringing praise of Trump by his closest associates and paid spokespersons — in the face of a steady stream of revelations about his being wholly unfit for office, called all sorts of insulting names behind the scenes — need wonder no more.
The GOP establishment that once reviled and opposed the very notion of a President Trump were, at first, cowed and bullied by the sheer “populist” appeal and political clout of his devoted base, but are now fully committed to ignoring both his slash and burn tweeting (and more bizarre public pronouncements), as well as his dangerous lack of knowledge and mercurial temperament. Their lust for political power and delight at the prospect of making America into a Corporate Oligarchy under a compliant, malleable chief executive — more concerned about feeding his insatiable ego, than actual governance — far outweighs any concerns about patriotism; the rule of law; or even protecting and preserving the Constitution.
Moreover, an assortment of Republican members of Congress — from Devin Nunes (R-CA), to first-term Trump-licking, serial drunk driver, Matt Gaetz (R-FL) are duplicitous, along with Trump’s embattled Attorney General, in orchestrating the political distraction of re-investigating Hillary Clinton, for a host of imagined crimes.
For his part, President Trump has begun to enjoy the fawning praise so much,…despite the very modest legislative wins he continually exaggerates, that he has resolved to stop campaigning for the ideological insurgency candidates of a Steve Bannon. Betraying the base that voted for him — to shake things up and “drain the swamp” — Trump has turned into a willing tool of the establishment, accepting of the fake praise and public adulation from those all around him, working in unison for the individual benefits bestowed by career status, and the lavish financial rewards from their corporate and uber-wealthy patrons.
The Mueller Probe that once loomed over the Trump Presidency like the proverbial Sword of Damocles has — for now — become merely a nuisance, an inconvenient distraction from an ambitious Far Right political agenda, to cement corporate and mega-wealthy control over the republic,…to the detriment of our democratic heritage and institutions of governance. To be sure, this all could change — if Robert Mueller manages to uncover proof positive of some quid pro quo evidence of collusion, or makes a solid case for obstruction of justice by the President and others in the Administration.
But, otherwise, nearly all Republicans in positions of power seem less concerned about any other crimes that may be uncovered in the process, as in past money laundering on behalf of Russian oligarchs that have looted Russia under the reign of Vladimir Putin. Just as they were unconcerned about seeing his tax returns, or his continuing violations of the Emoluments Clause (Article I, Section 9) of the U.S. Constitution.
As for any hope that Trump’s Vice President, Mike Pence, whose political career was rescued by his selection for that role, would ever convene the Cabinet in order to invoke the provisions of the 25th Amendment, to potentially remove the president,…that is another pipe dream. One need only look at the way Pence always praises and gazes adoringly at Trump, like a cheerleader smitten with her high school football quarterback,…or the assorted billionaires and political hacks that make up the Cabinet — to know they have made their beds and wedded their political fortunes to the sheer executive ignorance and incompetence that best serves their own shallow personal aims. Even at the mortifying expense of ceaselessly kissing Trump’s ass in public!
Just as the Electoral College failed us, by refusing to do their job — to prevent the cataclysm of a dangerously unfit presidency; those sworn to preserve and protect our nation against enemies foreign and domestic have — thus far — failed us as well. Just as the rabid Trump base is unwilling to face all the signs that he is a fraud; the overwhelming majority of them still cling to the illusion that their god-lite Trump will “Make America Great (i.e., White) Again.”
Hence, it is now up to an electoral resistance, to better organize and mobilize the 2016 majority that did not vote for Donald J. Trump — to vote out the traitors to democracy and the sycophants of corporate greed in 2018. And then, to keep marching towards the goal of a solid electoral repudiation of Trump, Trumpism, and Republican malfeasance in 2020.