There is danger in this moment. Over the last four days we have seen the clearest evidence to date that there was an avid appetite to collude with the Russians at the highest levels of the Trump campaign. The e-mail correspondence which led to the meeting between Kremlin connected lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, and the trio of Trump, Jr., Manafort and Kushner demonstrates an utter lack of concern or surprise on the part of Junior that the information was from a Russian government eager to help elect Donald Trump. If these were ordinary times, we’d be anticipating a perp walk by the trio. During the Watergate scandal, Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Mitchell and Dean all did prison time for their roles in the Watergate break-in and cover up and they didn’t have the aid of a hostile foreign power.
But these are not ordinary times. We have a raft of Republicans in Congress too cowardly to stand up for the Constitution and the rule of law. During yesterday’s confirmation hearings for FBI nominee, Christopher Wray, only tart tongued Lindsay Graham (bless his heart) pressed Wray to instruct the assembled senators that the proper response to an offer of campaign assistance from a foreign power was to call the FBI. We have a right wing media propaganda machine peddling increasingly implausible explanations for the damaging facts that emerge to their credulous audience, who has been conditioned to view even criminal conspiracies as an acceptable means of maintaining a conservative death grip on government.
While the incontrovertible facts revealed by The New York Times’ dogged reporting make it appear that the disclosure of an actual criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russian government is imminent, this moment is fraught with danger for our republic. Consider the following possible scenarios:
- Trump still has the authority to shut the investigation down by firing Robert Mueller or pardoning everyone in his orbit who faces legal jeopardy. If Trump chooses this path, it will be a definitive declaration that Trump and his cronies are in fact, above the law and our transition to an autocracy will be complete.
- If the investigation proceeds and the facts lead directly to Trump’s doorstep, cravenly partisan Congressional Republicans could refuse to impeach him, leading to the same result as in #1.
- If the investigation proceeds and the avalanche of evidence is so overwhelming that there is no choice but to impeach Trump, we can expect Republicans to proceed in a manner that protects dead-eyed Puritan, Mike Pence. Pence is arguably even more dangerous, because unlike Trump, he understands how government works. He has an anodyne demeanor that would calm a jittery public after the coarse chaos of Donald Trump and blind citizens to the very real threat posed by his presidency. Pence is a theocratic zealot who was actively hostile to reproductive freedom for women or to any rights for LGBT people during his tenure as Indiana governor.
Notwithstanding the danger inherent in his ascension, given the rapid pace of disclosures in this investigation, we may face the Hobson’s Choice of a President Pence before too long. If that moment comes, we will have to find the resolve to remain organized and keep fighting this noxious far right agenda, even if it comes with a patina of civility.
Like Robert Johnson, America is at a crossroads. We can’t sell our soul to the devil.
#Russiancollusion