October 31, 2019
The impeachment inquiry has taken on the flavor of a serialized drama, with each day bringing a new bombshell revelation that leaves no doubt as to Trump’s criminality. Every day adds a new hero to the cast who calmly indicts Trump through their simple recitation of the facts. We have forgotten what it’s like to see people willing to risk their careers for the good of the country. Last week, Ambassador Bill Taylor, a West Point graduate who has dedicated his life to public service, soberly detailed the contours of the shadow foreign policy being conducted in the Ukraine by Rudy Giuliani and Gordon Sondland.
This week, Lt. Colonel Alexander Vindman’s testimony made Taylor’s look tame by comparison. Vindman, the NSC staffer and Ukraine expert, was alarmed at the persistent efforts by Sondland to pressure Ukraine to investigate Burisma and the Bidens. He was so concerned with what he heard that he reported it internally to NSC Counsel, John Eisenberg, (Source: “Alexander Vindman is the latest impeachment inquiry witness to give damaging testimony for Trump,” by Andrew Prokop, Vox.com, 10/29/19). Later, when the official transcript was prepared, Lt. Col. Vindman testified that he tried, without success, to correct two omissions that mentioned Biden and Burisma, (Source: “White House Ukraine Expert Sought to Correct Transcript of Trump Call,” by Julian E. Barnes, Nicholas Fandos and Danny Hakim, The New York Times, 10/30/19).
The response from the propagandists was swift and ruthless. Despite Vindman’s peerless record and Purple Heart, right wing zealots had no qualms about questioning his patriotism from the comfort of their airless studios. Xenophobic harpy, Laura Ingraham, invited torture apologist John Yoo on her program to speculate that Vindman was involved in “espionage.” Over at CNN, that temple of false equivalence, former Republican Congressman Sean Duffy said that Vindman might have an “affinity” for Ukraine, since he is from there. These attacks revive the hoary accusation of “divided loyalty” that has been leveled at immigrants since the 19th century and are as disgusting and baseless now as they were then.
Like Phil Connors in “Groundhog Day,” we keep reliving the same day over and over again. We vainly expect Trump’s defenders will hit a bottom that they are unwilling to go below. We keep hoping that they will be chastened by shame and relent. Like Bill Murray’s character, we are doomed to relive this day until we learn that corruption, criminality and venality are the price that 40% of America is willing to pay to maintain white supremacy.
What the last several days have shown us is that there is no lie too outrageous for them to peddle to maintain power. Faced with proof that Trump put his selfish political interests before our national security and that he jeopardized the security of an ally to do so, Republicans will seek to destroy anyone who reveals that truth. That is why Twitter’s decision to reject political advertising is so important. That is why Facebooks’s insistence that it should accept all political ads, but fact-check none of them is not a principled First Amendment stance, but an admission that profit is more important than patriotism. It may not be realistic to think that we can persuade a behemoth that has 41% of Americans on its platform to change its mind, but we would be foolish not to try.
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As always you inspire me. Thank you! Nan