It’s up to us

June 17, 2019

 

Our march towards becoming a full-fledged fascist regime continues unabated.  Side by side articles in today’s Washington Post depict a House Democratic Caucus immobilized by Nancy Pelosi’s  opposition to impeachment, next to an article detailing the shameless determination of Trump and his top advisors to flagrantly violate the law in order to win the next presidential election.  Trump has now admitted to George Stephanopoulos that he would accept foreign election assistance and not report it to the FBI (Source:  “Trump just mused openly about committing what might well be a crime,” by Aaron Blake, The Washington Post, 6/13/19).

Although Trump’s pronouncements have always revealed his contempt for democracy, he increasingly sounds like a syphilitic 17th Century monarch.  In that same Stephanopoulos interview, Trump refuted the very idea that a president could obstruct justice, stating, “I run the country,” (Source:  “Trump: ‘I run the country,’” by Matthew Choi, Politico.com, 6/16/19).  He might as well have said, “L’etat c’est moi.”  Given the maddening timidity of the House Democrats in the face of the escalating lawlessness coming from every corner of this administration, Trump’s overweening confidence is understandable. Apparently, the House Democrats have decided that obstructing an investigation of election interference from a hostile foreign power does not warrant impeachment. Apparently, they have decided that ripping thousands of kids from their parents, putting them in cages and then losing track of them is not enough to warrant impeachment. Apparently, trying to rig the census to consolidate the power of a white supremacist minority and lying about it under oath does not warrant impeachment.

The dizzyingly high bar that House Democrats have set for what  constitutes impeachable behavior has emboldened Trump to go beyond trampling the rights of Americans he hates, to wreak havoc on the world stage.  Not content with shredding post war alliances that have saved us from another world war, Trump has ratcheted up the pressure on Iran, in an effort to goad the regime into actions that will provide the flimsy pretext that is all his band of bellicose Islamophobes requires to start a war.

Trump telegraphed his intentions more than a year ago, when he withdrew from the Iran deal and re-imposed sanctions on Iran.  These actions hamstrung Iran’s economy and set off a series of tit for tat actions and reactions from Iran and the U.S. that have landed us on the brink after the explosions last week that struck two tankers in the Gulf of Oman, (Source: “The U.S. Has Turned Up Pressure on Iran.  See the Timeline of Events,” by Helene Cooper, The New York Times, 6/14/19).

This entirely avoidable situation was precipitated by having an intemperate bully in the Oval Office who prefers chaos to order and war over peace.  This is the consequence of having a co-equal branch of government so busy poll testing whether compliance with the Constitution is popular, that they are neglecting to do the job that they were elected to do.  The sad fact is that both Trump and the reluctant House Democrats are making the same bet –  that the American people will abide any atrocity as long as we have jobs and healthy 401ks.  It’s up to us to prove them wrong.

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#Impeach45