Past is prologue

January 23, 2020

   As we watched the opening of what was only the third impeachment trial in our nation’s history, it was painfully clear that those who are ignorant of their history are doomed to repeat it.   Again and again, the echoes that reverberated most strongly were not from 1992, but from 1868, (Source: “Brenda Wineapple On What We Can Learn From the First Impeachment,” by Just the Right Book, Lithub.com, 8/15/19).

      Then, as now, the country was bitterly divided between those dedicated to forging a path forward towards true democracy with the full participation of Black Americans, and those raging at the prospect of sharing power with those they thought of as less than human.  Then, Andrew Johnson did nothing to quell the white supremacist militias attempting to nullify Emancipation through violence.  Now, we have a “president” who tweets his support for a mob of white supremacist “gun rights” enthusiasts rallying at the former capitol of the Confederacy on Martin Luther King Day, (Source:  “Thousands of armed protestors turn out for Trump supported gun rally,” by Ivan Pereira, ABCnews.com, 1/20/20).

       Then, among opponents of Johnson, there was a divide between those seeking detente with their treasonous brethren who fought for the right to own human beings, and the so-called “Radical Republicans,”deemed extremists for espousing the revolutionary idea that the formerly enslaved were people who deserved all of the rights and benefits of citizenship.

       Now, opposition to Trump is divided between those who believe that getting rid of him is all it will take to break the fever of fascistic racism gripping 40% of the country, (and the entire Republican Party) and those who recognize that Trump is a symptom of a society so in the thrall of white supremacy that the election of a Black president was all it took to drive nearly half of the country stark raving mad.

      On Tuesday, we watched in real time as 53 senators showed their flagrant contempt for accountability by defeating 11 amendments introduced by Senator Chuck Schumer to force the admission of actual evidence bearing on Trump’s guilt or innocence, (Source:  “Senate passes impeachment trial rules to punt on witnesses in early Wednesday morning vote,” by Jeremy Herb, Phil Mattingly and Manu Raju, CNN.com, 1/22/20).  We watched lawyers for The White House stand in the Senate chamber and lie repeatedly without shame. Yet all that hapless Chief Justice Roberts could muster was to chide both sides “to remember that they are addressing the world’s greatest deliberative body,” (Source: ibid).

      Make no mistake about what we are witnessing — the same party that has used patriotism as a cudgel to quell dissent is dispensing with any pretense of fealty to the one sacrosanct principle that made this country exceptional — adherence to the Rule of Law.  The United States as we know it is on life support. The only question is whether we will let Republicans pull the plug.

#VotethemALLout

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