“Some cult leaders have predicted Armageddon and are at a loss when the world fails to end and just keeps plugging along through the indifferent cosmos.” Jim Harrison, The Great Leader
Raining heavily here this evening. Water spills off the overwhelmed gutters. The backyard approaches quagmire status. It’s 50 degrees outside. My reading stacks up beside me, books and periodicals. I feel wiped out, resigned, unsettled, and lonely. Yes, I have generally felt less anxious since Trump fled to Florida. His relative radio silence is like a gift to a weary nation. But I’ve still got to divorce myself from the political scene, stop watching, listening, and reading about politics. It’s hurting my human soul. If you swim in a cesspool, don’t be surprised when you can’t get the stink out. There’s some wisdom for you.
Trump may have left DC, but the Orange Menace isn’t gone -- his shadow still scares the shit out of most Republicans, and, like battered spouses and beaten dogs, they return again and again for more humiliation and degradation. I read that the Republican Party is in disarray, splitting into two factions -- one titularly represented by Mitt Romney and Liz Cheney -- and the Trump Party represented by stellar characters like Kevin McCarthy, Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, Ron Johnson, Jim Jordan, Matt Gaetz, Louie Gohmert and many others. Mitch McConnell can’t decide which way to lean at the moment; all depends on the direction of the wind. Mitch has little on his mind these days except obstructing the Democrats and regaining his Majority Leader title. This brigade of cowards makes me despair for our country. They have one and all placed loyalty to Donald Trump above their oath of office and the nation. The GOP is poised to make a public declaration that Donald Trump, and those presidents that follow him, is above the law, above the Constitution, untouchable. It’s that simple. Like Covid-19, the Trump Fever is still raging.
Does every person who voted for Trump in November still support him? After his year of lying about the election -- if I win it’s fair, if I lose it’s rigged -- and nearly two months pressuring state-level officials to tip the election his way, even after the votes were certified, and lying about his landslide victory that never was. Still with him? After almost all Trump’s legal challenges were thrown out of the courts. And, most of all, after January 6th. Are you still on Team Trump, wearing that red cap, even after the emergence of information that some members of that mob had tactical ability, police or military training? Many were probably swept up in the mass energy of the moment and borne along, but some were there with intent. There was a level of coordination, possibly from Trump loyalists and lackeys within the government. The acting Director of Homeland Security, Chad Wolf, happened to be out of the country on January 6. Doesn’t that seem odd? That the security apparatus -- local, state, federal -- was caught flatfooted when it knew in advance that violence was very likely, reeks of an inside job. An order delayed at a critical moment by one of Trump’s lackeys, a bit of information withheld. We need a serious investigation to find out how it went down and how high up the power chain it went, but I have no confidence this will happen on the necessary scale. We must move on for the good of the nation, let bygones be bygones…
Trump may be able to make his supporters feel better, but he’ll never heal their pain. What ails them is deeper, closer to the bone.
The Democrats still haven’t learned that Mitch McConnell can be trusted no more than one would trust a coiled viper.
It looks clear that Republican senators will not vote to convict Trump. What they saw and experienced on January 6th didn’t convince them. Marco Rubio and Rand Paul have no issue with how Trump abused the power of his office to invalidate an election and incite a mob to invade and desecrate the US Capitol. That’s just fine with Paul and Rubio and 43 others. Nothing to see here, folks. Let’s move along. Forget the officer the mob murdered, and all those who were injured. Give them no justice. I hope history holds a harsh judgment for any elected official who had the chance to hold Donald Trump accountable for his assault on democracy, and caved.
When did the concept of honor die in America? Is it buried at Wounded Knee, Antietam, or on the banks of the mighty Mississippi? Can it be found at the Alamo or in a field near the Potomac? Is it bobbing on the tide in New York Harbor?
A two-party democracy with only one functioning party cannot long survive. Our democracy is reeling. I fear that within a decade, or less, it will be effectively finished.
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