Sunday, March 03, 2019 7:18 PM
Come Off It Already (2019Mar03)
The list of the confessed, the convicted, the security-risks, and the nefarious connections among Trump’s campaign inner circle, paired with Trump’s well-documented history as a litigious scofflaw and a bigot—all make it outlandishly desperate that Republicans based their rebuttal of Cohen’s testimony on simply calling him a liar—a crime he has already confessed to committing at the president’s behest.
This is the point where the old strategy of ‘deny everything’ begins to jump the shark—where they must split the hairs of Cohen’s dishonesty while pretending Cohen wasn’t acting as Trump’s professional liar. It also raises the bar for insulting the public’s intelligence.
Still, the media have decided that nothing is insulting to the public’s intelligence, if only it’s sensational in its stupidity. There was a time when both the media and the Republican party would have conceded the obvious by now—if not long before now.
Yet they speak of a possibility of a veto against Trump’s spurious ‘emergency’, rather than being well into the impeachment proceedings. I wondered why, but then I knew: the crowded cast of characters, the countless crimes, the uncountable lies, the complications of foreign involvement and probable treasonous activity, the interference of Russian agents and Republican efforts to social-engineer Hillary’s public condemnation—there is more plot to Trump’s ‘presidential’ crime than there is in all the seasons of ‘Thrones’.
Hassan Minaj’s “Patriot Act” just did an episode on Trump’s Cabinet’s attack on Civil Liberties. Trump is not alone in his efforts to dismantle our democracy and end our freedoms. And hate must be a strong motivator—we can only hope that the following Administration will work nearly as hard to undo all the damage. Sadly, they will have a much harder job rebuilding than was Trump & Co.’s job of just torching everything they could reach.
Worse, the vile horror that is Trump distracts us from an equally threatening situation—a Democratic party that is only slightly less flawed than the drooling pigs presently seated at the table. We are tempted to assume that the opposite of Trump is Good—but just because the Democrats oppose Trump doesn’t mean they’re offering a coherent vision of America’s future.
Green Deal?—Fine. But you don’t get genius-points for finally recognizing scientific findings from the last half-century of warnings. Fighting climate change will be more about diplomacy than technology—global cooperation and unity will be vital. Simply accepting the overdue reality is an abysmally small first step.
And what’s with this crowded field of candidates for 2020—is this a frickin’ Dickens novel? If the Democratic Party is an organized group, don’t they feel as if deciding on a platform, and choosing the best among them to represent it, would be an excellent demonstration of their ability to unite and organize the nation? Or do all politicians simply start campaigning these days, as soon as the fundraising potential appears?
If all those war-chests got passed down to the remaining candidates, as each drop-out left the race—then one could make the case that this was something other than the monetization of politics. But that is not what happens. Whoever raises the money, keeps the money—if I’m not mistaken. And suddenly we’re polling the dollars spent, instead of the voters’ minds.
We had tough restrictions on money in campaigns for centuries—should we be worried that the Citizens United decision was immediately followed by the election of a historically total scumbag to the presidency?
I dunno. It’s dawning on me that, whoever wins, you and I will lose—until people start getting mad about dishonesty again, like they used to.