Trump Impeachment
The American people see the depth of our cultural rot and know nothing will come of it.
Impeachment is a political, not a legal, trial.
Donald Trump is facing a political trial with a predetermined outcome - acquittal.
I don’t know what’s more sad about this episode, that the President of the United States is being impeached for citing an insurrection or that over 40% of the United States Senate will never even consider convicting him based on the facts of this case.
Worse, that poll was conducted before any evidence had been presented to the Senate.
While the House managers have put together, for the most part, a very convincing legal prosecution of Donald Trump, they have not made the political case to enough Republican voters who are ultimately the jurors here.
And before you fire off a nasty gram reply or social media post - please deal with one simple fact - IF Barack Obama had done what Donald Trump did do from Election Day 2020 through January 6th 2021, Republicans would have lost their ever living minds.
They might have literally split in two. The Republican media machine would have been in non stop impeachment mania. Commemorative plates would already be printed heralding the prosecutors. Mike Lindell might even throw in a pillow or two.
Don’t believe me? I have two words for you - Tan Suit. Remember when Media of the Right Inc. went nuts when Obama wore a tan suit? They said that was unpresidential, but turn around and justify what Trump did leading up to and on January 6th.
Do I think Democratic Senators would have the intestinal fortitude to likewise convict Obama? Hell no. They have the same sad reality as the Republicans have in theirs.
There is an insufficient supply of real political leaders and statesmen these days. We have representatives who can’t stomach not being in elective office in order to make the difficult decisions we need to have made. You know, that whole doing the right thing for the future of this country and, frankly, the free world.
Please don’t think this is only a political problem. It is deeply cultural.
Just look at Dallas Mavericks billionaire owner Mark Cuban’s brush with reality this week. Cuban made the decision to stop playing our nation’s anthem during pre-game ceremonies. After that went public and viral, the NBA then told Cuban to play the anthem:
all teams will play the national anthem in keeping with longstanding league policy.
While it’s his team, Dallas is a franchise of their league.
As soon as word broke about Cuban’s initial decision, his comments about China, a large and growing segment of the global basketball market, and its human rights abuses started to bubble up. Here’s what Yahoo reported from his interview with Megyn Kelly:
Why would the NBA take $500 million dollars-plus from a country that is engaging in ethnic cleansing?” Kelly asked, to which Cuban replied that Kelly was basically “saying nobody should do business with China ever.”
When asked why he was dodging the question Cuban said, “Because they are a customer.”
“They are a customer of ours, and guess what, Megyn? I’m OK with doing business with China. And so we have to pick our battles. I wish we could solve all the world’s problems. But we can’t.”
Give the man one thing, at least he’s honest about his adolescent arrogance.
Cuban is just a cultural example of the rot - the deep seated corruption - in our country. We all know what he is and we know there is a price for his ability to turn a blind eye to ethnic cleansing.
The NBA stepped in because they know not playing the anthem is bad for business. Viewers and fans have plenty of options for spending their time and entertainment dollars. The recent NBA ratings plunge highlights their costumer focused decision.
In politics, however, we are left with a binary A/B test every election cycle trapped in a seeming death spiral of choosing the lesser.
The only real bipartisan thing about Washington DC these days is the weakness of cowing to the Mob. Honestly, if your lust for power is so craven and debauched should you be there?
There simply are not enough Republican senators willing to risk their own re-elections in order to bar Donald Trump from running for office again. Heck, there are not enough willing to actually consider the facts and law.
Here is at least one senator willing to vote his conscience over party.
The House managers are using the wrong arguments to sway enough Republicans to see what they see - that President Trump knowingly, willfully, and with premeditation incited an assault on the U.S. Capitol for the sole purpose of overturning an election which he clearly lost.
Even Trump’s own attorney, Bruce Castor, on the first day of the impeachment said as much in his opening remarks as reported by the Associated Press:
“The American people just spoke, and they just changed administrations.” He added that Americans are “smart enough to pick a new administration if they don’t like the old one, and they just did.”
The House managers should be using political arguments more than factual and legal ones if they want to convict Trump. Arguments that would be more likely to resonate with Republicans would be something like “We have agreed and disagreed on policy with President Trump, this is not about policy. This is a seminal moment in the history of Western Civilization when the executive branch of the United States incites a barbaric assault on the seat of government in order to overturn an election his own lawyers concede he lost. For the survival of the Republic, this cannot be allowed to stand.”
Given how close the race was, as John Fund tweeted out, Democrats and Republicans should be trying to swing more suburban votes their way:
Republicans seem to be betting that the 2022 mid term cycle will return them to the majority in both chambers of Congress. Well, not like this they won’t.
Republicans will win this battle but lose the war by not following the facts that clearly show Trump grossly and dangerously violated the constitutionally prescribed process of power transition. That construct is CENTRAL to the success of the American experiment in self-governance. It’s also culturally definitional that no man is above accountability for his actions and that this is the process the Framers created to protect our political life.
Republicans consider themselves to be the conservative party, but the obvious question that they cannot answer is:
Just what are you trying to conserve here?
As Roger Scruton wrote in How To Be A Conservative:
Whatever our religion and private convictions, we are the collective inheritors of things both excellent and rare, and political life, for us, ought to have one overriding goal, which is to hold fast to those things, in order to pass them on to our children.
Democrats are actually making a case for conservatism here in following the rule of law and upholding originalist constitutional theories regarding the peaceful transfer of power.
(Just don’t tell their base voters! Can you imagine if word leaked out??)
Unfortunately for the future of the Republic and Western Civilization, Democrats are still too blind to what Trump voters see and know - that while Trump is a deeply flawed person, he passionately fought for them while the Democrats sneeringly looked down their noses at them. And still do.
Democrats have never once said, “You know, this guy might have a point. Let’s hear him out.” Ain’t no primary votes there.
Pin that guilty tail on the donkeys from the Clinton/DNC crowd who still can’t utter the phrase “We lost fair and square in 2016. Yeah, the Russian collusion story was bullshit.”
As recently as October 2020, Hillary Clinton said this about the 2016 election:
There was a widespread understanding that this election was not on the level. We still don’t know what really happened.
Don’t we?
Yes we do. Right, Abe?
In this age, in this country, public sentiment is everything. With it, nothing can fail; against it, nothing can succeed. Whoever molds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes, or pronounces judicial decisions.―Abraham Lincoln
Lies beget lies.
As long as the ratings of cable news channels and stock prices of social media companies keep their customers Americans addicted to hating each other, this will continue.
Our binary political system is a rotting, corrupt corpse enabled by its most loyal customers who sadly comprise only 15% of the electorate and 7% of the population.
It’s not too late, however, to do what Churchill observed about us:
Americans will always do the right thing - after exhausting all the alternatives.
I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty tired of all this.
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On a happier note here is my favorite barbecue recipe - it comes from Food Network’s Alton Brown: CLICK HERE TO CHANGE YOUR LIFE h/t to Jack Mitchell of the Murfreesboro Mitchells.
Keys for me are using freshly ground cumin, coriander and fennel seeds, chopping not pulling the pork butt - the only thing I leave out is the very hard bark usually on the corners of the butt. Those go to the dogs. Sauce (if necessary) is an equal blend of Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ Sauce, French’s yellow mustard, and Apple Cider Vinegar
Other good news to share on the home front - after 10,083 days Michele and I have entered Empty Nest Syndrome.
And our Marine son - in - law, Lance Corporal Kyle Taylor, returns early Saturday morning from his six month deployment to Okinawa and South Korea.
Next stop is a four year tour as a Body Bearer for the U.S. Marine Corps based out of Washington Barracks and Arlington National Cemetery.
These infantrymen could teach our political leaders many valuable lessons. They are “the last to let you down.”