BY VERN TURNER
The cascade of events in our country and around the world have challenged me regarding putting out an essay or two. When my old brain gets wrapped around one subject for a comment, something more drastic or dramatic happens and I have to return to square number one.
Well, this latest episode of Trump-oriented revelations has made me step back, and with the prospects of Constitutional crises in the near future, I decided to speculate about our core values as citizens and as a government.
The schisms between our peoples were made clearer than ever by the results of the November mid-term election. Even though the overall voter turnout was less than 60% of those eligible, it was still the largest in our known statistical history for a mid-term election.
“Finally!,” I thought. “The people have had enough of Trump and Republicans.”
They finally see that Republicanism, as practiced by this current collection of corrupt hypocrites, is harmful to all of us. Yes, even the super-rich who support Republicans will be harmed when their golden goose is cooked and it lays no more golden eggs in the form of irresponsible tax cuts, tax loopholes and de-regulation. Finally!
It took mere hours for the other side of the spectrum to start carping against those new Democrats who scare them to their core. Strong, smart and capable women plus men and women of color are absolutely driving the bigot bus over a cliff.
I saw Pat Buchanan’s latest screed about how white males are terrified of losing their “privileged” status making us all prisoners of the Democratic Party. “Aw,” I thought. “Poor babies. I’m a white male, and I don’t fear change, people of color or a political party agenda that actually wants to bring fairness, equality and ‘the pursuit of happiness’ to all our citizens.”
Is this what I’m made of? I guess it is.
When I was born, the president of the United States was Franklin Roosevelt. Yes, there are some of us still around. I studied his terms of office and discovered that his doctrine, though flawed in some areas, was mostly about sharing the wonder and greatness of our nation for all our citizens, not just the white, straight, Christian males. FDR didn’t couch his doctrines in those words, but the message was clearly laid down.
Since then, Democrats have been fighting a never-ending battle against Republicanism that has morphed into something fundamentally corrupt and devoid of any sense of duty to the rule of law, the Constitution and its spirit.
Deregulation leads to unfair business and labor practices. It leads to environmental destruction. It leads to unsafe food, water and air. Cutting taxes for the rich and the corporations does not trickle down to the working classes or, least of all, the poor.
That is a Republican fantasy sold on the false promises of the Reagan Administration and subsequent dogmatic changes; the militancy of politics by hired political thugs like Karl Rove and the late Lee Atwater.
Cutting taxes also removes revenue for public use. Infrastructure, public schools and medical care are among the victims of this greed-oriented agenda.
Now, we have a president who is so far out of his depth that he may as well be on Mars for all the good he’s doing to our country. In fact, as the scandals multiply daily, we see that Donald Trump may be the head of a crime family that are not only grifters in real estate, but are involved with potentially treasonous activities with a nation, Russia, that wishes us nothing but harm.
How, for example, do we explain our president coddling Vladimir Putin knowing that Russia influenced our last presidential election and continues to cyberattack our social media?
We recently learned the FBI had/has Trump under a counter-espionage investigation for his behavior during and after the 2016 election. How does one explain the guilty pleas of Trump’s closest associates regarding their meetings and relationships with Russian oligarchs tied directly to Putin? People are going to jail because of their lies. Why are they all lying about Russian contacts? Could they possibly act more guilty?
There is lots of talk about impeachment of the president. OK. The Democrats may be compelled to produce articles of impeachment in the House as the smoking guns emerge from the coming Mueller report, Michael Cohen’s upcoming testimony or a host of other potentially damaging information, accusations and proof that Donald Trump is guilty of defrauding the American people – at least. The idiotic border wall will also generate many lawsuits. These suits will eventually get to the Supreme Court. The articles of impeachment may also find their way to SCOTUS. Then what?
Frankly, I don’t see the current flock of Republican geese in the Senate even giving anyarticles of impeachment the slightest nod. The Constitution would require at least 20 Republican senators to convict the president. But what will the Supreme Court do with all those other cases that will be pinging against the Constitution and so-called presidential privilege? What are the justices made of?
It is clear to anyone paying attention that today’s Republicans in Congress care not a whit about the truth or what this president is doing to dismantle our democracy. So, it may come to the benches of our top court. How will these academic giants respond to a direct challenge to their political affiliations?
Will Gorsuch, Alito, Thomas and Kavanaugh all opt for ideology over the law, the Constitution and democracy? How will they measure up to their strict constructionist agenda when large amounts of evidence show that this president is a crook, a traitor and corrupt to the bone? Will our Supreme Court’s “conservative” justices discover their spines and their patriotism, or will they complete the circle of total corruption and rule against the truth and the American people?
The whole world wonders …
– Denver resident Vern Turner is a regular contributor to The Oklahoma Observer. His latest book, Why Angels Weep: America and Donald Trump, is available through Amazon.
