History, not servile Republicans, will be the judge of Trump and all those who have served him in criminality and inhumanity

Not too long ago, Attorney General William Barr claimed that he didn’t “care” about how history will judge him; “everyone dies.” I don’t know if Barr considers himself a “Christian” or believes in an “afterlife,” but he obviously assumes that it really doesn’t matter whether he burns in the history books or in hell. The same goes for Stephen Miller, who supposedly believes in the same god of a different time. There is a story out today about the unmarked grave of Reinhard Heydrich being found disturbed, perhaps by some “curiosity seeker” or neo-Nazi wanting to glimpse the bones of his “idol.” Heydrich, until his assassination in 1942, was essentially the architect and principle policymaker in the disposal of the “Jewish” problem. Now, everything is “relative” in this world, so we need not wring our hands in hypocritical disapproval if we admit the truth that it is Miller who is the Trump administration’s chief architect and policymaker to “dispose” of immigrants. That Miller’s motives have been recently “exposed”—or rather confirmed—to be that of white nationalism and of the racial eugenics theories of white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups also makes it seem more than “fair” to put him in the same ideological camp as some very bad actors of the past. You don’t think it is “fair”?  Ask all those children caged-up like animals in Trump’s concentration camps, some of them dying of untreated or poorly treated diseases, about what is “fair” or “unfair.”

Now we learn that Senate Republicans have no intention of giving an open, impartial hearing to the impeachment charges against Trump, should the House Democrats pass the articles of impeachment against him. In fact, Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell has stated flat out that he and his colleagues are going to “strategize” with the White House to get the whole thing over with as soon as possible. We all know how Sen. Lindsey Graham has been crawling on his hands and knees licking Trump’s feet, and it comes as no surprise when Sen, Rand Paul claims that is no “crime” for Republicans in the Senate to have already made-up their minds to a person without bothering to hear the evidence. Republican servility to the crimes of Trump apparently has no political downside, yet. Trump’s appeal to white grievance has not backfired on him yet; the El Paso massacre should have given people pause concerning Trump and Miller’s racist propaganda and activities, but it has not. Those who claim we are living in a “post-racial” world are wrong. Outside the “entertainment” and sports world, it is one dominated by the “code.”

That leaves “history” to be the final arbiter. While you don’t always find the truth in high school history texts—leaving most people seriously ignorant about the past—professional historians know the truth. For example, few will question two-time Medal of Honor recipient Marine Gen. Smedley Butler’s estimation of what he spent most of his military life doing:

I spent 33 years and 4 months in active service as a member of our country's most agile military force -- the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from a second lieutenant to Major-General. And during that period I spent most of my time being a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer for Capitalism. Thus I helped make Mexico...safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in...I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-12. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras 'right' for American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested. During those years, I had, as the boys in the back room would say, a swell racket. I was rewarded with honors, medals, promotion. Looking back on it, I feel I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three city districts. We operated on three continents.

You think he was wrong? You still don’t “understand” what this country did in Central America, and why people are fleeing that region? What about the Middle East?  We know that George W. Bush’s principle motivation to go into Iraq was to get rid of Saddam so that the U.S. could gain de facto control of the country’s oil. Trump abandoned the Kurds in the northern Syria, but has kept a “token” force there to guard—oil fields. The U.S.’ entire interest in the Middle East is designed to insure unfettered oil imports. On the other hand, another historical truth is that in regard to Afghanistan, the recent release of secret testimony reveals that U.S. has no idea why it is there, has no idea how to “win,” and has nothing to gain from continuing to have a presence there.

As for political figures, history has a way of “leveling” and reversing the playing field after evil has the upper hand for a period. Evil is easy to recognize, and with the passage of time and the proper perspective is gained, the evildoers and their familiars are finally accorded their just deserts. People will read about how McConnell, Graham, Gaetz, Nunes, Jordan and McCarthy all were complicit in Trump’s crimes. History will recall Hannity, Ingraham and Carlson as being the far-right propagandists that they are. History will tell us that Barr, Miller and Giuliani were among the principle architects of Trump’s criminal activities and inhuman policies.

In the meantime, we don’t have to wait for what some presidential historians think about Trump. In one poll called the “Presidential Greatness Rankings,” which renders the opinion of 170 political science scholars, Trump is already rated the worst president of all time. Trump is also ranked as the third worst president in Siena’s Presidential Expert Poll, joining Andrew Johnson, James Buchanan, Warren G. Harding and Franklin Pierce in the top-five. We are not talking about the “opinions” of political partisans here, but that of people who make it their business to judge from a historical perspective based on the available facts. Trump is so awful a president, judgments on his misdeeds are unlikely to be “tempered” by the passage of time.