Remember the once popular board
game “Monopoly”? Well, save for Mitt Romney’s vote to convict on abuse of power
charges, Republicans in the U.S. Senate essentially gave Trump his “Get Out of
Jail Free” card that everyone knew was coming anyway, because Mitch McConnell
and company telegraphed their intentions the furthest galaxy away. I wonder if
any “irony” was intended in USA Today’s
banner headline “ACQUITTED” which Trump triumphantly hoisted in the manner of
Harry Truman and the Chicago Tribune’s infamous “DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN” edition; probably not, since any newspaper
could have posted the same headline every day for the past month and still have gotten it
“right.”
There was never any intent by
Republicans to take the charges against Trump seriously; the only “hope” for
Democrats was that this would be a “stain” on Trump’s “legacy,” as if that was
ever in question from a historical perspective. Regardless of where you stand
on immigration, the fact remains that Trump’s policy in that regard, based on
his “shithole countries” crack and Steven Miller’s emails, will be seen by
future historians as a function of his and Miller’s racism against Hispanics.
We don’t even need to “wonder” about his inhumanity toward the suffering of
Puerto Ricans after Hurricane Maria and the recent earthquakes, since these
people mean nothing to this bigoted cretin. After Jennifer Lopez’s Super Bowl
halftime performance in which she called attention to her Puerto Rican heritage,
which apparently outraged the white nationalist Trump at his Super Bowl “watch
party,” the Democrats in the House called attention to his administration’s
denial of already approved emergency funding for the U.S. territory. Instead of
showing any crumb of empathy for Puerto Rico’s U.S. citizens in their time of need, Trump reiterated his noxious
desire to continue to defecate on them. And this is a man who has the gall to
call anyone but himself (and Miller) “evil.” History will judge Trump’s
“legacy” appropriately.
Meanwhile, “moderate” Republican
Sen. Susan Collins, who as everyone should have expected given her past record,
voted to acquit on both impeachment counts, further reducing her moral and
ethical credibility to near zero; she even appeared to be auditioning for a
stand-up comedy gig when she claimed that she expected Trump to “learn” from
the error of his ways—since he, as always, believes he does nothing wrong, ever.
Are we not talking about the same man who still refuses to apologize for
putting out a full-page ad calling for the death penalty for the “Central Park
Five,” even after New York prosecutors admitted that they were innocent? After
Robert Mueller testified (poorly) before Congress, he actually was convinced
that he was allowed to seek out a political “favor” from China for “help” in
investigating the Bidens? Are we not talking about claims from his familiars
that Trump’s criminal activities in the quest for reelection are in the
“nation’s interest,” so anything he does is perfectly fine, even if he breaks
the law and pisses on the Constitution? Are we not talking about a man so
megalomaniacal that he wants to run for president “indefinitely”? Trump is no
doubt taking his cues from his dictator friend Vladimir Putin, who is now
changing Russia’s so-called “constitution” to weaken the power of the Russian
presidency so that when he is legally banned from running for president again,
all the power will transfer to him as prime minister. And people still question
the adage about absolute power corrupting absolutely?
Yesterday I said that at least in
appearance Trump is behaving like a certain fascist dictator, and with few
exceptions, the Republican Party is behaving like that fascist dictator’s personal
party, rubberstamping his crimes with their personal approval. The fact that the
Trump campaign appeals continue to focus most strongly on demonizing and
dehumanizing Hispanic immigrants rather than alleged core “conservative values”
that Trump continuously sets fire to is proof enough that his “base” is
motivated in much the same way as many Germans were in their view that it was
Jews who were “undermining” the nation’s “purity” and cultural “essence.” It is
right there in front of everyone’s face, yet blindness to one’s own failings is
for the most part the story of every day. After being “awarded” the Medal of
Freedom by Trump at the SOTU address, the prospect of mortality is certainly
not likely to cause far-right radio host Rush Limbaugh to reflect on the impact
of his racist views when he, uh, faces the prospect of meeting his maker, although
that might not be too tough depending on who it is who “greets” him—probably the
entity he was too blind to have known was inevitable.
What does “going forward” mean
now that Trump feels 100 percent “vindicated” in pursuing his criminal activities? Joe Biden
fared poorly in the Iowa caucus, which was a surprise since other than Pete
Buttigieg he had Iowa virtually to himself for the previous two weeks. If Biden
continues to falter, will that mean that Trump will abandon the “investigations”
of Biden and his son because there will no longer be anything in it for him? Or
will he call for phony “investigations” on the next in line?
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