Where Does This End?

Nancy Pelosi’s “Aha” moment, as she describes it, came two weeks ago when she perceived the continuing pattern of Trumps’s behavior and finally affirmed that action must be taken immediately to attempt to stop further illegal corrupt behavior.  Once she saw enough of the landscape she knew that to delay will risk further damage to our democracy.

It is compelling to finally understand that the Constitutional obligation to protect our system and the rule of law is perhaps the fundamental issue we should all be concerned with.  The rather elemental realization is that if we do not attempt to stop this destructive situation, Trump and his administration will continue and double down on the illegal behaviors.  The condition of our republic and democracy will be further, perhaps irreparably, degraded.

Even while impeachment proceeds, Trump is still pushing Giuliani to continue the corrupt behavior!  Guiliani is currently in Ukraine, still attempting to undermine Biden’s reputation and further coddle corrupt politicians in Ukraine.  Why is he doing that??  Trump and Giuliani are continuing to brazenly try to influence our electoral process for 2020!  We simply cannot let that continue!

When you examine Trump’s decision tree and policy directions over the course of his presidency, you see a consistent pattern of undermining our rule of law, celebrating authoritarian leaders, attempting to further Russian conceived conspiracy theories, and pushing cruel and destructive actions across the entire spectrum of administrative actions.  Our leader is the laughing stock of the world as demonstrated at the recent NATO meeting in London.  The stature and reliability of the United States as an ally is being crushed.  We are being represented by a criminal buffoon.

Incredibly, our Republican representatives in our Congress are condoning the obstruction of the Executive Branch.  They are violating their Constitutional oath to protect our government’s concept of separation of power.  They are supporting debunked conspiracy theories being promoted by AG Barr, Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump and his acolytes, and the Russian intelligence services who apparently are fomenting a constant stream of lies and fake news.  It is incredible that a major portion of our government is parroting this false information.

The Republican party at large seems to have lost their way in the most egregious way.  They are willing to surrender to the nefarious will of someone they believe will hurt them at the ballot box at the first sign of disloyalty.  In the process they have sacrificed their loyalty to the oath they took to protect and defend the US Constitution.  If the electorate does not see this imminent danger to our further existence as a republic, then all is lost.  Trump might actually be re-elected and all safeguards will be removed.  His second term will be a headlong rush to destruction.

The Democratic party, and the House of Representatives will complete their Constitutional obligation to impeach this lawless President, but the Senate is another story. 

Mitch McConnell is perhaps going to be remembered as the single most destructive individual ever to hold the Majority Leader position in the US Senate.  Not only has he stalled over 240 bills sent to the Senate by the House for consideration as legislation, but he has taken illegal steps for years to constipate the process of legislative movement on various fronts.  He has made it possible for the Trump administration to stuff the courts with conservative judges, many of whom are not qualified to sit on the bench.  McConnell will be directly responsible for altering our country’s orientation to the rule of law in a way that is truly sad.   He has single handedly corrupted the process for confirming appointments to the Supreme Court by unilaterally rejecting President Obama’s right to appoint a Supreme Court judge as mandated by the US Constitution.  He has therefore violated his oath of office and should be impeached.  He is supporting the President’s orientation to accept Russian conspiracy theories, and will in all probability corrupt the Senate’s obligation to provide a fair and lawful trial for the Trump impeachment.  Watch and see how he will behave during the next month or so as the Republicans prepare to defend the indefensible. 

And the trial will be a McConnell sham.  Trump’s defense will harangue the process, but will not be able to provide any ‘fact’ witnesses or arguments to rebut the accusations, mainly because there are none.  They will turn a blind eye to the constant and prolonged illegal obstruction of Congress by the administration.   That will result in the ignoring of legal subpoenas for fact witnesses demanded by the House Intelligence Committee.  I frankly don’t understand why the Democrats are not being aggressive about getting court mandates for testimony by the witnesses who can offer the essential facts of the case for impeachment:  McGahn, Giuliani, Pompeo, Mulvaney, Bolton, Kupperman, Isenberg and a host of others who supported the conspiracy to obstruct.  They should all be charged with contempt of Congress and locked up until they testify.

So where does this end?  Well, if Trump is acquitted, you can expect he could be re-elected, and if that happens, I would not be surprised to see Russian type autocracy emerge as a real threat to our basic freedoms over the next four years.  Our lives as citizens will change into something we could never have expected.  There will most probably be trials of journalists, trials of opposition politicians, promotion of new conspiracies and a deconstruction and morphing of the United States of America into an empty vessel of what it once stood for.  Our children and grandchildren will not know the blessings of true liberty as we have known them…and one day people like John Kennedy from Louisiana, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Lindsay Graham of South Carolina, and all the Republicans who are in denial now will wake up and wonder where things went wrong.  By then it will be too late…….