CommentsACCORDING TO LIZ - Come on! Has the passion of our founding fathers fallen to the level of a two-year-old throwing a temper tantrum?
Or does this comparison do two-year-olds a disservice?
Some of the core values on which this country was founded include liberty, equality, tolerance, and self-government.
They also include fairness and equal opportunities to succeed.
What happens when you get a bunch of spoiled brats together? They amplify each other’s behavior, ramping up the noise and excess in a macabre and macho game of king-of-the-castle.
All with the egocentric illusion that if they hang out with the worst of the worst that they will get their turn as top dog. And what can be more ego-affirming than trumping Trump?
Why do so many American politicians continue to indulge the ex? Ultimately, they are cowed by the concept that Trump may return to power.
Where the reality of a nation rent asunder, of a million Covid deaths and counting, of the insanity of the Trump-packed Supreme Court means nothing when compared to the fury of the one who throws his lunch at the wall when thwarted.
Where access to the dollars his twisted puppeteers control will give them a pretext to pursue the golden ring and ignore their own illegitimacy to represent the people.
Trump lives in a universe where any insult or rejection, no matter how slight, is a mortal offense and must be dealt with by a barrage of insults and lies.
By attracting only people who reinforced his self-image and mirrored his lack of boundaries, Trump has created a political landscape so corrupt that it sustains and continues to enable such puerile behavior.
In himself and others.
Too many, from the Proud Boys to Mitch McConnell, owe their total disregard of social mores and appropriate action to the Ex.
No longer is the lack of regulating emotional expression or self-control an asset; me-first is the order of the day.
A verbal blurt could precipitate World War Three but – who cares when both the leaders and the led have no comprehension of consequences.
Is this any way to run a country, especially one claiming to be the greatest?
Is blaming failure on anyone else a guideline to good governance, an example for all Americans to follow?
Trump’s embracing the violence of the rabble drawn to the Ellipse as an integral component of his power was not an outlier. His sociopathic encouragement of radical elements has been evident in his absolute disregard for empathy throughout his career, and was front and center during both electoral campaigns and his stint in the White House.
It was on display with his vilification of Hillary during the 2016 election and his continuous support for his most militant neo-fascist followers. With his tacit if not overt support of neo-fascist criminality while in the White House.
And, again, on January 6th when he repeated the claims, repeatedly repudiated in the courts, that the election was stolen and taunted an armed mob already riled up by a torrent of Trump tweets that they would “never take back our country with weakness.”
The size of Trump’s crowds has always been an issue, equating as it does to the adulation of his adoring fans… or the smallness of his hand, mind and hmm… some other appendage.
“Let my people in. They can march to the Capitol from here.” Like the Proud Boys, Trump is motivated by the need for revenge.
The peaceful transition of power has been a principle of American politics for over two hundred years.
If there are no consequences, America has abjured not only this peaceful transference of government but also the ability to control any societal behavior detrimental to the good for all.
Under normal circumstances, every elected leader is allowed to retire peacefully and continue to live his life as a civilian. Albeit with a security detail, book contracts and speaking engagements that will ensure a comfortable living post 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Instead of going gently as did his predecessors, we still have tantrums and, unless we as a nation call out the criminality of the Ex and his culture of narcissistic egoism, the cult of Trump,
we shall forever live in the shadow of this poor excuse for a human who did not think the crowd he summoned to the Ellipse on January 6th rioters was doing any wrong by threatening to hang Mike Pence. And, in fact, said Pence deserved it.
The antithesis of the Supreme Court six, Oliver Wendell Holmes articulated the “clear and present danger” exception to the right of free speech.
Rudy Giuliani, Mark Meadows, General Mike Flynn, and Roger Stone also conspired to overthrow the election and the government.
After earlier calling Trump’s legal team a “bunch of pussies,” Giuliani said January 6th would be “a great day” and the president continuing to act like small boys ginning each other up to torture a cat… or gamble with people’s lives and the future of democracy for the excitement and power of a new American revolution.
Meadows was a dickless wonder caught up in what he knew was wrong but unwilling to take a stand against a sociopath who preferred people who would viciously defend his egomaniacal self-interest.
Stone met with the Proud Boys, a known violent extremist movement, purportedly on behalf of Trump.
Flynn, the former national security adviser, invoked the Fifth Amendment again and again after Representative Liz Cheney asked him if he believed in the peaceful transfer of political power.
What was happening at the Capitol on January 6th was both violent and illegal, and the president supported it.
Those at the White House knew it with Betsy Devos, Elaine Chao and others resigning that sad afternoon while Ivanka and others called on Trump to take action and rein the rioters in.
NOT prosecuting, both the rejected president and his coterie, would set dangerous precedent – no-one should be above the law – and allow all sorts of political types and business leaders to break the law with impunity.
Recent reports that Trump’s cronies are attempting to intimidate witnesses, warning them not to testify or to testify in ways that would not implicate Trump is, as Liz Cheney pointed out at the end of the June 28th hearing, a federal crime.
Just this June, the Ex gave the keynote address at the Faith & Freedom Coalition’s “Road to Majority” conference touting Dominionism, the concept that conservative Christians have the God-given right to exercise dominion over society by taking control of political and cultural institutions. Trump ironically ranted about the radical Left “trying to shred our Constitution” with no “sense of right and wrong” before calling certain members of the Jan 6. Committee “con artists” and that they, not he, are destroying our nation from within.
Being unhinged is no defense against intentionally inciting a riot. Nor is the previous president’s legal beagles’ assertion, revealed by Liz Cheney at Tuesday’s hearings, that the Ex was persuaded to ignore closest his closest advisors and was incapable of telling right from wrong.
Huh!?
The last thing America needs is an unhinged and morally incapable ex-prez on the loose.
To ensure responsible democracy, all who bought into the Big Lie – not only the above but also all those who conspired at national, state and local levels to overturn the legitimacy of Biden’s win and all those who turned a blind eye and all those who amplified their messaging through the media – must be replaced because their perception of reality can never again be trusted.
Putin had to be a lot smarter than your average 2-year-old (or reality show barker) to not only survive but to flourish in the political minefield of the end of the Soviet regime and the kleptocracy that followed.
As a far more astute leader, he welcomed the puerile Trump as easily led and an instrument for the destruction of the American hegemony.
We need not only to prove Putin chose the wrong American dog to infuriate, we must also show him how an American government, a democratic government based on inclusivity with a time-tested Constitution and laws can rise above the cult of the selfish, those who keep trying to trash it, and make our country great again.
(Liz Amsden is a contributor to CityWatch and an activist from Northeast Los Angeles with opinions on much of what goes on in our lives. She has written extensively on the City's budget and services as well as her many other interests and passions. In her real life she works on budgets for film and television where fiction can rarely be as strange as the truth of living in today's world.)