The Trump Administration: Farce? Tragedy?

July 11, 2017

Mr. President

The Trump Administration: Farce? Tragedy?

Today, Ezra Klein wrote The Trump administration isn’t a farce. It’s a tragedy. Mr. Klein is the Editor-in-Chief for Vox, and one of our very best writers. He’s also only 33, born 117 months, to the day, after President Richard Nixon waved and left the White House grounds on Marine One on August 9, 1974. Read the next paragraph, please, for his age matters.

In his excellent piece Mr. Klein posits that “this must be what it was like to live through Watergate.” His statement begs the question, for as a 33-year-old he was not around. I was!

Honestly, Trump-i-stan feels much, much worse than Watergate. President Nixon was bent, evil, and surely mad. In the end, though, he had a fully staffed government, full of competent people, and we had really competent people in Congress. For example, there is the threesome which told President Nixon he needed to leave. It included Senator Barry Goldwater and House Minority Leader John Rhodes, both from Arizona. Smart, honest men, and I take nothing away from the third member, Senator Hugh Scott from Pennsylvania. Does anyone see a single Republican in Congress who will tell this president it’s time to go?

I don’t know, now, whether President Donald Trump needs to leave. I believe elections have consequences, as President Barack Obama noted after he was elected. Those consequences include living with the one we chose. Frankly, we elected an ignoramus, not so very wide and about a micron deep. Oh well! (I’m not saying I’d never support an impeachment and conviction or a recall but, Nixon aside, I have not yet signed a recall petition, voted for a recall, or supported the impeachment of an elected official. Recall and impeachment don’t exist because we made a mistake, and with respect to Donald Trump, for anyone who was paying attention there was more than enough evidence to support a prison term.)

Please don’t misunderstand me, in either direction. When evidence of a crime, involving the president, gets presented, Congress should act. (Note my word choice, for I think the man is dirty all the way up to the rug on top of his head.) And with respect to President Nixon, the visit with Congressional leaders happened after the tapes came out, evidencing obvious obstruction of justice.

(From a purely partisan standpoint, I hope our current president finishes his term and, at a minimum, that he’s still there on January 20, 2019. I don’t want a President Mike Pence—who might be effective—and, if we get him, the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution explains my concern about the date.)

I fear for our republic now, in ways I don’t think I did more than 40 years ago. Maybe it’s because of what today’s other hot story—Most Republicans Say Colleges Hurt America—reflects. When a whole bunch of people have turned on higher education, we have a big problem. We’ve truly lost our way!

I always welcome comments. With this post I demand them. From everyone but, especially, from those who also lived through Watergate. Trump-i-stan. Worse? Overblown, and the equivalent of the theft of a cockroach – as compared with a third-rate burglary? Weigh in, please.

 

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