Endangered Species

Carl Bernstein, the former reporter for The Washington Post who broke the Watergate story with Bob Woodward says, “what we are watching in the Trump presidency is worse than Watergate.” The reason he believes it’s worse, and I agree, is because “the system worked in Watergate.”

Bernstein said, “The heroes of Watergate were Republicans who demanded that the president be held accountable, who demanded that he be transparent, who demanded to know what did the president know and when did he know it, and who conducted bipartisan investigation that led, in fact, to understanding and finding out what Nixon had done. Whereas the Republicans on Capitol Hill thus far, have done almost everything they can to impede and undermine legitimate investigation.”

It’s worse today, partly because, as Bernstein says, “Donald Trump is a demonstrable authoritarian in terms of his rhetoric, in terms of whipping up his base. Nixon did not do anything similar to that.” But, it’s also worse because today there are no Republican heroes.

Republicans, even the Lindsey Grahams, Jim Jordans, and Matt Gaetzs know Donald Trump is a horrible president and human being. They know he’s racist, corrupt, and stupid. They know the man is dangerous but they’d rather play into the cult base of Trump than risk the political danger of protecting their country. They’re not Americans or even Republicans first. They’re cultists.

All except Justin Amash. Amash is a Michigan Republican serving in Congress and so far, he’s the only Republican there to even suggest that Donald Trump has committed offenses that rose to the level of impeachment. His Republican colleagues unanimously praised his courage, principles, and integrity.

Just kidding.

First, Trump called him a “loser,” so congratulations to Amash for that. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said his comments were “very disturbing” and that Amash voted more with Nancy Pelosi than with him. Ronna McDaniel, chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, accused Amash of “parroting” Democratic talking points. Racist Republican and recipient of a Trump pardon, Dinesh D’Souza called Amash a “useful idiot for the left.”

Kentucky Republican House member Thomas Massey defended Amish’s right to diverge from his party but told a reporter, “When you quote me, just make sure people understand I disagree.”

Amash has done two things no Republican in the House has done. He says the offenses are impeachable and he read all 448 pages of the Mueller Report.

Republicans are cowards, and for that matter, so is the majority of House Democrats.

Democrats know Trump obstructed justice. They know he deserves to be impeached even though it won’t get by the Republican cowards in the Senate. But just like Republicans, they’re afraid of how it’ll affect them politically.

Amash is already facing a primary challenger and will certainly have to deal with Trump campaigning against him. Democrats are afraid impeaching Trump will hurt them politically, cost them the White House and the Senate, and maybe even lose the House. There is a serious risk that impeachment will fatigue the nation. But, maybe Democrats should overlook the politics of it and do what’s right, which would be impeaching Trump.

Donald Trump should be impeached. He is a criminal and has committed crimes that are much more heinous than lying about receiving oral sex from an intern. Democrats should make sure history books show that at least one party stood up and defended the nation. Let history document that one party had political courage.

The nation was opposed to impeaching Clinton and Republican approval dropped faster than HBO subscriptions after the series finale of Game of Thrones. Yet, in the next election, they retained the House (only by three seats), lost seats but retained the Senate if you count the vice-president’s tie-breaking vote, and won the White House. Granted, they didn’t win the popular vote and needed the Supreme Court to take the White House, but they still got it.  OK, that may not be a good example since the Democrats don’t have the Supreme Court to help steal an election.

The United Nations reported that over one million species are threatened with extinction. Typically, extinction is not something Republicans worry about unless it’s their own. The proud patriotic Republican elephant who stands for law and order, demands oversight and accountability from a president, puts our nation before Russia and their party is facing extinction and is being replaced by hyenas, jackals, slugs, butt-burrowers, and shitweasels.

We need to step back and admire them before they’re all gone. For that matter, admire political courage too…before it’s all gone.

Be Complicit

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