During the five-month illness (pancreatitis) that kept me in the hospital all summer, a couple of my close friends wondered aloud whether my constant outrage at the lying and cheating of Donald Trump and my penchant for arguing with individuals who support that awful man had anything to do with making me sick. I guessed not, pointing out that bile is produced in the gall bladder, not the pancreas. My gall bladder is intact, but I lost 70% of my pancreas.
I did notice, however, that my sickbed focus on pain and suffering, vital signs, medications and diagnoses tended to keep my mind off the steady stream of bad news and bad behavior from the Trump administration. The less I watched TV and read the newspaper, the better I felt.
So, as I ease back into this weekly column, which I have been writing since 2003, I have decided not to write about the ongoing high crimes and misdemeanors of Donald J. Trump after serving this notice. At this point, there is really nothing to say. The only thing I want to know about Trump is when he is gone. And I don’t much care what legal means is used to depose him – arrest, impeachment, resignation or election.
Complaining about Trump’s corruption is pretty much pointless since the majority of Americans understand what a self-serving, unpatriotic cad he is and the 30% who support him anyway won’t be persuaded by reason. I have said since Trump was a candidate that he presents the greatest existential threat to this country in my lifetime (the past 70 years) and those who approve of his bigotry and bullying are themselves either willfully ignorant or deeply prejudiced. I assume that does not apply to any readers of this column.
If you’re looking for proof positive that the MAGA-hatted millions are delusional, check out a recent Monmouth University poll that found only 40% of Republicans believe Trump talked about rival Joe Biden during his infamous phone conversation with the president of the Ukraine even though Trump has openly admitted that he did. The greatest casualty of the Trump presidency has been the truth.
Trump has systematically alienated our allies and courted favor with our enemies. He has urged Russia, Ukraine and China to interfere in our elections on his behalf. He has made a mockery of the emoluments clause, profiting personally from foreign governments that rent rooms at his D.C. hotel with no plans to occupy them, just to please Trump. He calls impeachment proceedings “unconstitutional” when it is he who violates the Constitution every time he refuses to comply with lawful requests for information from Congress.
Now Capt. Chaos has ignored the wishes of his military and foreign policy advisers and unleashed ethnic cleansing by abruptly pulling out of Syria and deserting our Kurdish allies in a move that benefits Turkey, Russia, Iran and ISIS but not the United States. Even the few Republicans who have any moral principles left are abandoning Trump as he sinks into the quicksand of history.
There can be legitimate differences of opinion about some of Trump’s policies and positions, but not about the man himself. Defending Trump is like defending the KKK. The man is a racist, sexist, xenophobe who runs the U.S. government to benefit himself and no one else. Impeaching him is probably a strategic mistake, but it has to be done if the United States is ever to be a great nation again.
Just let me know when he’s gone.
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