The Message is Clear: Après Trump le Deluge

The late Senator John McCain found his voice at the end of the Trump-McConnell Senate effort to repeal the ACA. McCain with his final Senate vote prevented Obamacare from going down. President Trump did not forgive McCain. A great American patriot dealt with the mockery that Trump made of him, but even McCain’s Senate friends could barely lift a finger to admonish the President.

Senator Mitt Romney, therefore, knew what was coming when he took to the Senate floor on Wednesday to speak truth to all his Republican colleagues and to the nation. Romney explained why he was voting to convict Donald Trump for his abuse of power.  Romney used the opportunity as well to deliver a not so subtle message to religious leaders of all faiths. He explained that he could not permit himself to face his Maker as well as the Founding Fathers if he permitted himself to violate his oath and vote to acquit the President.

While President Trump was acquitted, Romney spoke truth to his colleagues, to the nation, and to religious leaders who somehow are incapable of molding their faith to adhere to a higher moral and ethical standard than what is in their personal, self-interest; what is acceptable to their flock. There is more to immorality than prayer in the schools or life beginning at conception or moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem or 70 virgins in the afterlife. It does not require religious faith to recognize that disdain for woman, LGBTQ’s, immigrants, and pathological lying are immoral. The abuse of power is an unethical act guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors.

Now that it is over the President is demonstrating how vindictive he can be. As he lashes out at all those who had the audacity to speak the truth and to question his authority. He will try to banish all his critics while energizing his supportive base as he bashes his opponents. The President knows no bounds when he gets angry and will seek full retribution from all his detractors. The only limits that can constrain Trump will be if it involves actions which challenge his re-election. If the President is re-elected in November, the President’s wrath and retaliatory agenda will know have no bounds.

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President Trump’s actions in the hours and days since he entered the House Chamber to deliver his State of the Union Address clearly have underscored the extent to which the President does not respect the Constitution, the laws, and the institutions of American Government. The Senate failed to convict him. He now faces only one more hurdle—re-election—before he can maneuver the country into an unimaginable disaster.

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And Then There’s Iowa

While the President is wreaking havoc with country, the Democratic Party’s problems seem rather trivial; nevertheless, the must be noted. Leaving aside that the party caucus system is absurd and Iowa/New Hampshire being first in the nation is not responsible to the people, what transpired in Iowa on Monday night is truly beyond belief. If this had occurred in a third world country one might have been able to accept such a mess; but for the Iowa Democratic State Committee and the DNC not to have had a foolproof reporting system in place is unforgiveable.

If the nominating system is actually reformed after this debacle than maybe some good will have come out of this fiasco. Meanwhile, all the candidates are continuing to play the game in New Hampshire while the potential winner from all this craziness, Michael Bloomberg, only pumps in more money and staff.