There are two parts to the Donald Trump problem that are troubling to me.
The one is pure politics, and not problematic systemically, to me. Trump, obviously uninterested in governing, has handed over policy to K Street Republicans to do as they wish, and they’ve done their job well in that respect, tearing down basically everything from the Obama years, in environmental policy, public education, healthcare and LGBT, minority and women’s rights on the domestic side, and our international partnerships on the foreign-policy side.
This is what Republicans do. Their world is white, male, hetero, WASPy.
But here, Trump is no different than any other Republican who would be serving as president right now. The party is far to the right of the mainstream, but this is what the people who pay for Republicans to win elections want.
The solution to that, if you think the way I do, is, you identify the best candidate to present a viable left-of-center alternative to the American people, and then you work like hell to get that person elected.
The part that’s troubling to me is where Trump is tearing off another piece of the Constitution and wiping his rear end with it basically every day.
I don’t know that we’ll ever know what Robert Mueller knows about his ties to Vladimir Putin, but we all know that Trump acts exceedingly shady about the whole thing, and if it’s possible, it’s getting shadier by the day.
The way he obfuscates, parries, distracts, outright lies his way around, well, everything, is not itself evidence that he’s done anything wrong, not evidence you could present in a court of law, anyway.
But, come on, you also have common sense enough to know, if the guy was on the up and up, he wouldn’t be blocking his minions from testifying before Congress, having his stooge attorney general redact the crap out of the Mueller Report so that all we know is what he tells us it says, casting every effort to try to get to the truth as anything other than what it is.
You seriously have to wonder what happens next year if the American people vote him out of office.
I mean, it’s not like he comes across as the kind of guy to hand the keys to the White House over peacefully, right?
What happens if he doesn’t give up power? How do you enforce the results of an election with a person who doesn’t recognize Congress or the courts as being anything other than nuisances?
And then, as far as that goes, you have Mitch McConnell running interference for Trump in the Senate, and the ongoing effort to pack the Supreme Court with Trump loyalists.
How do they respond if we have the constitutional crisis that is looking more and more likely with each passing day?
The next 19 months will be pivotal in the history of our nation.
I fear that we already have ourselves a dictator, and I don’t know that there’s anything we can do about it.
Column by Chris Graham
Share
Chris Graham
