The bullies have taken over the playground. Last night Lamar Alexander, our hope for a voice of fairness in our divisive democracy, stated that while the democrats proved their case, Trump’s wrongdoing did not mount to an impeachable offense. It was inappropriate for the president to ask a foreign leader to investigate his political opponent and to withhold United States aid to encourage that investigation. But Senator Alexander went on to say that the American people should make the decision about what to do with Trump in the presidential election that begins in Iowa on Monday.
The problem with Alexander’s philosophy is that Trump was caught cheating to win in the very election that begins in Iowa on Monday. The problem with Senator Alexander’s philosophy is that without being checked — without being impeached and removed from office, Trump and every would-be dictator after him has permission to lie and cheat in order to get hold of or hold onto power. A real trial, with documents and witnesses, would have offered additional facts and allowed jurors to contemplate the depth of Trump’s corruption. In a real trial, one with documents and witnesses, the minds of jurors are often changed. Increased exposure to facts leads to an examination of truth. Truth is stubborn. Whether today, tomorrow, or decades from now, truth will have her say.
I did not vote for Trump but I did not revile him either. The voters had spoken, I believed. This is what happens in a democracy, I believed. Always there are winners and losers. Everyone wants the pilot of their plane to succeed, I heard someone say and repeated often.
How naive of me! How utterly childish and foolish to have believed in the American values I had been taught in grade school. To have believed the words of our pledge — the pledge which the senators recited every morning. With liberty and justice for all. Really? Perhaps it is time to amend our pledge to one nation with liberty for citizens and wealthy immigrants and justice for everyone except the President and those who do his bidding.
Throughout our history patriots have had difference in opinion about policies and strategies. A wealth question for incoming immigrants is a policy, one in which I disagree and which may and should be debated. Lying and cheating is not a policy. It is a form of corruption. There is a great difference between policy disagreements and corruption. Policies lead to discussion. Votes. Corruption leads to closed doors. Dictatorships.
Corrupt leaders are nothing new. Neither are the minions who, in seeking power or a redress of perceived wrongs, choose to follow them, who sneer at the voices of those who cry out.
With sincerity and grace, the house offered the senate a chance to listen to the better angels which have guided our country towards ideals of fairness and equality. The bullies in the senate, even the most dignified among them, spit in the hands of both the founders of our constitution and and her defenders. The playground is ours now, they smugly say. We make the rules.
