I never became used to Trump. I knew he was unfit from day one.
And I am outraged that such a low life grifter could be selected for the office he holds.
It speaks volumes regarding the country we have become.
With Russian interference on Trump's behalf, Trump paying off porn stars and with a GOP and media led bogus e-mail controversy, Trump squeaked into office by approximately 77000 votes in 2016.
America is a place I may no longer desire to live should Trump actually becomes elected in 2020, instead of selected.
16
A moment to ponder quotes from the McCarthy show trials circa the early 50’s and Roy Cohn. Does this describe the President and their lackeys or a Narcissist’s Flying Monkey’s in a robust gaslighting campaign?
Essentially the narcissist spins a web of a false reality and casts it out among a group of people. They in turn defame and smear by innuendo or false narrative. The victims include the former Ambassador to Ukraine, the current and others. Think of those who have been gaslighted by Candidate, President Trump or their cohorts.
“Until this moment, Senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness." ......."Let us not assassinate this lad further, senator. You have done enough. Have you no sense of decency?" - Joseph Welch
The President and their entourage clearly play all of these roles.
"judge, jury, prosecutor, castigator, and press agent, all in one." - Harvard law dean Ervin Griswold
Michelle, thanks for laying the cards out in a well written piece.
8
Rubbish. We have created lots of religious like myths. But Americans have never been very high. Any fall has been a half inch or so
2
Shame on us indeed!
5
Never give up. Never.
4
I regret sounding histrionic, but I cannot stop thinking of how Germany drifted into Nazism.
Here was a country that gave us philosophy, religion, and an education system. Yet, within a few short years, it descended into madness that cost the lives of 10s of millions and its own destruction.
As Germany was descending, I wonder how many leaders made moral adjustments and ignored outrageous behavior in order to remain in power. How many catered to Hitler to gain his and his followers favors and never believed that they would be complicit in what finally became of Germany.
We don't know where Trump is leading us, but we should be cautioned by the examples of demagoguery and its fellow travelers.
16
Oh I'm not "used" to Trump—
Not one iota.
His con-man imbecility, profound lying, and staggering damage are as fresh and raw as ever.
11
If in “we” you mean the fourth estate, I couldn’t agree more. It’s well past time the collective “you” take responsibility to match your headlines to content and stop hanging on trumps every word as truth.
2
Well said, Michelle Golderg in this and all your op-ed essays. If as the President claims "the press is the enemy of the people" then you must be on the most wanted list. I'll look for your picture hanging in the Post Office
"All of us?" Not true. Most of "us" noted against this criminal and are appalled his presidency. The media, however (looking at you, NYT) abetted Trump's victory in part by being suckered into the Clinton e-mail hysteria.
2
Melania's jacket message seems relevant here -- "i really don't care -- do u?"
This is not the time to beat our chests and cry over our poor country, this is the time to get the rascal(s) out. I'm very proud of the hearings and plan to watch today as I did Wednesday and hear the excellent members of the government of the USA such as Taylor and Kent speak to truth. Chairman Schiff seems the embodiment of restraint yet intentionality as he tries to accommodate the snarling GOP members. Jordan, get a jacket. The GOP likes playing legal games shouting about hearsay and in a court of law this would never be possible, but as lawyers know, trials are not won by merely "first-hand" testimony. They will not address the smell in the room, but it is particularly galling to have to see Graham snivel and turn time and again. Nada from Romney nor Portman. This latest accounting of Trump's insidiousness is part of his entire tenure in office. Anti-environment, justice, caged children in a Nazi-like attempt to snare so-called terrorists, know-nothing DeVos to head education who with know-nothing Carson, added to that the Supreme Court pickings and other members of the federal judiciary as chosen by the Federalist. What do you smell now?A hint of Ukraine but a greater smell than bribery of eau de authoritarianism.
2
My very elderly Jewish neighbors have dismissed both FDR and Jimmy Carter as anti-Semites, yet they love Trump, just as they know Obama was born in Africa. How can you counter this?
4
Entertainment?! Seriously?! I’m 70 years old. I was in college in ‘68. Lived through Vietnam and then Nixon. I have never been more stressed or in fear of the future of our country. The entire Republican Party is committing treason. GOP now stands for George Orwell’s Prediction. The republican sheep watch Fox and, as instructed, chant “Four legs good, two legs better.” We are on the precipice.
11
I can’t get past the first sentence where you say “how far WE’VE fallen”. Words matter. Can you please be more precise and talk about exactly who are the real WE folks.... the ones who’ve “fallen” ....those who voted for Trump and who continue in this garbage defense of one of the world’s most disgusting human beings. I’ve not fallen and stop lumping those who’ve known all along what a sick person Trump is into “we”
2
Special thanks for many at the NYT for doing their part in normalizing this.
1
“Shame on Us for Getting Used to Trump”
No, shame on you Ms. Goldberg. It was because of incessant hyperbolic captious yapping, niggling and caviling from media types like you over these past 3 years that has inured us to Mr. Trump and his antics. If you had been diligent in keeping your emotions and biases out of your writing, your criticisms of Mr. Trump might have had more credibility. Now, we are simply inured to your carping.
This is a consequence of your own efforts.
You have made your bed. Now lie in it.
"Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel." Samuel Johnson. disgusting how low 45 & enablers will go! 'Diversity is our Strength, Unity is our Power!' Nancy Pelosi, US Speaker of the House
3
I nominate "hypocrisy" as a synonym for "Republican".
4
This is what happens when you spend all your political capital pushing a ridiculous Russia conspiracy hoax instead of just accepting that your candidate ran one of the worst political campaigns in history and lost to a political novice reality TV clown.
Also, maybe, just maybe you would get more traction if you didn't have your own corrupt political baggage like Hunter Biden in the mix or Hillary Clinton's funding of the Steel report trying to dig up dirt on Trump from Russian government officials and former spies. Do ya think that might have anything to do with why this is taking off like a lead ballon Ms. Goldberg?
2
Today alone, the Times publishes seven Opinions attacking Republicans and Trump. The repetitive "One-sided" Opinions
without any differing Opinions are mind numbing like propaganda.
Differing Opinions would be thought provoking but apparently are suppressed and considered too dangerous politically to publish.
2
The behavior of Donald Trump should be shocking every day and every week. The behavior of Steven Miller who seems to be the reincarnation of Joseph Goebbels should be shocking and he should be removed from government by any legal means necessary. The behavior of Donald Trump‘s personal lawyer turned clown , Rudolph Giuliani would be laughable and pathetic if he wasn’t in the position to do some major damage where our national security is concerned. And the behavior of these Republicans in Congress who have sold their souls in order to gain protection from Donald Trump in the hope that he will politically decapitate them may be one of the most cowardly acts in politics that I have ever witnessed in my lifetime. In any of the aforementioned instances this is something we should never get used to -it is as disgusting and odious a behavior that has existed in politics but it is also a display of extraordinary dishonesty.
We should be asking ourselves: is this what we can come to except in the years ahead in our government? Think about it carefully, because if America does not respond to this in a proactive way we will be living more and more with this political garbage every day of our remaining lives
2
No, Michelle. I didn't even finish your article because the premise was incorrect. We are not used to him. At least I am not. I don't think anybody is.
We just don't know what to do about it.
2
Wondered how "civilized" countries like Germany did it in the 20th Century? It can't happen here?
We're watching it in real time in the 21st.
Once again, the delusional, indecent cunning lead the decent, delusional ignorant via inflammation, disinformation, paranoia.
2
Used to him? who in God's name is used to him?
1
Hear, hear!! God save America...
1
The Turks did massacre Armenian at the beginning of the twentieth century. Saying otherwise is irrelevant.
I (we) will never get used to a cheater..liar..criminal in our White House..We are seeing the. beginning of his end. He is on his last breath..and knows he's been caught.
His friends and allies will try to save themselves and turn on him.
2
Speak for yourself Ms Goldberg. Some of us knew who this man was and had a firm understanding of the potential depth of his depravity and duplicity before he ever took the oath. We have a charismatic white nationalist con artist at our helm. He must be removed.
I’m white but this notion that white skin entitles one to privilege and others to slavery and deprivation is wrong, simply wrong. “Christians“ supporting him because they want slaves or because they are trying to trick god into bringing on the apocalypse (and taking them to heaven) are morally and ethically wrong and truly anti-christian in all but name.
If you want to tell me what I can do to un-bribe the electors and remove Moscow Mitch and Putin’s puppet, I’ll be happy to do it. The real shame here is the deliberate ignorance of the GOP (that means you too Lindsay Graham, you of all people know what a horrible unsuitable person Trump is) and the Trumpists.
2
I think this column makes some assumptions
Vote them out!
1
Every day the prayers intensify for divine intervention in this infantile nation that still holds institutions of liberty to enslave sacred.
Behold Devin Nunes, a bonded slave of Trump.
Linsey Graham has turned out to be as wicked as Trump himself...licking the boots of the criminal autocrat Erdogan, whose goal in life is to marginalize and systematically destroy the Kurds, inside Eastern Turkey, and in Syria.
Erdogan follows in the footsteps of his predecessor the Ottoman Turks, who massacred and deported EVERY minority group in Turkey, even though they were law abiding Turkish citizens: Armenian, Greeks, Assyrians and Chaldeans.
Because of Graham's ugly blockage of the senate vote for the Armenian genocide, Republicans will now lose millions of Armenian votes in the 2020 election...
1
Brilliant!
The Republican members yesterday acted like gang members.
1
Michelle Goldberg and Greg Sargent of the Post should get together and run their own paper. They've been not just the best pundits on Trump, but really, the best reporters. They're working in a different universe than the one inhabited by the morons who apply reality-TV standards to the country's existential crisis.
I feel like I can remember when that universe was called the U.S. Maybe it was a dream.
1
Here, here, Michelle!
1
Wow. From an obscure charge described in the Greek language to a real charge in the English language, the democrats have come a long way. But with their persona of elitists they will go by way of the DOODOO bird. Maybe a new party will emerge that is more representative of most Americans. For me anyway.
We have all watched WWII documentaries, heard Hitler ranting and raving and wondered what got into the Germans that they could believe this obvious maniac was their savior. Germans might have been inscrutable, but we knew for certain; it could never happen here.
Then came Donald Trump and we had to rethink our smug certainty. A goodly percentage of Americans have been captured by a raving maniac of our own.
We can understand Hitler’s attraction. Germans were in terrible shape, starving, runaway inflation, on the hook for large reparations. In desperation they turned to Hitler. But Trump's followers have no such excuse. They are comparatively well-off whites who fear an uncertain future, fear losing their place in the social hierarchy to brown people. They are blue collar people and evangelicals who fear the way of life they feel secure in is slipping away.
They may appear to be a little bit crazy to the liberals, but their psychological hurt is real. They are Americans and they deserve our attention. We need to find a way to help these people.
1
Right on!
Michellle, do you really think that by continuously offending and insulting the 63 million Americans who voted for Trump is going to change people’s opinions? Your screeds may resonate with the progressive left who religiously read this left wing newspaper but people outside the Manhattan bubble don’t appreciate your condescending attitude about what you judge to be right and wrong. Trump is President because a lot of folks resented the elitist Hillary Clintons of the world who think Republicans are just stupid and we know how the world should be run.
We haven't gotten used to him
Maybe you have
Of course, you also thought Al Franken "had to go" based on a coordinated attack of false accusations that magically disappeared once your Republican co-conspirators got their head
1
I studied the Holocaust in grad school 20 years ago.
I used to wonder on a daily basis what the heck had happened to the Germans?
I don't wonder anymore.
Occasionally I wonder about Stephen Miller - the son of Jewish immigrants who became prosperous and settled in beautiful sunny Santa Monica- becoming a white supremacist.
But my time is better spent worrying about decent people.
Instead of him.
History is watching and our children, grandchildren will ask "what did you do to hold this traitorous criminal mob boss president accountable????" I watched the impeachment hearing intently and Mr. Kent and Mr. Taylor are amazing men with integrity and intelligence who would not be intimidated. The Republicans were nasty and disrespectful in their defense of Trump. It was an awful display of loyalty to Trump....why???? I just want to know why?
1
"These are the sort of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories that deform public life ... . In three short years, Republicans have allowed our country to sink to that level"
This "level" is not something that Republicans invented but was preexisting and therefore was always available for exploitation. There is a historical precedent.
Following WWI, Germany had a Constitution (Weimar Constitution) that declared Germany to be a democratic parliamentary republic with a legislature elected under proportional representation with individual rights provisions that paralleled much of our Constitution. In 1932 Hitler came to power in an election where he didn't gain the majority of the popular vote. In 1934, the German parliament passed a constitutional amendment that effectively gave Hitler authorities not that dissimilar to the presidential powers that Trump claims Article II grants in our Constitution. Soon, the Supreme Court will be ruling on aspects of that claim.
Interestingly, the Weimar Constitution technically continued in effect throughout the Nazi years until the end of WWII. Shortly afterwards (1949), Germany passed a new Constitution based largely on the Weimar Constitution but incorporating "lessons learned" during the Nazi years.
Is it a stretch to say that we are in a political position not that much removed from Germany in the early 1930s? Hopefully yes, but do we really know?
1
Only those with sever myopia do not see the crushing "D Day" heading toward this current crew of wold be fascists.
They are already a sick page in history.
We would not be in this pickle if we actually had a working 4th Estate. A Press that stood for truth, instead of profits and both-sides-ism.
Reporters need to remember that in a fascist state they are typically out of work. And in prison. Or worse.
If we are really to have a functioning democratic Nation we must restore the Fairness Doctrine and shut down F(alse)ox.
Maybe, just maybe, this would be getting a little more traction had the Democrats not gone down the Russiagate rabbit hole for the last two and a half years, ignoring repeatedly, all the countervailing evidence that continued to burst the BOMBSHELL! BREAKING NEWS! balloons that fizzled and required retractions from the media. Do ya think that might have anything to do with it? Am I going out on a limb on this? Progressives warned you guys not to pursue this ridiculous conspiracy theory thought up by Hillary and her campaign on the night of her election loss to deflect from her inexplicable incompetency in losing to Trump, but it was just too juicy a story with spies, pee-pee and hookers and clandestine meetings in European capitals. Well, this is what you get. A public with a jaundice eye on another investigation.
Trump's white supremacist fan club includes:
• The Daily Stormer, a leading neo-Nazi news site;
• Richard Spencer, director of the National Policy Institute, which aims to promote the “heritage, identity, and future of European people”;
• Jared Taylor, editor of American Renaissance, a Virginia-based white nationalist magazine;
• Michael Hill, head of the League of the South, an Alabama-based white supremacist secessionist group; and
• Brad Griffin, a member of Hill’s League of the South and author of the popular white supremacist blog Hunter Wallace.
A leader of the Virginia Kl@n who backs Trump told a local TV reporter, “The reason a lot of members like Donald Trump is because a lot of what he believes, we believe in.”
1
I’m not sure we have become numb to the political horrors of Trump and his Republican Flying Monkeys. Rather we have two types of citizen. Those who are concerned about the big picture, and at least pay attention, even if they don’t picket the Whitehouse; and two, those who can’t fathom how it all works, and need our protection.
For example, I have a friend who voted for Sanders, yet pays no attention to our current state of national dysfunction. I have three times now explained to her who Gordon Sondland is — and we live in Portland! She complains bitterly that health care is too expensive. To her credit she fought for parent’s right to choose to vaccinate or not (yes she is an antivaxxer). Now she hates all Democrats since the local Oregon Dems supported requiring vaccinations for school children. She hates Trump because he is sexist, but otherwise is not knowledgeable on anything else about him. She pays her bills, has a full time job, eats organic, and shops at Goodwill — like most respectable Portlandians do.
Until we understand how to protect these people from the likes of Trump, McConnell and Graham, we will lose to Trump again. Trump gets it that most people are like my friend. They think small, are self absorbed, and are easily influenced by emotional appeal. When I asked my friend why she voted for Sanders, she said, “I just like him.” When I asked my cousin why she voted for Trump she said, “I just like him.”
No this is not entertainment, far from it. Anyone who believes the republican party is working in America’s best interest, or better yet, for the “American People” is seriously delusional. This is a party that can only win by lying, cheating, stealing, smearing, gerrymandering, suppressing the vote, and bribing. The whistle-blower was dismissed at the start because she/he only had secondhand information, by that logic they should be clamoring to get Bolton in the House’s hearing room ASAP. How is it that there is a whole discussion going on about internet companies fact-checking content on their platforms, but not so for “news” networks that traffic in garbage and misinformation? Lindsey Graham is a traitor and his late friend Senator McCain (RIP), must be turning in his grave at the sight of his pal worshipping at the DJT altar. The thing that struck me the most about the hearings on Wednesday was witnesses of this caliber being questioned, and demeaned, by some of the most loathsome, unscrupulous, treasonous individuals in service of the most reprehensible man to serve high office. No, I have not gotten used to this!
1
So tell us, other than send money, what can we as blue state democrats do that we are not now doing?
4
As a traditional Republican voter I certainly side with Taylor and Kent. I didn't support Trump's election in part because of his clear obeisance to Vladimir Putin. His campaign team even watered down the GOP Platform on defense of Ukraine. So Trump's willingness to embrace Russian propaganda about Ukraine's involvement in our election, and to hold defense funds for Ukraine for his own political interests is not only not a surprise, it fits perfectly with his actions regarding Russia and Ukraine from day one. I long for the G.O.P. of Ronald Reagan that actually stood up to tyrants. A real Republican leader like Reagan would have challenged Putin or Erdogan rather than submissively doing their bidding.
48
@Wesley Is it too late for you to run as a Republican presidential candidate?
3
"Shame on us for getting used to Trump." Fake news.
1
It's so strange how Soros is such a big figure to them. I guess they don't harass AOC as much anymore so they need someone to hate.
Shocking, but not surprising,
Will one billionaire Democrat please buy Fox News? Or 2 or 3 - whatever it takes.
6
History books are filled with "stories" like this very one: the people cease to care and the scoundrels have it all their way. A Country dies, an empire collapses, the citizens lack courage because their leaders are brain washed by the liar in chief. WAKE UP friends, this is serious stuff. It happened in the 1930's. We saw it.
The leader of any decent organization should be held to a higher standard than its members. Why? Because he's/she's expected to be a leader. He/she shows the how and the why of behavior.
We voted this man in, there was no coup. Now we must pressure the legislators to vote him out via impeachment. Wake up now.
1
Liberals hated Trump long before he was elected President. At which point he started to attack your golden cows and craven images of multiculturalism and fake-affection for minorities, you hated him. You have continued to hate him every second of every minute since. And, much to your chagrin, it is completely irrelevant. The way someone who didn't vote for Trump feels about Trump means nothing. Trump was elected by Americans who think highly of him. And that's all that really matters. I am glad that you hate him. That means he is doing what I voted for him to do which is offend, attack and undermine everything that is sacred to you.
4
Who’s gotten used to him?
1
Shame on you for using his name. I refer to him now days a
President D. T.
If everyone did this he probably would go more crazy as he already.
1
The truth is, the current government in Ukraine is the product of a phoney election, yet another US puppet regime installed by a coup, paid for by more than $500 million by the CIA (as our Ambassador there boasted) with many cruel atrocities committed by the US-backed Fascists . . . . More than 13,000 people have been killed in the subsequent (and continuing) defensive war of Eastern, Russian speaking Ukraine, resisting the American/fascist takeover of their country . . . Yet the only objection the Democrats have to our policy there, is the trivial charge, that the American Republican President pressured the Ukrainian comedian President to investigate his Democratic political opponents? . . . This is a society whose ruling elite has lost contact with reality.
I have not gotten and will NEVER get used to Trump.
NEVER.
In fact, the opposite is true. Every day I get more disturbed, concerned and alarmed by him and his vulgar, autocratic, erratic and dangerous behavior ...
... and profoundly puzzled by the spineless duplicity and lack of character by the entire GOP: Barr, Pompeo, Haley, Graham, Nunes, Meadows, the idiot wrestler from Ohio, and on and on.
They have no morals, no character and zero patriotism and apparently zero concern for our national security.
Like Trump, they are turning the keys to our democratic republic and western security over to criminal Russian oligarchs whose behavior they emulate and mimic.
Putin's dream accomplished.
3
Speak for yourself. I never have nor never will get used to this criminal traitor's machinations.
2
Spot on!
Shame on the "news media" for worrying more about the optics of this impeachment process, and how it plays with consumers (is it entertaining enough) than simply covering it and reporting what happens.
When Trump says the impeachment proceedings on TV are "boring", he is talking the American "news media" language, and he knows it (like any good conman does).
You (the "news media") are Trumps biggest mark, and you are suckers for his con, every single time he cons you.
So shame on you Ms. Goldberg. Shame on you.
Trump is doing what he has always done since childhood: lying every second, screwing people of every and any persuasion, scheming perpetually to bully others, flailing with petulant tweets, doing what he does to all women, denying he says and does dastardly screwball, illegal claims, and so.....we suffer the flinging of his vileness, all of us. Even those who buy his MAGA caps, such fools who drool for him. He is a sin against humanity. His entourage is hungry for his vileness. My guess, it is in all of their genes. Born that way. What an aberration from normal.
1
What a dud this becoming? Hearsay and nonsense. Can Congress get back to working for the people, not trying to settle the 2016 loss. Trump will win again as the Dems still don’t get it, we are tired of politicians and D.C.
2
Trump smears everyone who gets in his way and according to today's hearings even someone who is only trying to do the right thing. In fact that is the worst sin anyone can commit. That a president would consider this the norm is an attack on everyone not only his present enemies because anyone can appear on that list at any moment.
Ms. Yovanovich at her hearing tried to answer every question impartially and even supplied some information favorable to the President. But none of that mattered as like any attack dog Trump was fixed on his target. We had a norm that protected witnesses but Trump just throws all of that out the window with a cowardly tweet.
As a long term civil servant who worked hard to serve people living in the worst of conditions and knowing the hard work of all civil servants, I protest strongly this smear campaign which attacks all of us including all of those who have served on a jury, our military who put their life on the line to protect our constitution right on to the janitor who cleans our schools. Power can not be allowed to corrupt absolutely.
I remember when Republicans did the right thing in 1974 when they approached Nixon and he subsequently resigned. Sadly, I have no expectation today that Republicans will again do what is right for our country. The Republican party, devoid of principle and honesty, has turned our politics and government into a ridiculous spectacle of self serving ambition. How else do you explain the party's willingness to support this man?
I have been over DT for 28 years now, and am always ahead of the curve, which is sad, in that there is little hope for humanity. When you see how much brutality those who are caught in the middle in Afghanistan are subjected to, as religious zealots over there breeds, not lovers of humanity, but religious, and mentally unbalanced males subjecting all of those in their sphere, to murder, rape, and worse, the children aren't even thought of as the future. Putin, Erdogan, Kim Jong Un, Xi Jinping, Assad, and on and on, and on it goes. Where are those willing to stand up in the gap? It seems like the only leaders are those in the state department who are fearless, and coming forward to testify at the impeachment hearings. Of course, decency, honesty, truth, and service to others are attacked in this administration, which only puts out evil tweets, each and every day.
1
Shame on us? I refuse to waste psychological energy feeling shame over someone I never voted for, never trusted, and never considered my president. Sociopaths like it when people of conscience are paralyzed by shame and exhausted by shock.
1
The media only cares about the horse race. It is horrible at covering substantive, important issues.
Watching and listening to two impeccable and knowledgeable government professionals like Taylor and Kent who aren't afraid of Trump and speak the truth makes me proud to be a American. Then there's Trump's trained monkeys like Jim Jordan and sleazy mouthpieces like Lindsey Graham who make me question if Americans have finally opted for a dictatorship like Trump's buddy Putin runs in exchange for liberal democracy that we've experienced for about 200 years.
I guess we'll see next year.
We have a bully child in the White House and somehow, he has the support of most Republicans, most Senators and Wall Street.
I can understand Wall Street supporters who put greed and power before country but Senators and others who take the oath of office to uphold the constitution, their betrayal is still a mystery to me.
Either they are village idiots or maybe they are terrified of Trump’s vindictiveness because they have skeletons in their closets.
Why else would anyone ridicule themselves in public. Do they wear an invisible cover over their heads and think we can’t see them?
The media are also complicit in all this charade because they care more about headlines than informative news. What about less television interviews and more research for the good of the country?
We are already sold goods to Russia, we are ridiculed by Russia and Americans mistake this mess as entertainment. We have Rudy and Don junior conducting foreign policy, have secret meetings, love letters to dictators and getting orders from oligarchs and criminals.
Patriotism is not about having American citizenship, is about acting in the interests of America and fighting to protect our values.
Shame on us for getting used BY Trump.
1
Shame on us for getting used to Trump? Speak for yourself. I have not, and will not "get used" to Trump. His Presidency is an outrage every single day.
67
Speak for yourself, Michelle.
There has not been one day of this administration that I have not been outraged, disgusted or otherwise enraged by the acts of this president and his evil band of cohorts.
As a veteran and a patriot, I fear greatly for the future of country I love and the values for which it stands.
3
Every time Trump comes on TV, I have to mute the sound. The mere sound of his voice makes me ill. Every time they show him ranting and raving like a madman at one of his rallies, an intense anger rises within me.
The man is repulsive and dangerous.
There is no way I will ever get used to hearing those two improbable words, President Trump, without clenching my fists and grinding my teeth.
I am not, and never will get used to Trump, just like I cannot and never will get used to cancer, and I have had plenty of experience with both.
2
This is less-than-conventional psych perspective, but valid. Michelle says "shame on us for getting used to Trump." But look at the millions of citizens who, in their childhood, had to "get used to" harsh, abusive, dogmatic, hate-projecting, narcissistic fathers and complicit or weak (abused) mothers. Generally speaking, that would be the background of those who, a decade or two later, are blind to the personality and behavior atrocities of this corrupt, immoral president. Someone whose sensibilities were relatively intact and reality-grounded -- the remainder of us -- would immediately see crime and abuse for what they are.
Not only was this impeachment hearing shocking - the evidence, which many of us have known was already there for Trump’s self-dealing, witness intimidation and theft of public funds for personal use (ultimately, his deal with Putin to protect the $40 billion stolen from the Ukraine is just one of a series of such treasons) - but it couldn’t hold a candle to today’s public testimony by Yovanovitch, complete with Trump’s continuing Witness Intimidation Program occurring in real-time during the testimony.
It should now be absolutely clear to any member of the American Public capable of thought that there has been a conspiracy against the nation that goes to the very top of the Executive Branch, and which has spread through almost the entirety of the Republican Party in the House and Senate.
It is not a “Deep State” fantasy, but a very real, corrupt Republican Coup, funded by oligarchs at home and abroad, that we face. This is why Mulvaney defended it so casually in his infamous “get over it” statement.
You see, the reality the Republicans want to believe in is that Democracy is dead in this country and the world, and the rule of oligarchs and their puppets is the new norm. And Mulvaney and those he represents simply want us to “get over it.”
Well, no. You’ll see just how willing we are to “get over” the attempted annihilation of our country very soon. It is not going to be pretty, for the oligarchs or their puppets.
1
I am nauseated by the behavior of the GOP, and my fellow Americans on a daily basis. I have most certainly not become desensitized to the Trump atrocity. It is like an open wound that Trump rubs salt in every single day.
How can one person be so completely ans utterly vile, and still have such a large devoted entourage of sycophants and enablers? My faith in humanity, in general, has been shaken to its foundation.
2
New York's late and great senator, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, spoke of
"defining deviancy downward." How low do we have to go to get attention?
Instead of "quid pro quo" let's call it "tit for tat" --which every American understands and politicians and reporters can pronounce.
Trump refused to release money (tit) for dirt on the Bidens (tat). The problem is that Congress had approved the money for Ukraine (ally) to defend themselves in a hot war with the Russians (aggressor).
When a President ignores Congress by with holding funds for
supposed damaging information on political opponents, we have one-man rule, also known as a dictatorship.
2
A recent poll conducted by the nonpartisan, nonprofit organization Campaign for Free Speech showed that 51% of Americans believe the First Amendment is outdated and needs to be rewritten, 48% believe that hate speech should be illegal, and 80% don't actually know what the First Amendment protects and what it doesn't.
https://www.campaignforfreespeech.org/free-speech-under-dire-threat-polling-finds/
Given our ignorance of this foundational principle of our precious democracy, it's not surprising that we're vulnerable to the shenanigans of a president and a party for whom the separation of powers apparently is obsolete. If we don't even understand the point of free speech (which does not entitle you to yell "fire" in a crowded theater), and if we are in favor of banning forms of speech we find personally offensive, we are that much closer to a true dictatorship where the basic freedoms we take for granted will disappear.
This is not a partisan issue. Either we defend the Bill of Rights, the Constitution, and the rule of law or we won't have a country left to defend.
3
In the day, and it may still be the day, reporters covered stories to emphasize their "shock value." I never understood the value of shock; it has nothing to do with thinking or understanding but is a stand-alone emotional response to something. Obviously, in the Trump-era, there can be so much of this good thing that even reporters are numbed and dumbed by it.
My question is this: at the street level, what is a reasonable person, Democrat or Republican, supposed to think of or do about the Always Trump Republicans? Pity them? Scorn them? Shun them?
Are most of us actually used to Trump? This morning he tweeted at Marie Yovanovitch as she was testifying. He continues to find new lows, this time to intimidate a Congressional witness. Let him rant all he wants, let him pretend he's not watching the hearings; it's all a pretense. The fake in the White House must be removed.
3
Um, speak for yourself, Michelle.
For some of us, the past three years have been an unending torment, as the truth, the Rule of Law, and our Democracy, have been virtually obliterated.
I'm not alone in those feelings.
I find your premise to be more dispositive about your views than of mine and millions of other Americans who have both feet still firmly planted in reality and a desire for Justice, Equality, and Equanimity.
For us, there will NEVER be "getting used to" this self-serving grifter.
2
I'm not used to Trump. I will never be used to Trump. It's the same as being comfortable with evil. And I won't live like that.
3
The human mind is easily influenced, particularly by negativity.
Indeed anthropologists will tell you that the advent of civilization was enabled by our ability to lie and to believe lies. This led to organized religion and eventually to political parties.
Sam Powers details in her book how Boco Harom and ISIS desensitized children by first beating them and then having them beat others. This eliminated their empathy towards others and enabled them to become ruthless warriors.
Trump is the king of zero empathy and has beaten the psyche's of Mr and Ms America into submission.
How will we as a Nation recover from this?
2
I think it is incorrect to assume Americans have gotten use to Trump based on low levels of Impeachment viewership. The only true test of that assumption will be the next election. In the meantime, Americans go to work everyday knowing that the system is working, They also know the failing Republicans don't have the guts to convict. So, unless Trump resigns most intelligent hard working Americans will use their power at the ballot box to sweep Trump into the dustbin of history. Watch for a record Democratic turnout in 2020. THAT won't be boring!
1
While there are those who are all for allowing “Trump to be Trump”, not of us will ever become accustomed to Trump’s onslaught of despicable behavior. Even more appalling is the exposure of the willingness of so many Americans in general and Republicans specifically to accept and even believe the lies, insults and slanders, shake downs, conspiracy theories, to accept Trumps’ intimidation, and even defend and excuse the obvious corruption he and his minions dish out moment by moment by tweet by tweet.
Any notions of “a shining city on a hill” or of “American Exceptionalism” have been trashed by this authoritarian man and his enablers. So much for any thin mask of “making America Great Again”.
The country, our principles are being diminished by lies, by tweets. Our norms, our laws and our Constitution are being attacked. It’s impossible to describe how disheartening and appalling it is not only to watch this president do so much damage but also to see so many citizens simply roll over and accept this president’s consistent, heavy handed, sleazy attacks on anything he sees as a challenge to in his own self-interest. That is the only thing Trump cares about.
4
@sashakl: Trump has become the face of the US public to the world, and he basks in the glory of it.
2
Nobody is getting used to Donald Trump. Trump has always loved money, power, bullying people without power, being feared by people and – paradoxically – being loved by people.
The truth revealed by live coverage of the impeachment proceedings removes any excuses for patriotic, decent Americans to accept Donald Trump as our president.
There are millions of us who have opposed Donald Trump every step of the way. We should resist any attempt to make us feel guilty about anything connected to Trump.
Republican politicians should feel guilty. Some news organizations, reporters, columnists, television hosts and networks should feel guilty for being far too slow seeing this grifter-turned-showman for the vindictive miscreant he is.
A noisy few in the media, of course, have been intentional and active accomplices.
The rest of us, as long as we continue to resist and speak out, have nothing to apologize about. It is gives comfort to Trump to suggest that he, somehow, is our fault.
3
There is so much to say, but the bottom line is that our President is clearly corrupt. And what is truly appalling is that career politicians are supporting his corrupt activities by failing to hold him accountable, thereby stripping the U.S. Constitution of the very guardrails it provides. Dice and slice it as Republicans may, Trump's behavior, his threats, and his general undermining of U.S. policy tell us everything we need to know.
1
I'm getting used to the idea of Trump going to prison for his crimes. The impeachment hearings are not shocking because we all know the current president is a lying criminal. The fact that a criminal is our president is what is shocking. That is what is not normal and should never be accepted by any American. I have faith in this country to get him removed and hold him to account. If the senators refuse to do their jobs, then they too should be thrown out of office in November with Trump. Stay informed and vigilant during this dark period of US history. We shall overcome.
2
Much of the blame for Americans dulling themselves to the many, many crimes of Trump goes to the mass media, whose decisions on what to cover and how to cover it are driven only by increasing the prices for advertisements or subscriptions. What we have is a moral crisis in the US-whether to actively oppose falsehoods, punitive policies against parts of our population, and criminal behavior at the highest levels of government, or throw up our hands in helplessness or fall back to cheap, self-serving cynicism that all politics are corrupt.
1
I am sick and tired of being sick and tired of the Trump Administration and the sycophants under the Capitol dome. If I could vote tomorrow, I would. Many of my friends and relatives feel the same. We hope that the GOP members of Congress who swore an oath to Donald rather than the Constitution are thrown out of office when this is all over.
If they and Donald remain in control after the next election, we won't be sick and tired. We will be sick and furious. Tolerance can last only so long before it turns to action. What that action is, I don't know. But I don't want to find out either.
3
My hair was on fire when Trump was elected, because I predicted most of his wretched behavior and actions.
But as much as I have always reviled the Republicans, I just never imagined that Trump would have the ability to rule them so tightly. I expected the Trump lies and gaslighting to continue, but I did not expect it to spread so thoroughly over the entire GOP.
Right now, they are terrorizing all Federal employees by threatening to illegally unmask the whistleblower who called in the alarm on this crime. The president's enabling defenders said that he or she only knew things second-hand. The were right, but a whole lot of dedicated public officials are now risking personal security for the sake of the country and testifying about what they know first-hand, making the whistleblower obsolete.
So why do they keep harping on exposing the whistleblower? The generous answer is as a typical Trump distraction. But it is also a way to shut up future whistleblowers and thereby weaken the law. It's a level of thuggishness worthy of a crime drama where some John Gotti type villain threatens to get the "rat," while two cops sit playing cards in a sleazy hotel giving 24/7 protection to the whistleblower.
In this case, the thugs are United States Senators and Congressmen doing the threat in front of TV cameras. I don't think there is one Republican who has publicly denounced or distanced themselves from this frightening escapade. They are all now complicit.
9
When I arrived in the U.S. in the early 80's I had no horse in the political race. But as I observed both political parties it was very obvious to me that I would never be a Republican.
I saw a party that was unpatriotic, power hungry, callous, indifferent and hypocritical. So it comes as no surprise to me that Republicans are putting party over country. They have displayed those qualities many times before.
3
As you and Jennifer Weiner point out that since the hearings are not WWE, despite the Republicans attempt to make it appear that way by their trash talking, the media is bored - yes the media.
If the reporters were trained to listen maybe they would have heard that the State Department, as well as the White House is hiding documents, that the EU Ambassador called the president while in a restaurant on an unsecured phone, which today some intelligence experts say could have been tapped by Russia, and that multiple people could overhear the president.
There was plenty to pay attention to. I do hope the reporters in the room today turn off their twitter feed.
1
Not Michelle but many of her peers have brought us to the point where Trump and his vileness are now considered the norm in American politics. I don't blame Trump for that development I blame the lame stream media for their constant lazy reliance on false equivalencies when they report on the conduct of our politicians and parties. The press must stop looking for similarities in opposites and the justification of evil and outlandish by seeking comparisons to exceptions in the norm. If its ugly - call it ugly. Or say nothing.
1
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves that we are underlings...
It is absolutely shocking that a news organization would pronounce these hearings as dull. It is the responsibility of any news outlet to report the news, not to trivialize it by making stupid comments. As I recall, the Watergate hearings were often dull and tedious. That didn’t make them less important. The real story here is that there is no bottom to which the republicans can sink. Their pretzeling of their ethics is a wonder to behold and should serve as a good example of the depth of their commitment to the rule of law.
1
I agree. Also using “entertainment” language such as ‘show’ or ‘game’ in news reports about the impeachment hearings.
If we as Americans have fallen so intellectually low as to need this most crucial event explained to us in terms of a reality show then we are in worse shape than I imagined.
The Republican Party is a shell of its former self. It is done- finito, finished, turned rotten- and yes, the “good” Republicans now feel it deep in their bones. It’s part of who they are now. These are the ones I can’t understand. What are they so scared of? Don’t they know that if they stick to their ideals and reject Trump they can still make it outside of politics in this land of opportunity? It’s shameful how scared they are, disgusting to see grown men who represent our citizens cowering to a tyrant in this great country.
1
I expected to feel energized and encouraged by the impeachment proceedings. After all, the truth is on our side, and Taylor and Kent were superb witnesses, revealing facts that surely would have been enough to discredit any other sitting president. Any president except this one of course.
The truth is on our side if you can still find it, amid all the double talk, red herrings and made up nonsense the GOP mouthpieces keep spewing. As Frank Bruni remarked; their "truth" keeps morphing like the creatures in Alien. In a simple case of quid quo pro, the truth has become unrecognizable to anyone who hasn't brought along a set of cliff notes, thanks to the Soviet-style disinformation campaign being waged by the Russian Republicans. This is, of course, their intent.
When facts and the truth no longer matter, they are replaced by autocratic dictators who tell us what it's supposed to be. When one party in a two-party system completely abandons reality, a democratic republic can no longer survive. At one time we could take refuge in the courts, but the radical right-wing have stacked those, including the Supreme Court, which used to be considered a separate but co-equal branch of government. Will they protect Trump's "right" to keep his tax returns secret? Pass the popcorn.
Yes, I'm still shocked by what is happening in the country of my birth. I'm curled up in a fetal ball and am on the verge of giving up hope. I hope that's shocked enough for you.
2
Correction, "shame on us for placating Republicans and getting use to fake conservatism".
Trump is not an overnight phenomenon, he is the culmination of 30 years of Republicans chipping away at progressive liberalism that made the country great. Progressive policies that were largely created by great Republicans. Everything from environmental conservatism, worker's rights, Social Security, all derived from people like Roosevelt and Eisenhower.
Ever since GOP "think tanks" took over the party it has become a den of wolves in Evangelical's clothing. Republicans have successfully kept this nation sick and stupid. They've distorted this nation's principles of justice and freedom for all to make money or die trying. Take as much as you can and leave nothing behind.
No, it's not getting use to Trump that is shameful, it's getting use to the charlatans and profiteers that has taken over the Republican Party that is the greatest shame.
2
Shame on us for getting used to republicanism. We are now taxed to pay for "defense" as much as the rest of the world pays. We now put more people in jail than any other country, even those with four times our population. We now are the most unequal democracy. It is easier to rise in France and eleven other Western democracies than in the U.S.
1
As usual, I read articles like this and then sit back and look out the window at the early November snow in my backyard and kind of shake my head, then pet my dog and decide it is time to drive to the gym (NOT JORDAN) for my daily swim - 1.2472 miles. I would like to send articles like this to my wife, who although she is in the same ballpark with me regarding our Grifter-in-Chief miscreant president to help her understand some of my anger issues and frustration towards people who voted for him, when it was all out in the open during the campaign and more horror has since emerged, she vociferously defends two people very close to her for their voting party across the board in 2016. They are greedy people, both with more money than God, and were obviously hoping for a little extra money in their pockets. I will have nothing to do with one BFF, and will limit the time I have to spend with the other, a sibling. And I am working with my therapist as well, and he understands where I am coming from which maybe is not a good thing. It hurts to talk about this and thus THEM, with her - my wife and when it comes up in conversation with friends over the dinner table, I shut down and meticulously compose any comments in my head before opening my mouth. I often feel between a rock and a hard place.
1
All that's really needed is for Republican members of Congress to honor their oath of office. Pretty simple.
1
There is a good guy, bad guy mentality that pervades the Editorial Pages. All black and white. No gray. And the mentality has spread to the readers.
I am older than most of the readers and writers. And my experiences in life have come in many shades of gray. So I do not buy into the good guy bad guy narrative. It is far afield from my life experiences.
I feel bad for younger readers. They trust too much. The irony is that they don't trust their friends and associates nearly as much.
When everything is filtered through a glass darkly, readers grow confident that the world is indeed black and white. They are fed a skewed diet and they spout back all the misinformation, convinced it is the gospel truth. It is not. After all editorial writers are paid to state their opinions.
Everything Trump says and does is just going through the motions, trying to impersonate a U.S. president, and a human being. He's a total phony, and a crook.
The sheer horror and awfulness of this man is mind-numbing. It's true, I've gotten used to it. But for my mental health once in a while I have to turn away, like it's all just a nightmare.
3
Trumpism has assaulted the norms of governance from the beginning of the so-called "administration" that has eroded in a downward spiral of decline the institutions of government. By all appearances, it is only going to get worse!
1
I still have Charles Blow's 11/23/2016 column, "No, Trump, We Can't Just Get Along", framed and hanging on my wall. A prescient warning of where this despicable nonentity would be likely to take America, and of the threat that his depredations would come to seem normal. Unfortunately, it was right on the money.
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/23/opinion/no-trump-we-cant-just-get-along.html
1
There are only 3 groups who are "getting used to Trump" - the media, the Republican party, and Trump's base. Please don't lump the rest of us into your apathetic exercise.
2
This whole investigation is hypocritical.
The DNC leadership actively conspired to get Hillary Clinton (with an utterly uninspired campaign) the Democratic nomination in 2016.
This is what the Russians exposed before the election, and why Wasserman-Schultz had to resign. It's a shame, because Bernie would have beaten Trump.
This is pretty poor behavior, but no Democrat or liberal will even acknowledge that it occurred.
WE CAN move forward with President Trump and he has, in fact been working towards some very important goals (fair trade agreements, immigration control, regaining manufacturing, releasing federal inmates with absurd sentences, working out a productive agreement with N. Korea, getting NATO allies to pull their weight...)
No President will ever please any one of us completely. I suggest we get the most out of this, instead of being so obstructive and whiny.
2
Even if we get rid of Trump we will still have the millions of idolatrous Christians who voted for him. The majority of America's Christians are responsible for the swamp that has been made of America. Now America is the most militant, most jailing, most unequal of democracies. Trump didn't do that, the Christians and their GOP did.
1
I'm sorry, but you really just have to laugh. I'm never a big fan of Goldberg's column, but I read it anyway. 'Used to Trump' ? 'Shame on us' ? Almost half of the American voters voted for this guy and what little he stands for. If it wasn't for my state, he would have won the popular vote. Most of America, geographically, likes this guy and what he's doing. Half the population in this country. They're not 'getting used to it'.. They liked it from the jump. It's time to realize that this country just isn't all it likes to think it is anymore. It's a dumb country full of dumb people. That's where the 'shame' is.
4
I for one haven't gotten used to any of this. As a tail end boomer, my life experience is such that my ideas were formed in the wake of WWII, the Kennedy and MLK assassinations, the Civil Rights movement, Watergate, Kent State, etc.
My concern is those who were never impacted by those events. We have done a poor job by them.
Civics classes need to be a requirement for all school children. History classes for schools, need to focus on recent events as well as the Constitution and the BoR.
In the company of American Presidents, Trump’s name will surely live in infamy as the most unprincipled and amoral head of state the US ever had the misfortune to be afflicted with, bar none. He truly deserves the term ‘nasty’, his own favourite sobriquet. Hopefully he alone will wear that ‘crown’ until the end of time. We all have to believe and trust, in the words of Sam Cooke’s ‘A Change is Gonna Come’ - this universal message of hope - “… I know a change is gonna come, oh yes it will”. Americans need to follow through and impeach him and then deliver the GOP a resounding defeat in 2020.
" Steve Bannon testified that he regarded Stone as the campaign’s “access point” to WikiLeaks, "
I still don't get how Mueller found no criminal conspiracy involving the Trump campaign and Russia.
I don't understand why after sitting on their hands for two years waiting for the Mueller report the Ds went, meh, , , , not enough.
I don't fully apprehend why for a year the Ds kept calling witnesses that refused to testify, or if the did, refused to answer bases on 'no recollection', or some sort of made up expanded executive privilege instead of calling some lower profile witnesses who have now proven to be willing. Did they seriously believe they would get something out of Barr or Lewindowski??
It's gonna take a generation to accomplish De-Trumpification in the nation and the world. The damage is already monumental.
1
Well, I’m sorry, but it’s too late. I have gotten used to this president, his users, enablers, lies. I admit the desertion of the Kurds, then inviting their killer to the White House does rekindle the outrage, but as with our desertion of Afghanistan, I’ll get used to it.
I’m also getting used to Democrats, first refusing to consider impeachment (leverage in the outrage, doncha know), then forced by a whistleblower to actually do something. But wait, then giving the Repubs that House vote, then open hearings. Will the identity of the whistleblower be the next concession to the apologists (my view- the president has known since the diverted complaint exactly who that person is)?
No use of the House’s power of the purse to force testimony, production of administrative documents, no using our judicial system, urging timely decisions due to an impeachment inquiry (it takes too long, so why bother).
And, supposedly in the interests of clarity, a total focus on one Ukrainian event, never mind 3 years of failures to take care, selective enforcement (ie, enemies lists), abuse of the regulatory process....,no, we must get used to that, too.
We must get used to a commander in chief of our military deserting allies, meeting with Ergogan, after purchasing Russian missiles (hows that Turkish bank sanction coming along?). Selling our forces to Saudi Arabia.
Getting used to it? A column that says “we” should be ashamed? We? No.
As someone hoping Trump and his minions are banished to outer Mongolia, and who also appreciates outlets like CNN and MSN -- I also believe the incessant media coverage has inoculated many of, as Fox has to those on the right. The human brain -- and heart -- can manage only so much shattering input like the disrepair our country has fallen into.
Yes, we've fallen. And perhaps we should be ashamed of it. But I've got enough guilt on my own -- I place the hungry lion's share on a man who epitomizes a Faustian deal with the devil to get all that he wants (and it has nothing to do with knowledge in this case), and will do anything he can to get it.
What we can do in the face of this narcissism, this near-fascist takeover of our country by this man and his supporters -- is resist, protest, vote, act, and organize legitimate means of unseating him and other Republicans, and redirect us toward a new democracy that serves all Americans.
The GOP needs to disband. USA has got to take back the country or it is over, democracy is in tatters in the US.
1
When I watched Nikki Haley being interviewed on CNN this evening, I wondered who was this perfect president that she was talking about. Either she or I was on some pretty powerful drug.
2
Trump did not win the 2016 election because of his great hair, his skill as an orator and a debater; or because voters believed that he is a good family man, an honest man who pays his taxes, a dignified man, a compassionate man, a man who cares about people in trouble, a man who treats women and minorities well, a man who knows a lot about foreign affairs, economics, terrorism, education and the Second Amendment or because they believed that Mrs. Clinton was the devil.
They voted for him because he is a lout and a zany with big appetites, a mean man, a crude man, a humorless man, an ignorant man, an unethical man, a huge crook who gets away with doing things that other people don’t get away with, who is notoriously effective at lying; and who as President maybe would do some things that would end up helping them or at least hurting their perceived enemies among liberals, minorities and refugees from poor countries.
Which is to say that 62,984,828 Americans saw in him a man who satisfied all of their worst notions of what is good, true and beautiful in themselves.
"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings."
Shakespeare, Julius Caesar (I, ii, 140-141)
2
The chasm that divides Americans reminds me of the McCarthy period. He, too, engaged in lies and innuendo, spurred on by Roy Cohn, his ruthless, unprincipled attorney. One was either for or against McCarthy, until Joseph Welch calmly obliterated the spell McCarthy had cast over the nation with his famous ",,,at long last, Senator, have you no sense of decency?" We need a moment like that now, when one could hear a pin drop anywhere in the nation.
2
Why not add the charity fiasco to the list? I don’t understand why Trump’s admission of swindling veterans through a fraudulent “charitable foundation” is ignored. How can republicans be OK with that too?
3
The idea of testimony wanting or needing to be "entertaining" plays into The Trump agenda. I condemn talking heads and sloppy journalists who engage in this dangerous folly
Gregory Johnson, New Orleans
But even you, Michelle, made the comment that Taylor was more TV friendly than Kent in the NYT sidebar during the hearings on Wednesday. I found that to be disappointing from a reporter that I admire.
I am concerned when reporters must have the stimulus of "entertainment" to be seriously engaged in an issue such as in the Stone trial .What in the world have we come to?
1
This disease has spread to the north. Canada's election was not as positive as in 2015, the Conservative leader told blatant lies, learned well from DJT.
There are many of us how have never gotten used to Trump.
I haven't gotten used to him . I hate him more every day.
3
I'm "not getting use to Trump" as you write. I will never get used to Trump and from the day he announced his run to this very moment I just shake my head. It didn't take a doctrate in quantum mechanics to reasearch this disquisting excuse for a human being - so please do not include me in your catch all phrase.
This article struck a nerve, I sent it to my Senator with this note:
Dear Senator McSally,
I was virtually apolitical for most of my life. A demanding job (physician), a wife who was working as hard as I was (attorney), 2 kids, made it hard for me to devote any attention to current events and politics. I did vote (Oregon had/has mail-in ballots). The fall of the Berlin wall came and went. The Clinton impeachment was hardly on my radar. When Obama was elected I thought it spoke to the acceptance of our country's diversity and the health of democracy.
I retired in 2014 and moved to Arizona. I volunteer for an organization called the M.A.V.E.N (Medical Alumni Volunteer Expert Network) https://www.mavenproject.org/ The nationwide free clinics that MAVEN serves are staffed by primary care providers. Along with many other physician specialists, we provide consultation to the providers via Skype like method upon request.
Since retiring I've had a lot more time to pay attention to current events and politics.
After reading the above article, I am wondering how you and your fellow Republican senators can sleep at night? How will you be able to tell your children and grandchildren that you supported one of the biggest political and humanitarian disasters in the history of the planet? Whatever happens as democracy and rule of law die, you may find yourself on the absolute irrefutable wrong side of history. I do not wish you or your fellow Republicans luck. You don't deserve it.
1
The people who could do the most are Kentucky voters - get Mitch McConnell out of the senate!
1
My four year old grandson says he is afraid of Donald trump because he puts children in cages. He says Donald trump is a bad man... and he is right... out of the mouths of babes. Where is the conscience of the 40% who still say he is doing a good job... these people cannot admit that they made a mistake.
2
"If the impeachment hearing wasn’t shocking, it’s a sign of how far we’ve fallen."
No, it is a sign of how far all you liberal-elites have gone off the rails. Most Americans recognize this for what it is- an attempt to hamstring if not outright remove a duly elected President.
How America receives this pathetic House-led Dog and Pony show will ultimately reveal if we are a nation of media-led sheep, or a nation of people who think for themselves.
High Crimes and Misdemeanors? Complete nonsense.
1
Who ya calling us! He horrified me during the election and he scares me speechless still.
2
According to research, 82-87% of Republicans identify as "Non-Hispanic, White". Doesn't that say it all?
I want to know why we, the People, are not protesting en masses on the streets to send a strong message to this corrupted, pathetic failure of a President.
1
Why are we not protesting in the streets, you ask?
Been there over and over and over.....it did no good at all.
That is what is painfully dis-spiriting. My own hatred of him and his ilk saps most of my energy. Even our recently departed heroes who denounced him, died with unbearable disdain. It hurts. Immensely.
Part of the blame for normalizing Trump falls on the media, Michelle. Especially your employer.
Trump tweets while America declines.
2
A career diplomat daring to lecture a member of Congress? Daring! This exchange put a congressman in his place:
"Pressed at one point by a Republican to agree that a particular offense was not impeachable, Mr. Kent flashed some steely contempt... “I’m here as a fact witness to answer your questions,” he instructed the congressman, John Ratcliffe of Texas. “Your constitutional obligation is to consider the evidence before you.”
Bam! Take that.
The Republican members have no accepted constitutional obligation. They are utterly bereft of a sense of patriotic duty, while the right wing and Republicans have for generations denounced any deviation from orthodox adherence to patriotic observances, like standing for the anthem, wearing a flag lapel pin or honoring the "black lives matter" movement.
They, they told us, were the patriots, the other side was a bunch of cowardly quislings who were soft on every threat. Now, in a dark hour, they desert defending the constitution, the rule of law, the norms of presidential behavior and the outrageous corruption of foreign policy. For what? For what do they sell against the higher duties of patriotic citizens? Rank partisanship on behalf of a man who should never have been allowed near the White House.
Many many have not gotten used to Trump.
It's not a question of becoming inured to his crimes and those of his sycophants. It's a question of not allowing this madness to overrun our lives and give us all a raging case of PTSD.
But, we simply can't turn away from his misdeeds and those of his appointees, cabinet members and lawyers.
Before we allow ourselves and our democracy to succumb to the Roy Cohn playbook, we must run these miscreants out of town.
The trash heap of history beckons and they're fine fodder for the mound.
The mainstream media has done nothing but attack Trump from the minute he was elected. When you have no objectivity, screaming "the sky is falling" every day starts to fall on deaf ears after a while.
2
All of his is now commonplace because the subtext is white, male, so-called "christian" hegemony over everything. It's what all this has all been about.
Oh, if only George Kent or Bill Taylor was our president. Two honorable men, smart men, dedicated to this country. And they get 'slammed' by Republicans for being 'nerdy' and 'boring'. And not only Republicans but the press, too.
FOX is destroying our country. Rush and Laura and Lou and Jeannine and Sean and Tucker. Destroying our democracy.
I live, as I'm sure many others do, with a sick feeling now every day that Americans in power will not stand up to him and we will become an authoritarian, fascist country. We're getting close right now.
Excellent article. There are only two ways to fight the weak, sycophants in congress (Republicans in senate and house) and Herr Trump.
The first is for our media, press, journalists to continue to beat this drum (Michelle's article here), over and over and over and over and over.
The second is to get out to the polls in November and vote. Vote democrat or write in, or independent for every single office in your community and the nation. If you don't do any other voting, at least put an X in the box of any other candidate for president other than Herr Trump--ANY other candidate.
Those are your voices. Oh, and you can call and write those sycophants in the senate and tell them how you feel.
Erdogan rubbed Trump's nose in the stupid letter he sent. Trump just smiled and nodded when it was mentioned in the news conference. And while this was going on, Turkish forces were besieging a Christian enclave in Syria and killing Kurds. Your fearless President protested by expressing his admiration for Erdogan. Erdogan has Trump's number. Trump will attack anyone at home for even the mildest rebuke, but is a sniveling coward when dealing with America's adversaries.
Ukraine has relied on American support it in its negotiations with Putin. Trump supports Ukraine, only reluctantly, in defiance of Congress, using this aid as a form of extortion. Oh yes, he also wants evidence to prove that Ukraine meddled in the 2016 election, not Russia. In effect, he has given Putin the green light to do whatever he wants with Ukraine.
Erdogan and Putin are busily rebuilding their old empires, and there is nothing now that future presidents can do about it.
Trump has shown the world that America cannot be relied upon.
Nice play, Donald!
Who is ' us'?
Trump won 58% of the white voting majority including 62% of white men and 54% of white women in 2016
Hillary won 92% of the black voting minority including 88% of black men and 95% of black women in 2016.
Donald Trump is still the preferred partisan candidate of the white voting majority in America. Trump ran against Mexicans, Muslims, blacks, Obama, McCain and smart women.
Trump is still despised by the black voting minority for his racist white supremacist nationalist right-wing prejudiced bigotry practice. Along with his hateful rhetoric tenor and tone.
1
Republicans have no choice but to support Trump no matter how damning the evidence of bribery by Trump in the Ukraine and of Russian interference in the 2016 election. To do otherwise would acknowledge that the 2016 election result, and possibly their own election to office, were gained with the help of a foreign power. The rest of the world sees it clearly. The US is no bastion of democracy.
AS an ex-New Yorker, having watched and read about the antics and personality of DJT, I saw him as the con-artist he is. His self-aggrandizement has always been over the top. His legal shenanigans were finely honed by his mentor, the reprehensible Roy Cohn. Then he became the Republican nominee, and Mitch McConnell not only let it happen, but encouraged this choice as the Republicans changed their policies toward Russia and Manafort became his campaign director. It has been downhill since that moment, since the hacked election, since the Mueller Report, and now during the Impeachment Hearings. Every day another cruel and horrible detail spills out of this debased White House upon the American people. And, the Republican representatives march in lock-step and fear his retribution if they call him out. I have “friends” who voted for them and I’ve begun to hate them to the core. I know people who sat out the last election. I too, wonder how this can happen to our democracy. My 9/11 PTSD has turned into PTTD (Post-Traumatic Trump Disorder). I have never felt so powerless in my life. HOWEVER, In my heart-of-hearts, I suspect we’re being tested. I KNOW that we can’t give up, that we have to fight for our democracy, that TRUTH will win in the end, and that the intelligent, patriotic Americans will not be defeated, but will rise up against this mob-boss wanna-be-king.
excellent critique.
Truth banging its head against the wall of partisan conformity.
1
There was an impeachment hearing?
1
Great piece, Ms. Goldberg. The would-be king, the leader of the Third World, eventually will fall.
1
I've visited many countries run by corrupt governments or in perpetual risk of being attacked - places where the citizens literally fear for their lives or cannot get clean water. And you think, why are they allowing themselves to live like this? Why are they getting used to it? Well, because at the end of the day we worry more about what is happening in our homes, as we should. We have sick or disabled children, food to put on the table, dying elderly parents and leaky roof. We have a Thanksgiving dinner to host and Christmas presents to buy. Our lives cannot and should not revolve around Donald Trump. He may think he is a king, but he is not. At the most, he'll be gone in four years if not before. He's not the sum total of our lives.
1
It's extremely sad that reporters would even think to describe the hearings in terms of a Broadway show. It suggests that they only care about it to the extent that it provides something to rile up readers and keep them on their website or whatever platform they use.
1
The facts are coming out. The facts are clear. It is time for people to say enough and demand more of their political leadership. And if you, like me, have already been active, don't stop. Now is not the time to bow to fatigue and frustration. Speak up again, and louder. March again, and with more people. Email your representative again, and more pointedly. Demand a real Republican primary. Pay attention to the Democratic primary and pick the best candidate. And then vote.
As unfortunate as we are to have a president deserving of impeachment, it is magnificent to see our Constitution in action. We are blessed to have an impeachment process and to be able to watch it live on TV.
The proceedings are genuinely dramatic, but, we seem to have lost the ability to discern between fact and fiction. True drama is lost on us because we're so inured to the counterfeits of it that saturate our media.
Media critics affirm and perpetuate this sorry state of affairs by faulting a real events like the present impeachment hearings when such events fail to deliver the cheap thrills of a reality TV show, like say...The Apprentice.
What's next? A completely fraudulent candidate winning the highest office in the land? That President assuming he can abuse the powers of his office with impunity? His supporters being perturbed when 'elites' try to 'persecute' him for his abuses?
I view this as a symptom of a larger problem. Civil discourse has been destroyed by smartphones and social media. Now, when you meet a friend, they say they cannot talk because they are listening to a podcast. People say they are too busy to talk on the phone, and then proceed to spend much longer texting each other and misunderstanding each other. Society has become toxic, and it is not entirely Trump's fault.
3
I am one of the most flexible humans on the planet, but I will NEVER get used to trump. My anxiety level and disgust for his continued presidency are sky high.
12
@Gardengirl Me too. On top of that I had to take care of my terminally ill husband in first year or so beginning in Sept 2017 till his death Aug 2018, and also be there for my sister after her ordeal from Las Vegas shooting. I am a therapist for a living. We can’t ignore, but we need to take care of ourselves through this terrible period. I think it is okay to have the self compassion to do what we can to have some bit of peace in our life whenever possible, try to put things in perspective with the hope that we can get past this as a nation.
1
Last night, 3 smart people on Jeopardy could not remember the name of Stormy Daniel's lawyer. Neither did I
It's just too much awfulness, unrelenting and overwhelming
16
I have not gotten used to him. I wake up every morning wondering what the newest outrage will be. There is always at least one.
17
It's not that we want to get used to it. It's that day after day we see these crimes reported and abuse publicized and NOTHING is done about it. It is so very demoralizing and leaves us with a feeling of helplessness. If the people in power can't or won't do what's right what is an ordinary citizen such as myself supposed to do? Please don't tell me to vote. I voted in last year's election and I and almost 3 million more people voted for the other candidate and we ended up with this criminal. You or I would already be serving time if we had committed these abuses. Just what are we supposed to do? Rather than make myself miserable I just turn off the news.
9
I'm tired of both sides, left and right, telling me how I must see these hearings and interpret any testimony. Wasn't the point of open hearings so the American people could form their own opinion? Watching Fox News and CNN I would think I'm hearing about 2 completely different stories. Of course their followers believe the other stations viewers, to borrow a phrase, are deplorable. Here's an idea. present all the evidence before any decision is made.
3
Why would what's coming out of the hearings be shocking? It's been Trump's stock in trade since Day One in the Oval Office (and well before, if one paid any attention).
That doesn't make it acceptable, nor does it make it any less of an outrage. But shocking, no.
8
We are more than "getting used to Trump." Trump is becoming the new normal and any future POTUS, Dem or Rep, is going to follow in his wake. Here are just two examples...
FOREIGN POLICY: No longer are we invading other countries and trying to shove our values down other peoples' throats...toppling leaders we disagree with and inflaming terrorism throughout the world...spending trillions on endless wars, sacrificing American blood and ending the lives of millions in other countries. Now war is the last option. We are willing to talk with countries we disagree with in the hopes of finding mutually-beneficial objectives.
The military is at peak strength for when force is absolutely necessary such as a WWII situation but we hope never to have to use it. Instead economic sanctions are our primary way to change the behavior of our enemies. What an improvement!
THE ECONOMY: Our own people and economy are are now our number one priority. No longer will we send jobs overseas and let other countries like China take advantage of us while our working class succumbs to drug addiction and suicide. What an improvement! And the economy and stock market are going gangbusters.
THIS IMPEACHMENT is going to backfire big time. Despite the 100% negative coverage coming from the media, more and more Americans are realizing that things really are getting better. The media and Dems are on the wrong side of history.
6
@rpe123: Er, no. No, No, No.
1
"There is nothing Democrats can do"
The Democrats could have played hardball and forced all those ignoring subpoenas into court and eventually to either lie or confirm what actually happened, but Nancy didn't want to interfere with the election campaign.
Now, after the defeat of the Impeachment in the Senate, the Republicans will totally ignore Congress in everything, and in actuality, deservedly so.
This was a brilliant and devastating column. When journalists can complain about, or even comment on, the entertainment value of impeachment hearings, we really have slipped into Brave New World.
We might be in a better place if we'd all listened to Neil Postman years ago.
1
The hearings were boring because the case comes down to proving Trump’s intent, which is all circumstantial. I’m sure he’s guilty but the crime is simply not living up the hype. They overplayed their hand. It should have been left to a campaign talking point.
2
Americans who dismiss the impeachment hearings as "boring" remind me of the kids and adolescents--even college students--I treat. Even those with higher than average IQ's routinely complain that they can't possibly pay attention in school or focus on their homework or read and digest anything more meaningful than Buzzfeed clickbait. Why? "It's no fun! It's not exciting!" While I do diagnose ADHD in some young children, I suspect that most of the middle-school and older patients I see have simply become addicted to entertainment and stimulation. This is happening with adults, too, and seriously impairs their parenting skills. I'm scared for our future.
9
The only way to restore a functioning democracy is to get rid of the electoral college and enact term limits for judges and Congress.
6
The first day of impeachment hearings was long but fascinating. But then, I'm a baby boomer. I have an attention span. :)
The two witnesses were stellar -- professional, smart, succinct, scrupulously nonpartisan, and a real bright spot. It was wonderfully refreshing to be reminded of the "real" US govt, beyond our current politics. What a good impression they must give of America to people who meet and work with them overseas.
8
Shame on our government and the people we all know are bringing us to ruin. Sorry I was on a long work trip developing technology for the Mexican fruit industry. I don't have time to watch deposition after deposition. My opinion of Trump has not changed one bit since 2015, what more do I need to know? Time for many others to seriously wake up. This isn't rocket science, you don't need a poly sci major to have a very clear picture of what this all is. Until you-know-who wakes up from their dreamy delusion I'm just going to focus on my own happiness.
1
Very true and beyond appalling.
3
I'm not used to him. And the Republicans who are will go down in history as not only enablers but accomplices complicit in giving control of the White House to the Kremlin.
9
Republicans can become inflamed by unpresidential behavior, please remember the tan suit that Mr. Obama had the nerve to wear. This was so unpresidential that if the Republicans could have started impeachment hearings they would have.
It's just a matter of Party, remember the outrage about the debt. The Republicans enacted a sequester so every penny spent by the Democrats, dare not increase the debt ceiling. But that was then, this is now, the debt ceiling doesn't bother them anymore, three trillion and counting.
I wish that our Republican Representatives could actually find some time to write and fund legislation. Possibly they could start with a new law to replace DACA, long overdue legislation. Although, fairly I need to commend them on the fast pace of confirming Federalist Judges to the bench. Of course, with Garland and all other judicial appointments, no time could be found in their very busy schedule.
How do you spell, hypocrisy?
6
As a Californian, I have about as much influence over the US federal government as I do over the government of Kenya. We are completely disenfranchised. So...you want me to constantly hyperventilate over something that's completely not up to me?
2
Trump is what he's always been; a self-absorbed incurious user and abuser who grew up believing he was entitled to manipulate the world to serve his own ends. The cartoon has Putin playing Trump like a marionette but Trump, in turn, is pulling the strings of Congress. To me, the last is the most appalling-hundreds of politicians sanctioning treason and various other crimes and perfidies by an overgrown child who has no idea what he's destroying. I wonder how many of them will come to regret their roles, but I know history will not treat them kindly.
3
America has fallen that far because of its addiction to hypocrisy, a historic vice so well exposed already in "The scarlet letter."
Lindsey Graham is hypocrisy made flesh. In a country where money is all, how can you expect to find genuine adherence to decency in the public life? In repeating his family name to the point of stupidity the media has ensured that the trademark "Trump" becomes a symbol of what America really represents. By now it would be better to say "the President", so as not to be seen as reminding people in which hotel they should check-in in Washington DC. And please do stop misusing the word "heroes"! Taylor and Kent are just decent people like the many civil servants who do not stand a chance to shine as examples in corrupt America. America is a country which has to reinvent itself if it wants to bring back people like Taylor and Kent as role models. And by the way, Taylor did not serve his country fighting in Vietnam. It is like saying that a German soldier served his country fighting in Poland in WWII. America was better served by people like Jane Fonda and all those who opposed the war Taylor was obliged to fight. Did he kill many in the name of "America"?
1
Republican Congress people are merely the shills for those who voted for them, the people who believe the deified Trump can do no wrong and is a martyr to elites. Thus they justify stupidity, trashing of multiple verified evidence and any sense of the rule of law. Some people may remember the over 20 women who stepped forward to declare Trump's abuse of them and can provide witnesses and solid evidence. Republicans and trump just declare it all a hoax as if this proves something. Trump did this with the Russia investigation and Putin is still laughing as we become a subsidiary of the Kremlin.
1
A Trumpy is hidden in millions of Americans. The Hater President has deceived millions of Americans who are convinced he has their interests at heart. (They will be paying for his errors, stupid policies and incompetent governance for years to come.) The Tax Cut wherein he granted himself and his family millions in tax savings did nothing for his supporters. Trumpy is busy repealing Obamacare and his supporters will lose their health insurance coverage. Sad, that his supporters would rather deceive themselves than believe in America.
4
Who is this "us" and "we" you keep talking about?
It seems you have a finite audience who agrees with you, the rest of us don't care and wish that Congress would do it's job instead of the continual attempts at changing 2016.
5
Thank you, thank you, thank you. And now this:
Trump and his Republican co-conspirators and criminals are attacking our precious democracy like a cackle of spotted hyenas chasing down their prey. If they, the Republicans, down their prey (our Democracy) what will remain will then be chewed on by the vulture Vladimir.
1
The Grand Old Party seems to be in shambles. Trump has been successful in intimidating the GOP Congress members-
and others- from challenging his excessive misconduct. the
prime objective of most pols is to stay in office. Trump has
convinced them that he can get his base to eliminate GOP
dissenters in primary runoffs.
Most of my lifetime GOP friends- and I- have left the GOP.
We await the GOP demise, which is surely coming.
We need a multi-party system. Time for a GN(ew)P!!!
3
"for Getting Used to Trump"
No Democrat got used yet to the fact that Trump won in 2016, so no, they did not get used to Trump yet.
Maybe by 2024 they will.
Or when they fly from the DJT Miami International Airport.
3
The "Miracle on Ice" was a medal-round game during the men's ice hockey tournament at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York, played between the hosting United States and the four-time defending gold medalists, the Soviet Union. Who do you think Donald Trump was rooting for?
1
Let's say you have a cousin who cheats, lies and starts arguments with everyone. You can't make him go away, but you know who he is and what he is likely to do. You have long since gotten over getting mad every time he pulls one of his stunts because you don't want to spend your life being mad. You just write that person off as a bad egg and get on with your life.
With Trump, it is up to the system to get rid of him. I have reached an emotional accommodation; I won't let him wreck my peace of mind but I hope they do boot him out of office, and if I can do anything to help, I will. I know he's a skunk, but his antics don't affect me personally anymore.
3
Who is this "us" and "we" you keep talking about?
It seems you have a finite audience who agrees with you, the rest of us don't care and wish that Congress would do it's job instead of the continual attempts at changing 2016.
3
When our hatred is too bitter it places us below those whom we hate. Carry on, this too will pass. The latest, 2024.
1
If you watched the hearings on FOX then its the Democrats that are the problem, not Trump. The spin is being done, yes he did these things but everyone does and so what?The Dems are just sore losers and want to take your vote away. Its all false made up stuff with the deep state involved.Theyare jealous of the great job Trump is doing,
1
To any House Republican with a whiff of integrity:
Vote for the articles of impeachment OR look an American kid in the eye and tell him …
There’s only so much the vast majority of us can do to make lasting difference in this world. But one thing we can do is to live with integrity. Act as a model for the others. If you’re in public service to actually serve the public, you have the opportunity to model integrity for your whole community.
To varying degrees, everybody knows that Donald Trump is a lying, criminal buffoon yet such a large number of people support him that you’re afraid to lose your seat. Can the desire to worship a small-minded blowhard come from any positive place? It certainly doesn’t come from integrity. These people can do better and so can you.
Even if we’re not all there yet as constituents - lead. Your future community will be proud to point back at your legacy of integrity.
This cannot just be a vote. You also need to defuse the bomb you were complicit in creating. Tell the truth and correct the record. Say you’re sorry. Help stop making wealth the measure of success.
1
So on top of digesting the daily atrocities, we're now supposed to feel ashamed of ourselves as well?
1
Fox Judge urges Republicans to impeach Trump in viral speech
This is the best statement advocating the impeachment of Trump I've heard so far. No Democrat has argued more effectively, more forcefully or more passionately then this Republican judge.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kU-wG4017EY&t=172s
1
So true Ms. Goldberg. Cogent analysis, as always.
Stephen Colbert got it right the other night when he revealed the Lindsey Graham ornament while decorating his "Impeachment Tree".
When I took my father to alcoholism treatment years ago...the staff asked him about how much he drank each day and he said,
“a couple of glasses.” They turned to me and I said, “ I think he meant to say a couple of bottles of vodka a day.” His addiction caused tremendous denial of reality. This kind of denial describes Lindsay Graham and other Trump defenders perfectly. They don't like the flavor of Trump but they are addicted to the ideology and power that he represents. Like alcohol for my dad...Trump is a false God for those that support him. They can’t see their denial...that is what is so cunning baffling and powerful. It will bring them and him down in the end.
3
George Soros is 89 years old. What in the world will the fringe right do after he's gone?
2
Try watching an hour of prime-time television, or attempt to have a 5-minute conversation with anyone under 40 years old - if you can keep from throwing up. Explains everything one needs to know about the devolution of the USA.
Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats really blew it. It's obvious that they're not impeaching Trump because of the Constitution. If they're trying to protect the Constitution they would have been impeached him over a year ago for a million different things that he's done. But they waited until Trump went after Biden and his wrongdoing in Ukraine, and let's face it the Democrats lost the Big russiagate Show. They lost oh, Mueller gave them nothing. So the next best thing they got is Ukraine gate and you got to admit it's not the number one reason that I would impeach Trump not even close.
3
I do not think it is a matter of people getting used to Trump. If that were the case his numbers would arguably be rising. Our country has a (mostly) fixed number of citizens who willfully go along with him for one or another single issue, ignoring his incompetence and mendacity and narcissism.
This does not bode well for the nation and contradicts some long held tenets about the nature of our natures: https://newrepublic.com/article/155294/john-rawls-missed-create-just-society ("What John Rawls Missed," Oct 2019).
Maybe we can vote Trump out of office but that is not enough to fix our love of conflict and the overtly destructive nature of our social media: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/12/social-media-democracy/600763/ ("The Dark Psychology of Social Networks," Dec 2019 issue).
1
Thank you Ms. Goldberg for your powerful piece.
I have made this point in the past and I repeat it here. Mr. Trump and some Republicans may actually believe that "the call was perfect." That is because they have engaged in that kind of behavior all their lives and, consequently, have become numb to it. They no longer can see anything wrong with that.
2
define "us"
2
Yikes. The first thing I noticed about this article is that the headline photo was in stark black and white, quite intentionally I think, echoing the B&W photos splattered on the Times front pages during Nixon's final days of his presidency.
Does the Times photo editor know something we don't know?
1
Who are you talking about. The reason the resistance and persistence is continuous is bc we have NOT gotten used to this.
Apparently it's not about Trump at all but about the self-regard of a huge minority who perceive everyone of establishment credit as contemptuous of them. They don't admire Trump, they just despise the people he slanders. Everyone who failed to keep up agrees with Trump that the race was rigged, as in fact it was. But Trump is a solution to nothing. He is the reflection of a self-image which blinds to all of reality, and so long as he is in front of everything a vast portion of us one will never see the truth.
I certainly don't think anyone has "gotten used to it" except for the Republicans in office (those who are still serving) and have adapted to it to save themselves for whatever reason. We just haven't had a way of holding "legitimate" proceedings against Trump until now. It has certainly seemed like a long time. I hope this whole impeachment process results in something good. The idea that it might rip the country apart, voiced by many pundits, is scary. It means that much of the country is ignorant and uneducated about law and governmental functions.
What I found disgusting about the first day of the hearings was the attitude of the Republicans especially Nunes that tried to stress the point that the impeachment hearings were some kind of media conspiracy to frame Trump as he hasn't done anything that rises to the level of impeachment.
I and many others that I have spoken to are not accepting Trump's behavior and never have. I've felt and I believe rightfully so that Trump has never been fit for the job since day one. I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt when he was first elected assuming possibly that his attitude during the candidency was only a ploy to get elected. I also wrongfully assumed that once his followers saw what he was really like that they also would reject him.
The Trump followers that I have spoken to not only accept his attitude they also feel he has done nothing wrong and like the "job" he's doing.
We have a corrupt amoral president and I hope these hearing show just how corrupt and amoral the Republican party has become and will make all these players pay in the next election.
2
This what happens when repeated offenses become the norm and the audience is no longer shocked or outraged. Instead the bar for morality, decency and honesty is trampled upon.
We have become a country of apologists, defending the indefensible as though it is normal. I hear my conservative friends who voted for Trump agree his behavior is unacceptable, his presidency is an embarrassment but in the same breath complain about the Democrats and state with the utmost sincerity they may not vote him out of office. Various reasons are stated while I sit there incredulous and dumbfounded over the rationalizations and apologies.
This has become a tactic I see more and more with Trump supporters. Complain about Trump, agree with his detractors at some level and then rationalize his opponents must be worse so they have no choice but to re-elect. It’s the patriotic thing to do. Listen to the Trump supporter logic because they have found a path to feel good about 4 more years and not likely to change.
We have fallen far because Trump set a low bar in the first place. Impeachment (and jail time) is what Trumps has earned and deserves, even if his sycophants and base disagree. Truth and justice are still the hallmarks of a democracy, and we can only hope that a day of reckoning lies ahead for all of those soulless individuals who stood behind this corrupt president and his administration.
Thank you Michelle Goldberg. But I have to disagree w/this:
"Either Americans will reclaim their birthright and become a liberal democracy again, or not."
Hillary won the popular vote. Americans voted for her.
How else Americans can reclaim their birthright?
Look at the election map -- Trump seems to hold because of arcane rules and because of the scorch the earth anger brought on by the despair in the Midwest and elsewhere.
Trumpers are elated; at this moment their minority is in control and they want to throw the country under the bus.
I listen to Trumpers (listen is all they allow). They suffered economic dislocation or they see themselves as less of a man because there are women and blacks in power. They are mad. They have no plans. They just know Trump is destructive and that's what they want. They want to destroy the country -- I believe that's the goal. Its quite incredible.
2
I watched Taylor and Kent and thought these are men I could get behind. They are professional, smart, dedicated and loyal. They know right from wrong, they are committed to the representing the US as well as protecting allies and vulnerable nations. These are men I hope my children who are serving in the military look to for role models for life after service. Shame on the Republicans for debasing and demeaning good, honorable public servants. Republicans will go down in flames but not without having ruined the US.
2
Some simple things not spoken enough about: Trump Towers in Istanbul. This is a big, important investment for him. This is a major reason for all things supporting Turkey and their desires.
The same, basically, goes for Russia. This is a market Trump desperately wants in, and he'd love to be an oligarch. Putin may have some dirt on him, but above that is Trump's love of money.
The capitalist Americans have their representative.
1
Trump antics have been going on for close to 3 years. Every day there is something new and sensational coming from his mouth.
There comes a time when to preserve one's mental health they must turn off all the sensationalism.
And sadly trump is aware of this.
In light of the fact that this country is NOT a democratic country, I know there is really not much I can do except try and preseve my mental health.
There are plenty of things working against us.
It's really not worth going into again.
However, there is the Electoral College. (No vote for one person, one vote).
There is gerrymandering, and voter ristriction.
There is news bias on both sides.
There is Citizens United where the vote is controlled by who has the most money to spend on campaigns (instead of providing for the needs of the poor people in this country).
I will continue to vote although I know how my vote will go. I live in a blue state. My sister lives in a red state.
It's like bagging one's head against the wall.
And the sad thing is most Americans just don't care. Over half of the people don't even vote.
1
Trump's perpetual barrage of corruption, racism, misogyny, greed, ignorance, vulgarity and contempt has extinguished U.S. outrage. We have been bludgeoned into an incredulous numbness by the sheer volume of Trump's malice and malfeasance.
Thank you, Ms. Goldberg, for reminding us that this is not normal. But how do we respond? How do we fight back?
Most of us have jobs and families that divert our time and energy. Meanwhile, Trump's only role is as a 24/7 provocateur for our society's worst impulses.
And i do think social media is part of this. Everything is an image, everything is a show, out on the net for everyone in the world to view. Everyone is glued to their phones, to You Tube, to Facebook, Twitter, and so on. Nothing is real, no sxuch thing as real reality, so Trump and the GOP rule. And the left has their purity tests. I'm no moderate, very much of the left,but no purist. I read this paper, the WaPost, and stay off the TV.
The issues confronting us are far deeper than Trump and his malfeasance. School shootings which never happened when I was growing up are now almost routine news. Andrew Yang writes in today's paper of the decimation of whole layers of the economy due to advancing technologies. Pollution is making a comeback with the "E" in EPA being changed to "Economic" Protection Agency for business, rather than "Environmental" for the people and planet as a whole. Politics is weaponized to foster "us vs them," instead of "we're all in this together." And this is merely scratching the surface. Trump is merely exacerbating what was already there. That is the level of normalization that should really scare the heck out of us.
1
I'd say the opposite. I'm flummoxed by anyone who's only getting shocked now, and by politicians who -- even if they are politicians -- couldn't step up on behalf of 70,000 detained migrant children, who had to wait he messed Hunter Biden to recognize a scandal. I'm only thankful that Trump doesn't commit all his crimes against the powerless and that he's stupid enough to also target the families of the elites.
I realize this one's a big crime but after the human rights abuses committed on the border it feels like putting Al Capone on trial for tax fraud.
1
I hate to be a meddlesome neighbour but we are getting tired of always having to be the adult in the room. The bickering and the bullying and the threatening has gotten out of hand. It is time for a long time out.
With real problems to solve can we put this debate that began Western Civilization to bed for a while.This is no time for sophists, socratics, cynics and stoics we all have interesting tales to tell but it is time to take care of the mess and arguing about who should clean up is not making the mess go away and the foundation is starting to give way.
In case you haven't noticed America ain't working despite its wealth and might and what should be a time of great hope and optimism is a time of trouble and turmoil. I fear America is about to fall off the world's nations happiness index.
1
Shame on us?
Who - exactly - is "us" ?
I, for one, have not gotten used to the disgusting, immoral, and corrupt behaviors of this administration, nor will I, no matter how much longer it lasts. But what would you have us citizens do? Call your congressmen and senators? Been there - done that - to no avail. Support non-Republican candidates up and down the ballot in local elections? Been there - done that.
Take to the streets? Did that decades ago, but maybe that's what it will take again. Maybe that's the last hope for a populace to demonstrate it's revulsion to a ruling class that ignores the rule of law, corruptly enriches itself, and uses any and all means to maintain its grip on power.
Reading this morning’s comments in the Times from the swing state voters is illuminating and chilling. That anyone could support this awful man or consider him as serving the country or the world’s good is distressing and depressing. Nevertheless, the impeachment inquiry is uncovering ugly truths and must go forward. It is not supposed to be entertaining! Andrew Yang’s op-ed yesterday offered a practical yet visionary agenda for our country, and one hopes whoever the Democrats nominate will win. If Trump is re-elected despite impeachment, it will be a sad day for decency, let alone democracy.
1
Thank you Michelle for your insight, always spot on. But, I suppose that it is a given that the Right-Wing Fox evening hour is the engine behind the Republican propaganda as you didn't mention it. But, I watch obsessively waiting for that 'egg on the face moment' which in my heart I cannot believe will not happen. Watching it last night after the first day of the impeachment trial was like watching a tsunami of malicious stupidity. And I suddenly understood that I might have to wait till the cows come home for that moment of shame from this network. They are at war with truth, and watching Representative Gohmert on Lou Dobbs deny US intelligence findings on the Russian hacking into the 2016 election was hard to stomach. Malicious or just stupid? I no longer know any more.
Finally I see that Trump is willing to take the country to civil war because he will be able to institute Marshal Law, and then really take over.
I would not have been this cynical even a year ago to write this.
More than ever we must hang onto a free media in this perilous time.
1
Trump has attacked the press. The press has attacked Trump. The press has attacked Trump for attacking the press. The press has called on its readers to attack Trump. The press has attacked every decision Trump has made. If the press approves of anything that Trump does it first apologizes. If someone attacks Trump, the press praises them. If someone praises Trump the press attacks them.
What ever became of reporting the news?
3
Best column of the year.
Trump - and everything and everybody around him - are all beyond the pale.
That perhaps 100 million americans cannot or will not see this is a shameful and embarrassing reality.
So: we have to vote. Against the GOP, clearly. And we have to get others to vote. It's a broken system, but it's the only way.
I will never accept this President and his boot-licking Republican
cowards. I am rarely sheepish in my opinions, share my opinions
with friends and encourage my children to be politically
active. No longer is politics a no-no at my dinner parties: it is the main topic. Friends who are Trump lovers risk being former-friends and
I have no problem letting my opinion known with all family members.
People need to be clear about values and why we are Americans.
Our society still disparages German civilians who kept quiet
about the horrors surrounding them. Living in a rural part of Maryland, I see this divide as a cultural disconnection. However, all
of us should know right from wrong no matter our party affiliation.
Nobody could be as bad as Ms. Goldberg portrays Trump to be. It simply isn’t possible. And nobody could be conspiring as much as Ms. Goldberg suggests because there isn’t enough time in the day. Ms. Goldberg has repeatedly psychoanalyzed Trump due to all his excesses. I’m on board with psychoanalysis of those who repeatedly exhibit excesses.
1
We may not actually be getting Used To Trump...but we are certainly being Used By Him ! I prefer to think that we have developed a tolerance to Trump..Thicker skin to deal with the manic chaos of his personality.If we didn't we'd just collapse from exhaustion. No wonder his father sent him away to military school. No matter what...we have hope that...sooner or later he will leave office...and won't that be a Sunny Day no matter the weather !! What in the world will Fox Nation be talking about once Trump leaves office? Likely all the court cases that will be following him like fleas on a dog !!
Trump and his known associates are what the world calls ugly Americans - greedy, amoral, privileged, and weak.
Taylor and Kent personify how America came to be respected throughout the world, even among its enemies - honest, honorable and tough.
As Ms. Goldberg puts so well, Americans have a clear, stark choice to make.
yes, I am shocked and appalled. and to put trump's behavior in another way, he stole America's money. he didn't own the tax collected funds he withheld to extort actions from the urkraine government, he stole it from the rest of us.
so trump's definition of holding the public's trust is to take it and commit bribery, but only after stealing it first
.
This whole investigation is hypocritical.
The DNC leadership actively conspired to get Hillary Clinton (with an utterly uninspired campaign) the Democratic nomination in 2016.
This is what the Russians exposed before the election, and why Wasserman-Schultz had to resign. It's a shame, because Bernie would have beaten Trump.
This is pretty poor behavior, but no Democrat or liberal will even acknowledge that it occurred.
WE CAN move forward with President Trump and he has, in fact been working towards some very important goals (fair trade agreements, immigration control, regaining manufacturing, releasing federal inmates with absurd sentences, working out a productive agreement with N. Korea, getting NATO allies to pull their weight...)
No President will ever please any one of us completely. I suggest we get the most out of this, instead of being so obstructive and whiny.
3
This whole investigation is hypocritical.
The DNC leadership actively conspired to get Hillary Clinton (with an utterly uninspired campaign) the Democratic nomination in 2016.
This is what the Russians exposed before the election, and why Wasserman-Schultz had to resign. It's a shame, because Bernie would have beaten Trump.
This is pretty poor behavior, but no Democrat or liberal will even acknowledge that it occurred.
WE CAN move forward with President Trump and he has, in fact been working towards some very important goals (fair trade agreements, immigration control, regaining manufacturing, releasing federal inmates with absurd sentences, working out a productive agreement with N. Korea, getting NATO allies to pull their weight...)
No President will ever please any one of us completely. I suggest we get the most out of this, instead of being so obstructive and whiny.
3
Since almost every GOP member of Congress and the Senate believes Trump did nothing wrong and these people testifying are either lying or mistaken there is sadly little sanity left in the the GOP party. None whatsoever. They are all a collective disgrace to their office.
1
Mr. Trump has worked hard to create an alternative, parallel universe, inside his head and has installed himself as its god. In that role, he is free to invent and reinvent things as he pleases. Truth becomes whatever he decides it will be. Whatever the details of that truth, it is such a convincing exercise in Trump's head that it is able supplant what the rest of us have long taken to be universal truths.
Of course, the fact that Trump actually believes this invention of his to be real and actual is a sign of mental illness, a serious delusion. However, the fact he has convinced the entire Republican Party that not only is he correct in holding these truths, but that his head is sufficiently capacious to hold its membership inside and to convince them that the water and everything else to be found within that space is just perfect, well, that's magic.
But that's madness for you.
While witnesses reveal the extortion attempt on the Ukraine president, enter Nancy Pelosi describing the crime as "bribery." Genius.
Bribery, of course, is the inverse of extortion, making the term mostly true without being precise. This sets the trap.
The goal is to trick the apologists into explaining the error of the term. In doing so, they'll have to essentially say, "its not bribery, its extortion."
I hope you understand that none of this offers any guarantee that Donald the Magnificent will not get a second term. For that to happen the Democrats must offer the American citizens a concrete alternative.
This alternative needs to consist of both a nominee with a real chance of winning (read: appeal to the center) and a set of policies that inspire hope and confidence, even if they are bold. To date, neither is available. In that sense, this impeachment is actually a distraction.
Meanwhile, the GOP electoral machine and the troll army are gearing up for the fight. You really need to get your act together. I don't think the US, or the (free) world, can take four more years of this.
1
It shows to me the inadequacy of "traditions" that have kept presidential corruption in check. If POTUS is in charge of the Justice department, and state, and other cabinet posts, and he can appoint and direct whomever he wants (Barr, Sondland, Pompeo, Perry, Miller, etc) and personal loyalty is the top criteria, and members of his own party allow him to do so, then we ought to revamp how cabinet, department, and agency positions are filled and where lines of authority flow. Every president will now be presented with the temptation to pick loyalists who will do their bidding over senior level professionals who excel in their field.
Time to develop the opposite of the "unitary executive theory." and break up the executive branch or transfer some power to Congress.
It's too bad that Schiff et al didn't re-read the parable of "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" at the beginning of Trump's term.
1
I know I have posted this thought before, but I have hated Trump since the '80s.
But, thanks for bringing it up again.
I'll not vote GOP for dog-catcher now and I'll vote D regardless. Not because I am an ideologue or thorough my many years a partisan. And not because I hate anyone.
Rather because I am a true American and a patriot at heart.
Our times ARE like 1930s in Europe. Existential times and we MUST vote existentially.
Like then it's not about who can better build autobahns, promote common language, or even redress past national dishonor. It was existential then and it is now for us.
GOP essentially for theocratic authoritarian dishonest plutocracy tinged with racism/demagoguery. NOT American!
D Party obviously essentially leans toward our higher values of liberal democracy.
Patriots VOTE and Vote accordingly.
I have never gotten “used to” trump. I am appalled everyday by every word he spews incoherently. I am still shocked by people who believe he has done some good. He has not, he is destroying my country. I will never forgive him or any republican in Congress who has prevented his removal from office. Allowing Nunes to smear the loyal Americans Kent and Taylor in his opening statement was disgraceful. All the republicans in the hearing on Wednesday disgraced America. And from the little I hear from Fox News pundits like jeanine, tucker, sean, etc. I suggest that they be banned from the airwaves. I believe their rhetoric is like shouting “Fire” in a crowded theater. It should not be supported by the First Amendment and the word “News” should never be used in the same sentence as their names.
1
The verdict of "too boring" by some reporters reveals another source of rot and pollution in the nation's intellectual water supply, and the source is the transition of news to total for-profit model. There just wasn't enough screaming and violence to grab eyeshare. (Well, the Republicans do have a nifty clown act but it was masterfully shut down by serious people.) Those reporters might be assigned to cover circus acts for a few years. To paraphrase the now exiled Garrison Keillor on the press, we must admit that the violent, painful deaths of all the people in the hearings could be considered by many members of the press a "career opportunity."
“Now that there is abundant evidence of just such a quid pro quo, Graham has moved the goal posts, saying that the inquiry is “invalid” unless the whistle-blower who revealed Trump’s Ukraine scheme is outed.”
Republicans actually don’t care who the whistleblower is, they simply want to dig into his/her past to find dirt, to make them an un-credible witness.
Republicans specialize in smear tactics; they wish to undermine the source. This is a tried and true technique of Vladimir Putin. To sabotage the credibility of the person accusing you. To besmirch their character in order to invalidate the accusation.
1
Trump has brought the political discourse of our democracy to the lowest common denominator; profound ignorance vis-a-vis total refusal to accept facts, abandonment of reason, credulity, preposterous conspiracy theories, stoking fears and plying hatred, pivoting from the subject of concern thus seeding confusion and non-sense and otherwise all that arrests awareness, - a sordid state of affairs - awareness of the dire state of democracy that Trump and the Republican sycophants has plunged the nation into that is. Add to that the sheer tiredness and the taxing daily chores that further complicate the existence of most citizens of the country and we have a glimpse of the derelict state of political consciousness that is blanketing the nation. Hence the apparition of normalcy bias, the psychology of accommodation, the acceptance of "we do this all the time", "get over it"....
Trump, for a lack of a better term is a terrible curse to our democracy! America must find ways to expunge this cancer!
Shame on the Reuters and NBC reporters for basically saying, "Nothing here, folks, of any interest," which is patently false. Adding that subjective commentary to what should be simple, objective reporting is just what the GOP ordered.
Goldberg's hate towards Trump is obsessive and compulsive. She does not have to like him, she does not have to even "get used to him." What she does need to do, however, is get used to the notion that elections have consequences, and her gal Hillary was not the one elected, and that Trump wants to do things differently than Hillary would have. Goldberg's constant whining and ragging about Trump is tiresome and unnecessary: she has written about (and talked about on CNN) nothing else for the last three years - take a break from Trump and go play with your kids.
5
@Michelle Goldberg, nope, I am not getting used to the largest open air insane asylum inmates running one and a half branches of our Government. Its fortunate for us one half got deposed in the 2018 elections but you can witness their idiocy in the form of Nunes, Jordan and others during this impeachment hearing. Its appalling.
These people are a big drying open sore that itches on my body. Doctors warn you not to scratch it because it will grow bigger. I am waiting for the day they are kicked out of office. I will be among the first to ask for involuntary commitment to an insane asylum for a significant amount of them.
California has the biggest of them all in LA. If we are successful, it will be the biggest attraction next to Disneyland.
With the news today of Stephen Miller’s adherence to white nationalism as expressed in various statements and texts, have we now stooped to the lowest level of depravity? In any other administration, Miller would have been fired immediately, but the always-Trumpsters love it. It just shows to them the he’s their man. I’m 77 and don’t know how much longer I can take this agony.
1
This is a coup. The democrats will stop at nothing. Nice try but no. The country is strong. Trump was trying to clean the swamp. Why not look for outstanding parking tickets. I was a democrat-no longer and I will vote for the President that has gotten things done,
1
Thank goodness for Peter Welch to emphasize "truth, justice and the American Way."
Jordan launched into an extended monologue about how unjust it was that Democrats weren't allowing the committee to question "the person who started it all," referring to the whistleblower. "We'll never get a chance to question that individual," he said.
Peter Welch, a Democrat from Vermont, took the opportunity to respond to Jordan's lament. "I'd be glad to have the person who 'started it all' come in and testify," said Welch, then gesturing towards the witness table. "President Trump is welcome to take a seat right there." The chamber erupted in laughter.
1
Thank you for the media check. It's no surprise about NBC,(they're in the advertising business) but Reuters too? This catastrophe is anything but boring. I have never been more frightened for our future.
1
I'm still so not used to Trump. The current state of affairs puts knots in my stomach on a daily basis. I expected to feel energized and encouraged by the impeachment proceedings. After all, the truth is on our side, and Taylor and Kent were superb witnesses, revealing facts that surely would have been enough to discredit any other sitting president. Any president except this one of course.
The truth is on our side if you can still find it, amid all the double talk, red herrings and made up nonsense the GOP mouthpieces keep spewing. As Frank Bruni remarked; their "truth" keeps morphing like the creatures in Alien. In a simple case of quid quo pro, the truth has become unrecognizable to anyone who hasn't brought along a set of cliff notes, thanks to the Soviet-style disinformation campaign being waged by the Russian Republicans. This is, of course, their intent.
When facts and the truth no longer matter, they are replaced by autocratic dictators who tell us what it's supposed to be. When one party in a two-party system completely abandons reality, a democratic republic can no longer survive. At one time we could take refuge in the courts, but the radical right-wing have stacked those, including the Supreme Court, which used to be considered a separate but co-equal branch of government. Will they protect Trump's "right" to keep his tax returns secret? Pass the popcorn.
Yes, I'm still deeply shocked by what is happening in the country of my birth.
2
In this communication environment, it’s likely not enough to hope that citizens will have access to or closely follow quality news reporting of the hearings.
Defenders of democracy, from both parties, need to mount a *massive* public information campaign that informs Americans of both the facts and the law surround the case for impeachment. This should include TV advertisement and social media.
Congressional Repubs will not defend American democracy out of duty or conscience. The only that might move them is if Trump were to dive in the polls from low 40’s to mid-low 30’s.
In the meantime, notable Republican (so-called) “adults in the room” —Romney, Kelly, Tillerson, Matiss, etc—- need to regularly and loudly and in unison hit the TV talk circuit and make clear what they know to be true: Trump is grossly unfit for office, Trump is a national security threat, Trump is a corruption of the presidency, and the substance and process of the impeachment hearings already make it clear that he should be removed from office.
5
The Democrats failure to do this, preaching to the choir instead of reaching independents in the Fox bubble, is a major concern and frustration. Someone (like John Stewart who can do it with humor) needs to step up.
1
When the founding fathers built this system, one branch of government was supposed to be checked and balanced by the others. When Congress falls in line behind the President because of party loyalty, and then allows impeachable offenses to occur without consequence again because of party loyalty, and then redraws district lines to maintain their power, and then a Supreme Court- stacked by McConnell's hijinx -allows it, everything falls apart.
We are left feeling powerless because we are. This is no longer a functioning Democracy.
347
@AB
It can become a functioning democracy again if we vote these republicans out of office, but the real issue is that a large section of American voters like the situation like it is until it affects them personally.
34
@VMG
I heartily agree that the real problem is the nearly 50% of Americans who don't even see the corruption of Trump and the Republican elected officials who support him.
What are the rest of us to do when we have work colleagues, family and friends who find Trump "normal" as Michelle Goldberg says?
Sure, all of us who don't find it normal can vote and throw them out of the White House, the Congress, and so forth, but those Americans will still be there lurking in the wings for the next election.
It's more frightening to me that there are so many Americans who may never be convinced of the danger to our nation.
45
@VMG Trump voters go along with what is going on even when it does affect them personally. A few months ago, a farmer here in Mississippi was interviewed and asked his opinion on the Trump tariffs that were damaging his business. The farmer said he would lose his farm before he would turn his back on Trump. He's not alone.
Going back 35 years, the blue collar vote put Reagan back into office. This, after he broke the backs of the unions and hurt these voters' livelihoods.
37
I appreciate the temptation to go after low-hanging fruit like Rep. Steve King and Senator Lindsey Graham, but I respectfully suggest that people like Ms. Goldberg turn their considerable ire and firepower on Trump's willing enablers. What about Senator Rob Portman and Senator Mitt Romney? They're almost completely silent in the face of this horrific assault on our democracy.
213
@g. harlan
Regarding Senator Portman and Senator Romney, voters in Ohio and Utah can e-mail and call their respective Senators. That is a more effective way to persuade them.
17
@g. harlan Indeed! As Frank Bruni has perfectly described the Republican congressmen/women who have utterly failed to uphold their constitutional responsibilities:
“their conduct during the impeachment inquiry is the culmination and apotheosis of their conduct since Trump wrapped up the Republican presidential nomination: an utter sellout of principle and a pure embrace of fiction to pacify an emotional infant and keep him from spitting up on them”.
16
@Astute Commentary
G Harlan AND M Goldberg are correct. The Democracy is at risk, and may very well fail, a national party has sunk to committing itself to destroying the American Democracy. Now every American, at this moment, will decide, either with purpose or not, to defend the Democracy, or let it sink. The same responsibility lies with us all, with Portman, with Romney, with you , with I.
15
Get used to it? Never! We are living the American Nightmare. I saw my doctor the other day- routine physical- well, at 73 routine is a blessing. She told me she is seeing so many patients with anxiety and depression because of Trump. I know there are days I think of what he has done and how it will change America forever if he is reelected. I fear for my grandchildren. As I type the comment I am listening to the news. I better check my blood pressure. Michelle, people I know are horrified and saddened by this administration. I guess I hang around with bright, ethical people.
9
The reality TV drama that surrounds, and is in fact central to the trump presidency is like an addictive drug, and many Americans need higher and higher doses to get the same high. Many in the media are all too happy to push the politics-as-entertainment drug, which is why trump got two billion dollars of free advertising during the 2016 campaign.
I refuse to be the proverbial frog in the pot of boiling water, becoming inured to greater and greater levels of injustice, transgression and corruption, and as we inch closer and closer to authoritarianism.
The testimony yesterday was stunning and powerful, and if you yawned at it, that water around you is probably hotter than you think.
235
@Kathryn Neel The water in the pot has been heating up since the election of St. Ronnie. Clinton's policies heated it up a little more and Bush pushed the flame up even higher. Obama kept it at a simmer, but did nothing to cool it off. Trump has got it at full boil, and too many people aren't bothered by the heat as they are skinned alive.
16
@Kathryn Neel
People are over-reacting to the current political situation.
Be honest, how has YOUR life been changed by the election of Donald Trump, other than people sending themselves into a frenzy about nothing?
Much of the "chaos" that exists is a construct of the liberal media and its faithful adherents.
I read in the Times of president Trump "railing" against his enemies, so I go look at the video of the event (not included in the Times), and he's simply making a calm statement.
The chaos is contrived. It is one of the tactics being used by the liberal media to undermine a presidency, and our country.
1
@Carole A. Dunn You forget Gingrich, one of the main culprits for the downfall of the Republican party.
6
The more allegations and threats go unpunished a sense of hopelessness takes over. A black man gets 20 years for being caught with a bag of weed on the street without a blink of an eye. A bag of weed. Yet government officials who appear to selfishly distort and corrupt the very basis for our country’s being, the moral DNA of the largest democracy in the world freely roam about doing whatever they please. Either crimes have been committed or they have not. Either laws mean something or they do not. This is where we find ourselves.
253
Most Americans simply don't care or are too busy to care. The high concepts of individual liberty and ethics laid out in the Constitution are simply assumed to exist without any effort on the part of the American electorate to protect them. The great failure of the Constitution is the Electoral College, which has destroyed Democracy in regard to the General Election. Our modern politicians must have the guts to kill it.
278
@Anthony
I think you are dead wrong. This whole thing Trumpism, HRC’s failure, in essence the totality of American culture comes down to one thing. The disgusting amorality of globalization and neoliberal economics. We are supposed to welcome wave upon wave of illegal immigrants from the Third World as tens of millions of American citizens languish on disability, alcoholism, every sort of narcotic, unemployment, underemployment, minimum wage.
4
Anthony -
It is sad, as a student of history, to realize that while the Electoral College was put into effect to prevent a demagogue from ascending to the highest office in the land, it actually allowed one to do so over the “objection” of the majority of people.
It will require much more than guts to get rid of the Electoral College, It will take, literally, thousands of politicians to stand up and agree to remove it even though, for many of them, it may not be not in their own, or their state’s, best interest. It will take Congress and at least 38 state legislatures to change our country to direct election of the president. And, as a student of history, I do not see that happening in my lifetime.
21
@Anthony There are other reforms besides getting rid of the electoral college that are also necessary to ensure the will of the people is heard and heeded. To name the big ones: ranked choice voting, publicly funded elections, holding all state primaries on the same day, and overturning the Citizens United ruling. Reexamining some version of the FCC fairness doctrine would probably also be helpful.
9
Your outrage is most welcome, but it's wrong to say that these degraded circumstances have been "normalized". They have not. Plenty of Americans have retained their sense of right and wrong. It took only a few days for impeachment to gain majority support. It's sad that so much of the news media have become show queens, but lots of us recognize that not as "normal" but part of the problem. Thank god congress finally stepped up for us.
2
Second-rate oligarchies like Russia and Hungary? Wrong on two counts! Russia is a first-rate oligarchy and I don't believe there is one single billionaire in Hungary, so it is not an oligarchy at all. You don't like Victor Orban, fair enough, but do not compare Hungary to Russia.
1
Quite right, Michelle.
As for all those who ask "what can we do?" - especially those of us in safely blue areas, where our votes won't change the outcome (but are critical to maintaining that safety), we can donate time and money to campaigns in swing states/districts.
We can send articles containing actual facts to friends and relatives who live in places served only by Fox news, and we can have respectful discussions with those near us who are or who support the Republican point of view (we all know someone like that...)
It may not be much, but it must be better than simply bemoaning our feelings of powerlessness.
4
I'm willing to listen to whatever evidence the Democrats actually have to justify an impeachment, but I have to say that Wednesday's testimony doesn't do it. Sounds more like that the career foreign policy people felt left out and weren't being listened to. Perhaps a ground to vote against Trump in the next election but not a ground for impeachment.
It's even more troubling that Ms. Goldberg will not even consider that her viewpoint might not be correct.
5
Nobody gets used to Trump. He is a wild kid that exhausts you 24/7. As for me, I was never a sports fan, but now I read the newspaper sports section every single day. It makes more sense and has rules more often obeyed than not.
6
Thanks for a great comprehensive article including all the different reasons why the Trump regime is unacceptable. I wonder also why the sheer number of Trump's lies (13,000 plus) is not an additional reason to impeach him. He has been creating an alternate reality which the Republicans have accepted and magnified. This is so dangerous!
4
I thought it was worth while to listen to; started watching at 7:00 am Eastern and only stopped at 8 something as needed to go out. Taylor was very erudite; Kent was good. Will watch all of it today, 11/15.
3
Thank you, Ms. Goldberg, for cataloguing the reactions of jaded reporters who take a "if it bleeds, it leads" approach to writing copy that captures eyeballs. There are many of us still reading and following this administration's actions who have not lost the edge to our concern. I'm sure the NYT's analytics team can measure this empirically from the sustained quantity over time of clicks and amount of time lingering on each article.
3
This all began under Newt Gingrich's 'Contract with America' in the mid-90s and the era of scorched-earth politics that treats the other side like a mortal existential enemy or worse. Since then, things have only devolved here in DC.
14
The truth is that the G.O.P. has abandoned truth, decency, and rule of law in favor of power politics, Fox generated propaganda, and a willingness to say or do anything to retain their control. It is quaint that the Democrats play by the game by the rules and expect a win. The G.O.P. tore up the rule book, set the board on fire years, and walked away from the table long ago.
Putting any faith in the impeachment to change minds or votes is folly. Pledge to donate funds to the Democratic Party in your state or county, and start building an organization that can start registering and mobilizing voters. Devote ten hours a month for the next twelve months to defeating Trump. Start today. As Joe Hill said, “Don’t mourn, organize!”
6
Well, it wasn't like the United States hasn't been groomed for him. Decades of Fox News and conspiracy theory internet mated to a growing concern that the nation's demographics are shifting to a non-white majority laid the foundation. Sprinkle in an opioid epidemic, the rustiest of rust-belts, decades of war, the labor movement being crushed, the reemergence of a gilded age and so forth. For people that feel they're no better off than they were before Obama, they took a flier on cartoon version of pre-Civil Rights era America.
The real shame is that many believed that the culture in US evolved enough past the ugly tropes and desire for a system of privilege that we'd like to associate with history's dustbin. But when push comes to shove, apparently the US is as ripe for the bluster of demagoguery as any place.
5
For myself I cannot lament the fall of our “democracy “ because we live in an Oligarchy. The only thing that is new that fact is now more transparent.
7
I thought the testimony of these two men was riveting for its candor, and for its implications for our nation. I don't think speaking truth to power is in any way boring. What's frightening is how our Constitutional system of checks and balances has been thrown so off balance by a rogue president, we're down to relying on line bureaucrats to defend us from anarchy.
14
Have Republicans any sense of decency? Of true patriotism? It has steadily become clear that all they really care about is staying in power. They will do anything for that. Tragic for them, tragic for all of us.
10
Great column.
Notable, too, for recognizing that we got here due to cheap-thrill faux-gold entertainment taking over most of our culture. It'll be the task of a generation to shrink that back to being a much smaller slice of our lives, and doing so even while it's eating our brains.
16
The hearing was riveting. If one really paid attention, in addition to the clear case of Fat Dons malfeasance, a history lesson was provided. The significance of Ukraine in geopolitical terms was thoughtfully laid out. One can only hope that this history begins to seep into the nations consciousness and the public begins to understand the importance of these hearings and how Donny’s actions are so dangerous.
6
What is remarkable is that in the history of the United States, this is the first president who legitimately should be impeached and removed from office. Bill Clinton's offense was relatively trivial and did not involve the discharge of his duties as President. Andrew Johnson was impeached for purely political reasons according to historians. In contrast, Trump betrayed the national interest and abused his power as President for his own personal gain. It is the definition of an impeachable offense as conceived by the founding fathers. The fact that he committed these offences right after the conclusion of the Mueller hearings is evidence that he is incapable of changing and continues to be a threat to democracy. This makes it even more imperative that he be removed from office. Needless to say this is not going to happen. These circumstances bring many of us including me to a point beyond outrage and approaching despair
16
Trump has 40% solidly behind him. He could kill someone on 5th Ave and not loose a single vote.
The 60% must not divide into 30% moderate and 30% progressive, because 40% is more than 30%.
The Democratic party must be smart, not ideological purists. Who can 55% of the voters support?
8
I must confess that I no longer have any faith in nor hope for America and this impeachment show trial is clearly just the beginning of the end. I am even hesitant to say we had a nice run from 1776-2019 considering how much partisan hatred exists in this so called “nation” today. This is no longer a nation in any eighteenth, nineteenth, 20th century sense. America dies in the 21st Century that is certain. The reality we on the left now face is that even if Trump is impeached he very well may be re-elected. The reason for my despair is the inherent irrational human nature everywhere on display. Both sides simply will not compromise on illegal immigration, globalization, social issues. The lunatics in both parties now run the asylum. Throw in some kind of economic crisis coupled with automation and clearly the future looks dark indeed. We need a bolt of lightning. However Trump and Reagan and the rest of the globalists have already put the nails in the coffin. Alas I could be wrong, but I will need much convincing.
3
I dream of being able to criticize the president in esoteric policy matters, not human rights and democracy!
5
I once heard Malcom Muggridge tell a story about 2 frogs...one was put in a pot of cold water on a stove turned to high. As the temperature continued to boil, the frog became weak but never tried to jump out of the boiling water....the other frog was not dropped into the water until it was boiling and immediately jumped out and saved his life.
I think this analogy is accurate in terms of our American politics and the Republicans represent the frog who never tried to save himself; he became numb to his dangerous circumstances instead of trying to save himself.
2
Thank you for your timely column of caution against creeping Trumpism. I might caution you, however, not to toss around the phrase “liberal democracy” (last paragraph) too much. At least half of the people in this country have no idea of what it means — I know, because I am acquainted with a good many of them and related to more than a few.
7
The German theologian Paul Tillich said that the future of Western Civilization would be either socialism or barbarism. Unfortunately American capitalism has created a culture of barbarism. Yesterday there was yet another school shooting and once again politicians refused to suggest the only solution to this gun violence, which is to repeal the Second Amendment.
11
We are like that metaphorical frog immersed in a slowly increasingly hot pot of water - getting acclimated bit by bit to the growing heat gradually, so that we don't realize that we are being boiled to death.
We are in fact, in real time, at exactly at a point of no return. The Republic is dying, mortally wounded by the death of the Republican Party, the accompanying takeover of the Supreme Court and judiciary by appointees of the electoral college winners - but real vote losers - in 2000 and 2016, the fact that the Senate is so structured that the 'Majority' party represents 40 million LESS people than the 'Minority' party does.
Trump is only the last and possibly final act of a lethal decay caused by our refusal to fix the serious structural flaws in our system - which gave him AND the Republican Party the doorway into totalitarianism. They have exploited this at least since 2000. And yet I have only heard one candidate, Pete Buttigieg, even talk about fixing things like the political nature of choosing Supreme Court appointees...We have serious under-representation in all larger states, a Senate which is skewed, gerrymandering an electoral college that cancels out the will of the citizens... We have been slowly getting to our boiling point for a long time. And we are just about there right now.
6
Wednesday's session clearly showcased the integrity that government officials can maintain, when they are not driven by either personal, or party agendas.
3
Night before last, in the dark, I tripped over a stack of bricks on my sidewalk, made a five-point landing on knees, hands, and forehead, and the result is that I look as if I'd been beaten up. (Please bear with me. This anecdote really is relevant to Ms. Goldberg's column.) Since I'm also a novelist, my husband eventually suggested I use the situation to imagine the feelings of a battered wife, if someday I were to write about one.
"The way I look may be similar," I said, "but I can't fully imagine the psychological part."
In the same way, I cannot imagine the "psychological part" of a Trump supporter. Living in Alabama, I am related to, friends with, and surrounded by Trump supporters, but I will never be able to identify with their mind-set. And I don't want to identify with them. If that makes me sound like an "elitist," so be it.
Every day of Trump's presidency, I have woken up with a sense of dread about the bottomless selfishness, immorality, incompetence, and cruelty of his administration. No wonder my mind is in a constantly disturbed state, when I realize that the people I live among are not devastated--or even mildly upset--by Trump's actions.
14
Excellent article that shows the demise of the US under Republicanism. Although anti-Semitism has increased during the Trump administration, it is baffling that apparently 25% of Jewish Americans still support Trump, his anti-Semitism not withstanding. The majority of his supporters are Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox. Where is the research on WHY these people support someone whose actions and behavior oppose everything they learn and profess about being a good person? The only saving grace is that 70% of American Jews oppose Trump.
2
Don't hold your breath for Donald Trump to change. We may bestow advice for Republicans & the GOP, but we cannot inspire the conduct. Make sure you vote in 2020.
2
Similar to a recent column in this paper and comments below, while our feeling of outrage grow, so do our feelings of helplessness. I am represented by Senator Rob Portman, who once proudly owned the the Chair of the Sentate Ukraine Caucus but now pretends this whole thing isn't evening happening. When pushed, he called Lt. Colonel Vinman's testimony "hoopla". I am also represented by Congressman Steve Stivers, a veteran himself who won't defend his fellow veterans against GOP character assassination. He is still parroting the "sham process" line. I write, I call -- nothing. I give money to their opponents, but due to the power of gerrymandering, Congressman Stivers will be there as long as he chooses. Used to it, no. Discouraged, yes.
14
While watching Kent and Taylor relate the historical context and irregular channel without flinching, while watching Schiff’s team prove their points over and over and watching the Republicans stumble and fall, I was astonished.
Trump bribed and covered all at once, and that « church chain letter » defense collapsed, so Trump put on a national security show and called his senators to task.
3
I found the testimony given by Kent and Taylor to be riveting. Their calm explanation of the plight of the Ukrainian people, the importance of Ukraine as a young democracy, the advantage to Russia from withholding aid and denying President Zelensky an Oval Office meeting, the long-term bipartisan goals of American international diplomacy, the reminder that Russia under Putin is dangerous to world order and democracy—those facts alone were compelling. Add to that foundation their shock not only at the sudden and inexplicable withholding of aid but also the present occupant of the White House's personal and political reasons for doing so. It was a sober reminder of what we have lost with the election of Donald Trump and the continued enabling of the Republican party.
Every time I hear the news on NPR begin with "Today the president," I have to turn it off. Used to it? Never.
7
Thank you for stating in such a wide forum many of the thoughts that have plagued me over the past three years of the Trump horror show.
More than half of our country and a solid chunk of its "leadership" has sunk so low. I used to wonder how we would recover from such debasement as a country. Now I wonder if we will.
7
Reuters and the NBC News analysis are treating politics like reality TV or professional wrestling. By doing this, they are helping turn politics into reality TV and thereby on Trump's side and serving him. If a majority or a strategically located minority of American voters want politics as entertainment rather than politics (opaque, hard to follow, and often technical and boring), then that is what we will have -- bread and circuses. We move to an existence at the lowest, darkest reaches of Plato's cave, with only shadows of shadows visible.
This is the realm of advertising and public relations where people like Trump and Stone and Manafort see clearly and decent people are blind. Truth, virtue, and any human excellence are completely invisible except as pale, ever-shifting images manipulated by propaganda.
Plato did not think democracy could work. He had a point.
5
All this rhetoric is reminiscent of what happened many years ago when my family and I remained caught in Japan during WW II. The Japanese surrender was not due to the Emperor's proclamation nor was it the war machine. It was the people. The people rose up and declared they would not take any more, all the way from those in uniform to the lowliest peasant. They spoke and the Military dictatorship finally listened. I hope and pray we do not reach those depths.
3
@Mariposa841
I don't have your experience, but didn't the atomic bombs have something to do with it?
“Either Americans will reclaim their birthright and become a liberal democracy again, or not.”
But the fact that it will be a close call will linger for decades.
Frankly, doubting the U.S. resolve has already caused global instability and cost many lives.
6
As you suggest, this is a situation that "demands redoubled political action."
That does not mean louder shouting or -- forgive me -- more and better Op-Eds in The New York Times. It means more concerted movement towards political choices and strategies that maximize the chance of removing Donald Trump (and his ilk, but Trump above all) from public office.
Mobilizing those Americans who already want Trump out is one task, but it's an unpromising way to offset the harm done by alienating non-progressives, let alone come out ahead. The crucial, unavoidable task is to gain the trust of as broad a range of voters as possible, and to deserve it.
It's a thousand pities that moderates in the swing states must receive special attention, but there it is. We don't just need to redouble our action. We need to win.
3
"Each one of us must choose whether to treat their mulish disloyalty to their fellow citizens as a given, worthy only of shrugs, or as a shocking affront that demands redoubled political action."
Or we can choose what's behind door number three: the Republican party has no shame, its supporters either do not understand or do not care about the democratic principles at stake, and no political action can change these facts. In other words, it's too late. The cancer on the body politic has metastasized, and the patient is terminal. Democracy as we have known it in the United States is dead.
7
“Kleptocratic”refers to a state of permanent plunder. There is no real effort to govern. The principle goal of the leaders is to accrue wealth. It suggests that all decisions are designed to enrich the leaders and nothing else. It misses the boat for Trump, who has advanced many odious policies having nothing to do with his pocket and is wealthy enough not to draw a salary. While it is only one word, its misuse and its extremist tone aptly reflects that Ms. Goldberg has gone overboard and has, herself, abandoned her obligation to the truth.
1
I cannot bare to read anything about Trump - supportive or critical. I know it's wrong. I know it's what he wants. But I can't. There are moments when I think violent revolution is the only choice. I was a pacifist!
5
Thank you, Michelle Goldberg, for your fierce articles here and your words on The Argument. In thinking about the Republicans’ support for Trump, I know that much of it has to do with power and money, but I’ve begun to feel that there is a deep impulse on the part of Republican men, in particular, white Christian male supremacists in general, to line up behind a leader. I’ve known for too long, how easily men can abandon their histories and beliefs in search of a place in a more acceptable hierarchy. They seem to want to be in packs, I fear, and to know who is the leader, who is the boss. While studying in an English/Writing department, I often wondered why my male peers had to begin each paper simultaneously contesting the author and then locating themselves along a lineage of well-known writers. I wondered if the ideas meant as much as the line of authority.
3
Support for Trump's impeachment seemed to be rising when the media was reporting on the content of the depositions and their release. Now that the hearings are televised, with the inevitable Republican obfuscations and distractions, I'm not so sure it will continue
2
Philosophy triumphs easily over past evils and future evils; but present evils triumph over it.
3
The evils we do to others give us less pain than those we do to ourselves.
1
In order to begin a transparent, well intentioned discussion to bring Americans together, it’s necessary to agree the resistance we face is either conscious or unconscious. If well meaning citizens insist they have nothing to hide, understand what is involved and have strong motivation, we can only assume the resistance must be unconscious. What would happen if this comment was placed on the front page of every US newspaper and news media website to bring attention to the things we don’t think we’re bad at to help individuals work through the unconscious resistance? This will involve a great deal of introspection and even then, it’s an extremely difficult job since one doesn’t usually have proper insight into ones own emotional makeup. Most of us spend our time trying to rationalize our behavior as a result of our lack of self awareness.
Remind yourself we were all babies and we didn't ask to be thrown into this world. Seek out a kind of greatness which does not depend upon fortune: it is a certain manner what distinguishes us, and which seems to destine us for great things; it is the value we insensibly set upon ourselves; it is by this quality that we gain the deference of other men & women, and it is this which commonly raises us more above them, than birth, rank, or even merit itself.
1
Not only are you getting used to him, it seems that a significant portion of the population, including the GOP, would be happy to have him crowned King Donald. Let's see in relation to his tax returns whether the Supreme Court go along with that. If so, the republic is dead - a splendid experiment in democracy consigned to the dustbin of history.
15
We are all to blame! When we find ourselves in an argument or debate with someone, we often become more focused on “winning” the argument rather than actually discovering the truth.
1
We have more strength than will; and it is often merely for an excuse we say things are impossible.
1
I was recently reminded that in my area of PA there were at least a half dozen hospitals during our Revolutionary War. If these young men didn’t die from wounds many died from infection. So many gave their young lives to birth this nation. Yes, Americans must reclaim their birthright. I’m afraid counting on the Republican Party to care about anything other than protecting their senate or house “seat” is frightening for our future. Collectively, the GOP is supporting the team of Trump and Putin. We are in trouble as protecting a “seat” is more important than sustaining our democracy.
8
The 40% of Americans who idolize Donald Trump embrace his values - lying, cheating, stealing and achieving whatever you want by any means possible. We now know clearer than at any time in the past who the Republicans are and what they embrace above all else - immorality. For them, they are living in a paradise never before realized and they want to see our democracy torn to shreds, our institutions demolished and the rule of law discarded completely.
Ms. Goldberg's recent column wherein she passionately called on the populace to protest en masse resulted in so many impassioned comments, but I see no one in the streets. Most histories of the civil rights movement in this country and the protests over the Vietnam war, fights which the protestors ultimately won in both cases, conveniently leave out the part about how truly violent they were. They are portrayed as nonviolent protest movements, but there was a great deal of violence in point of fact. African Americans were beaten, jailed, bitten by police dogs and killed. Protesting students at Kent State were shot and killed. The protesters were relentless and extremely aggressive in demanding change. They purposely broke the law and demanded justice. They fiercely stood their ground and endured incredible hardships to win their long struggles.
That is what it will take to stop the utterly insane, willful destruction of our democracy. Maybe when Trump wins again, Americans will wake up and take our country back.
8
thank you, Michelle. well done.
the collective denial the republican party indulges in
speaks to a profound perversion of our values,
long in the making,
and which our president sadly parades
with apparent glee.
But we must not despair.
Trump is not the mirror of our soul.
he arose as a distraction from the hard work
of confronting what has been ailing us for some time.
I believe the distracted are coming around to realizing
the price of their folly. or so I hope.
You are right to speak with alarm
that the president's behavior continues unchecked,
and yes it is the responsibility of all of us
to acknowledge the gravity of the moment we live in.
Let each of us strive to not shy away from speaking and acting
with the courage this hour calls for.
As we do, do not forget that there's kindness in our hearts,
kindness and good judgment across our land.
We're better than Trump
better than he who now claims to represent us.
Best
4
It's worse than "getting used to Trump."
If the GOP succeeds in it's ambition.
to stack the judiciary with young, conservative Federalist Society approved justices for life time appointments.
What we are experiencing now isn't something we'll just have to get used to. It'll become the law of the land.......precedent...codified...enforced....that we'll have to live with for decades.
Are we ready to get used to that?
11
It's going to take years and years for social scientists to figure out why millions of law abiding decent Americans are so fiercely loyal to a leader like President Trump.
I am just not able to figure what has he he done to inspire such fealty. Leadership books give examples of heroic figures like Lincoln or Mandela or Gandhi. How will they explain Trump?
17
@AM They are addicted to Fox news. Tobin Smith's new book Foxocracy give's a good insider's view of how it happened.
Presumably you are not a Fox news addict. If you were then you would understand the appeal.
Don't need a social scientist to figure this one out. Talk to a Fox news watcher and you can figure it out for yourself.
We're not used to him, Michelle. We just understand that Republicans would defend him regardless of what he did, and we're stuck with him until we can convince enough of the electorate to vote for a Democrat. If anything, the apathy you see is a defense mechanism. We don't know what he'll destroy next, so we try to ignore it until November, 2020.
8
I watched most of the impeachment hearing and I was not shocked by the substantial evidence of rampant corruption nor by the pathetic attempts of Republicans to defend and dismiss it. I have come to realize over the past several years that this is a severely flawed nation we live in, much more so than I had previously understood, and that there is a high likelihood that justice will not prevail in matters that could bring dramatic change to the way we are governed and live our lives. While it’s heartening to see good people defy the corrupt ones and stand up for what’s right, I feel that their efforts may very well be for naught. So my primary emotion is sadness rather than shock.
24
Scrolling through the reader comments accompanying this column is making me think I maybe best go hide the razor blades. Especially since I can't think of a single contradiction to any of the depressing comments I'm reading. Nope.
Thoughts and prayers, everybody.
5
Except if we all hide away, we won’t have each other as comrades we need now—we need each other.
Wednesday this week. Wicked Wednesday.
Erdogan returned the original letter, rescued from the trash,
at the White House November 2020 visit on the first day of the public imp hearings.
Turkey returned the original Trump signed infamous
“Don't be a tough guy. Don't be a fool!" letter that Donald Trump originally sent to Erdogan on Oct. 9.
The consequences of that one belligerent letter may haunt the USA forever.
The letter's return is a disdainful Turkish response. A reactive Trumpian burn and blame of ownership. To Trump, Back at ya.
Will that original Trump signed letter eventually be displayed in the Trump presidential library? It was a 'perfect' letter.
A gift to Erdogan with a promise of a White House visit for the blame of it. QPQ.
The whole bloody world would all prefer a saner US president about now. That letter was damning on its own.
The consequences of Trump's deals may haunt the USA forever. Depending on the resistance from the 'Rule of Law' folks on both sides.
5
@Anne
I noticed you said rule of law for both sides. If your implying that the democrats have somehow denied the republicans something, you should google Clintons impeachment. There you’ll find that the democrats have given republicans far more than they gave the democrats during Clinton’s impeachment, and by the way, Clinton cooperated, so far Trump hasn’t. If your going to say that the democrats weren’t transparent, again look to the Clinton impeachment, the republicans took far more depositions behind closed doors, than the democrats did, in fact, the democrats allowed more republitards in those closed door depositions than the republicans allowed democrats. And by the way, in an inquiry Trump doesn’t have the right to due process, that only applies when your charged with impeachment. Trump will be able to put forward any witness that has any knowledge of the bribery. And that doesn’t include the Biden’s since they had zero to do with Trump so called Ukrainian foreign policy. Trump supporters need to realize that if trump is given a pass on breaking federal law, I’m sure there are lots of people who have lots of dirt on trump that wouldn’t hesitate to give it to someone to use as a weapon against Trump.
This really is what it comes down to -- each individual doing everything they can to resist Trump fatigue. It can really wear you down. It's not easy to sustain indignation in the face of a man whose outlandish behavior seems boundless. That, coupled with the reality TV culture that has overtaken much of America where people are jaded, obsessed with self-interest, anti-intellectual and mistrusting of institutions -- political and otherwise. Trump has tapped straight into the jugular of this disaffection and is feeding off it and into it. Which makes Michele Goldberg's column so on the mark -- as difficult as it may be, each invididual has to dig deep inside and rage against this dark machine called Trump, not become used to it.
5
While I am afraid Trump will be re-elected, I am so happy to watch Adam Schiff in action and Nancy Pelosi use the word "bribery." The House is doing the right thing, and they are doing it well.
In my wildest dreams, both DJT and Pence are impeached and removed, and we have Nancy Pelosi as president for maybe 6 months. Stranger things have happened.
31
We really do have to get to the bottom of this mystery as to why the bar for Republican behavior is so much lower than that for Democratic behavior.
We all know that if the parties were reversed and a Democratic President engaged in the same behaviors that individual would have long since been drummed from office.
Is it just that we all expect Republicans to have no principles--to lie, to cheat, to suppress votes, to be interested in power only and not any of the ideals of the Constitution? And, as one can see by their behavior and claims, not only Democrats and independents have this expectation--apparently, Republicans, with their "so what" and "get over it" remarks, have it too.
Is it just that Democrats are always involved in disputes over principles and policy and how to accommodate various disparate groups and Republicans just smirk at that and think, with apologies to Vince Lombardi, winning isn't everything, it's the only thing?
How did we get to this point? Yes, I know, Goldwater and Southern Strategy and bigotry and xenophobia and Reagan and "government is the problem". But that's just a documentation of how the party lost its way. How did the American people come to tolerate, even encourage, this lack of integrity?
18
"But it is a monumental mistake to allow people who will accept anything from Trump to set our standards for acceptable public behavior. "
Exactly. Someone has to keep their head. Someone has to have some sense.
7
I am, at this point, convinced that we are witnessing the end of American democracy, and while ironic, it doesn't surprise me at all that it is at the hands of the Republican Party, a party which decades ago declared war on Democrats, and it can't surprise anyone that it would happen under the tutelage of a con man and fraudster who admires autocrats and uses fear and threats and lies to keep people in line and exploits the ignorance and rage of his base, for whom he has only contempt. It could only have happened under someone like Donald Trump and today's GOP.
8
Thank you for this column. It drives to the heart of the problem: complacency, an addiction to headlines, the failure of our primary system of education to ingrain civics and critical thinking in anything close to half the adult population, coupled with decades of daily numbness (delivered by video) such that the country is led to fall silently into embrace of corruption.
Every single sacrifice of our WW2 veterans is abnegated by the modern Republican party who voluntarily fuel fascism. This marks the (visual) beginning of the end...
11
@DSM Education can't compete with a dumbed down popular culture. Justin Beiber and Lil Pump can't compare to Bob Dylan or Joni Mitchell.
The media landscape of today is apathetic and cynical.
Nothing like the idealistic love, peace and understanding of yesteryear.
1
It's not apathy; it is exhaustion. Everyday brings something new to get disgusted, embarrassed, or outraged by with this President. Concerned people are no longer concerned. They are just tuned out. Now it appears there are no compelling Democrats running to displace him. We have extremist who want to change the entire health care system, and complete newbies to the political system. We need an alert, fully aware slightly right-of-center moderate; and Trump will be a bad dream in 11 months.
4
@Borat Smith
What we need is a full on massive protest on Pennsylvania Ave and in every city in this country, that will reenergize the people and send a direct and clear message that Trump is not acceptable and should be kicked out of the WH.
Nikki Haley, Lindsay Graham, McConnell, Joseph Kennedy, David Nunez - is anyone less than a sponge, spineless and too bland to be swallowed? Dumping Trump will not fix American democracy. And dumping these people won't, either. Decades of work will be required. Start it now. Let a million people march in a dozen cities. Let the sound of democracy-loving people wake up the wresting fans and amateur hours watchers. And let the elected officials blocking impeachment re-learn civics. They serve the Constitution, not any person or party. We pay them to do so, and they pledge solemnly to perform.
Let it begin now. Michelle hit the mark.
11
I heard that Ruth Bader Ginsberg was not in court on Wednesday due to a bout of the flue. That information caused me to have a panic attack. When will we take to the streets to protest the mad man and the Republican enablers? What will it take? I'm packed and ready to head to SF, Oakland or Washington DC. Give me a date and time.
10
Why is this. I live in ultra liberal berkeley. Who here is protesting? Not many. Go figure.
“Like addicts to the world’s most unpleasant drug, our political class seems to require ever-greater jolts to feel anything at all.”
This is why we need term limits. Mitch McConnell has been in the Senate longer than I’ve been alive. And this morning I found a gray hair. Not cool.
10
Since when has bribery become an American virtue? Since when has Lindsey Graham's threat to become Trump's 'worst nightmare' become nothing more than a few extra Ambien?
Since you know when: Election night, 2016. So, here we are, folks. Faced with embracing, rejecting or ignoring the mess we've all played some part in creating and enabling. No winners here.
Once anything goes, everything goes.
4
The headline should have begun with the words "Shame on many Americans, especially Republicans..." Not all Americans need to be ashamed. If polls can be believed, a majority has steadfastly opposed Trump since he was elected. These polls complement the fact that in 2016 Trump did not win a mandate from a majority of voters.
Let history parse the confounding reasons why a large minority continued to support Trump. It will probably find the answer in a deadly cocktail of greed, white nationalism, groundless fears, selfishness, political apathy and disinformation from a well-orchestrated propaganda machine that rivals Joseph Goebbels's.
Through the popular vote in 2016 and recent opinion polls, the American soul has been vindicated. The opportunity for a final vindication will be presented in 2020: Even if Trump wins the electoral college vote, the majority of Americans can cleanse themselves of any "shame" - and uphold sacred national values - by voting against Trump.
6
Michelle Goldberg is right. The republic is in danger and all patriots need to comes to its defence. This is not the first time and it won't be the last. Americans need to do this not only for their own sake, but because the United States has been a beacon for liberal democracy for the rest of the world. Imperfect? Certainly. But it is the first country to be founded on an idea and without it, the idea dies.
4
@CarpeDiem
Yes, and one “patriot” that would be very helpful at this point in our history would be Robert Swan Mueller III, he needs to step forward and reveal all.
My favorite columnists are Goldberg and Bouie. (Stephens is an apologist for both climate denialism and illegal Israeli settlements.) Both the style and substance are sound, the gravitas of the moment and the specific offenses against democracy. Overwhelming majorities of Americans want to protect the environment and the social-safety net and the lives of children in classrooms, but there is no longer any way to translate the national will into meaningful federal legislation. Twenty years since Columbine, and the 2nd Amendment remains dug into our legal system like a diseased tick. In the Continental tradition of civil (as opposed to common) law, you can consider precedent if you like but are not required to do so. Op-ed columnists and academics often wield more power than judges. It's called the scientific method, made more flexible through trial and error. Imagine if a ship captain sailed the Atlantic using maps from the 17th century, or a neurologist operated on your brain using a manual from the days before they knew that doctors should wash their hands before surgery. We are doing the same with our legal system, living by rules from the long deceased. Article V is a permanent barrier to amendment, as evidenced by the fact that the Supreme Law has not been touched in thirty years. It's not just the 2nd Amendment. The EC and the Senate are aristocratic by design.
2
What Republicans in Congress think about Trump and what they say about Trump are completely contradictory. He has them eating out of his hand, and yes, it is exhausting to people who believe this has been an illegitimate presidency from its inception. But exhaustion does not always translate to surrender. While it is well-near inevitable Trump will survive the impeachment process, it is incumbent upon those of us who are disgusted by this man's abject corruption to vote for his Democratic opponent in 2020.
2
Sigh. Too eloquent and too true. The lights are going out all over Red America. We shall not see them lit again in our lifetime, if ever.
2
Looking forward to watching Former Ambassador Yovanovitch’s testimony tomorrow. She was the first one to publicly come forward and provide closed-door testimony. She deserves our full attention.
Memo to the GOP: Take this seriously. Stop with the frivolous antics. We’re paying for your microphones!
8
@Vicki
Watching her testimony live — absolutely riveting!
Trump’s live tweet today intimidating her — absolutely disgusting and chilling!
Add that to the list of impeachable items: bribery, extortion, obstruction, abuse of power, and now witness tampering!
It's disinformation Moscow style. Hit 'em with a fusillade of lies, ethical and legal violations so the public cannot process them, go numb, or cease to care. The Democrats are very smart to focus on one specific violation and to now call it bribery, which it is, since Trump was clearly attempting to use the public's money for personal gain. The trick for the Dems is for all of them to repeat it as mantra so as to drown out all the static. It will take an act of cooperation like we have never seen before from the Dems because they stand alone. Unlike the Watergate era there are no longer any ethical Republicans who will stand up for the Rule of Law. Like Trump, all of them gutless are morally bankrupt.
7
In laying waste to every pillar of a civil society— a competent, honest civil service, an independent judiciary, even the need to pay taxes— Trump has also done enormous damage to the very notion of a free press. When Devin Nunes ranted about the “corrupt media” and another Republican thought he had a gotcha moment when he established that Ambassador Taylor had got a piece of information by reading the NYTimes, I kept thinking about England’s The News of the World. The News of the World was once the largest circulation English-language newspaper in the world, a notorious scandal sheet that started in the late 19th century and reached its lowest point in the early 20th. This was when the paper hacked the voicemail of a missing teenager who was later murdered, in the process deleting potential evidence. The paper bribed policemen and employees of the royal household, and even hacked the voice mails of families of soldiers killed in action. When it all came out, the paper was closed down and the editor and the court journalist were jailed. The owner, of course, was Rupert Murdoch. That he is allowed to own a cable network does not speak highly of regulation of the airwaves in the US. This man is the real enemy of the people and the damage he has caused the political system is devastating.
6
Dear Ms. Goldberg,
The only ones who seem "used to it" are Republicans.
I am not used to it. My wife is not used to it. Our extended families are not used to it. We're appalled and ashamed at the actions and attitudes of our fellow countrymen and women in supporting this wanton criminal's incompetence, corruption, and cruelty.
12
More and more of the outrage needs to shift to the Republicans. More and more of the media should be calling them out for their cynical support of this grifter of a president. Justifications that Trump was "just worried about corruption" should be challenged, laughed down, and ultimately shamed. The Trump of Trump University, The Trump Foundation, and The Doral Bed Bug Club does not care about corruption. Any Republican who PRETENDS otherwise, should be immediately called out as no longer a serious contributor to political discourse.
5
Dear Ms. Goldberg,
Did we impeach Bush 43 for launching a war against the wrong country? Did we impeach Cheney for being a one-man military-industrial complex as he went from SecDef to CEO to VP making billions for Halliburton and millions for himself?
Did we put a single person in jail when Wall Street torpedoed global capitalism in 2007 and obliterated trillions in assets? Did we flinch when Paul Volcker put millions permanently out of high-paying jobs to slay an inflation dragon that mostly terrorized rich bondholders?
So pardon my indifference to this impeachment frenzy. Wake me up when Trump does something other than his job or when Democrats start doing theirs.
Cordially,
S.A. Traina
1
It should not be lost that 'journalists' who use terms like 'dull' and 'pizzazz' to summarize an impeachment hearing are a huge part of our problem.
8
I haven't gotten used to trump's criminality, amorality, lack of ethics, dishonesty, childishness, ignorance, rashness, or selfishness. He simply needs to go.
7
When Trump first took office, I started a log of his wrong doings...just one sentence for each item. Within a week I had pages and pages of nefarious activities, any one of which would have lead to the resignation of virtually any other politician. Within a couple weeks, I couldn't keep up with the constant barrage of shocking and unprecedented behavior and gave up on my log but remain keenly engaged. I want to return to my normal reading but feel compelled to stay abreast of the news. It is the constant barrage that is numbing us. I have to constantly remind myself of how I reacted when I first heard about the Ukraine bribery and the White House staff hiding the call on a secure server, and the hundreds of other shocking things this story excuse for a "president" has done. And I haven't even mentioned the policies and judge appointments this criminal is being allowed to influence.
To the GOP: if you grow a spine en masse, he can't hurt you.
4
Michelle Goldberg got it right...Hopeless...Wake up every day waiting for this nightmare to be over... Thats all I can say about the situation. Im still grateful for Adam Schiff, Nancy Pelosi and the few decent republicans (like Cindy McCain who just gave an inspiring interview with David Axelrod)..for keeping the pressure on...and integrity alive...Trying to fight my despair..
3
The popular uprisings in Latin America are more consequential than Trump's misdeeds. And the same goes for the Arab Spring. During the Cold War, a cataclysmic conflagration was a constant fear. The picture of the little Vietnamese girl fleeing a napalm fire was more horrifying to me than anything under Trump. Rwanda, Liberia, and Serbia were genocides. The break-up of the USSR fundamentally transformed the balance of power. They were world-shaking events.
With Trump it's a few thousand separated children, 50 kids in cages, undue pressure on Zelensky, a bad tax bill, obstruction on climate change, and multiple other offenses all far outweighed by slavery and segregation.
The main Trump outrage is his boorish behavior. The call for vigilance is based less on all the offenses than by the fact that Trump is reprehensible.
I am moved more by atrocities with monumental effects than I am by Trump and the harms he has caused. The Rwandan genocide is the single event in my lifetime that affected me most. Mass murder, unjust wars, and widespread popular demands for freedom are the sort of matters that shake my world. Trump disgusts me. His policies have caused great harm. His election shook my confidence in America. But the Rwandan genocide took me to a whole other level. It shook my confidence in mankind. So forgive me if I sometimes to take a break to check the sports page.
@michjas - Indeed mankind is capable of both incredible acts of courage (e.g. D Day Normandy Landing) as well as horrific cruelty & savagery (e.g. Rwandan genocide). It reminds me of the novel "Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil" by John Berendt which showcased a trial set in the deep South of a well respected antiques dealer who was accused of murdering a local transgender man. The concept of "hoodoo magic" which is practiced in Louisiana (as well as other areas where Africans were enslaved). The superstition was that between 11pm & 12am the "good magic" was performed although at the "witching hour" from 12am to 1am the "bad magic" happened. Just as the Bible is thought to be a type of talisman to ward off evil, so we think of garlic or a cross to ward off Dracula type demons who want to suck our blood dry. So on a continuum, the concept of the USA as the "shiny beacon on a hill" served as a foundation or undergird of what gave Americans patriotic pride. We were the "good guys" who rescued the world from the evil of Hitler, Mussolini, Göring, Stalin, Himmler, & Japanese concentration camps. Now we have a Stephen Miller who admires Nazi ideology. We have a leader willing to endanger our allies (Ukrainians, Kurds, Europe) in search of his personal agenda. We no longer uphold our alliances based on mutual virtues of Western principals but rather cozy up to despots, autocrats & oligarchs the world over. Trump writes "love letters" to Kim Jong Un. Is it 12:12 am hoodoo time?
Trump doesn’t surprise me. The mendacity of the GOP congressmen defending him doesn’t surprise me. Even the millions of Americans hoodwinked by Fox News into supporting this President doesn’t surprise me. What surprises me is that we continue to fix the blame for the state of America on one of these parties. I don’t buy it.
We are all culpable. We are all responsible. Try to brush it off as much as we like, make ourselves out to be better than them, we good progressives, the last bastion of real American values and genuine political integrity. In Trump’s hairdo, his ridiculous thinning golden combover, we can see it awful and unadorned: the greed of the empty American soul.
“There’s no doubt that George Soros controls a very large part of the career foreign service of the United States State Department.” - Drat! One more instance where I'm on the outside in the foreign service.
Until someone pulls the plug on Fox and Twitter, he will continue to be perceived as innocent leader fighting for all those folks who view every time he breaks the law as fake news and an attack on themselves. They love their persecution complex.
2
"After the impeachment hearing, some in the media appeared to yawn. Two Reuters reporters pronounced the proceedings “consequential, but dull,” writing, “Unlike the best reality TV shows — not to mention the Trump presidency itself — fireworks and explosive moments were scarce.” An NBC News analysis concluded that the hearing “felt more like the dress rehearsal for a serious one-act play than the opening night of a hit Broadway musical.”'
This quote from this article highlights one of America's major problems. So the msm finds the impeachment hearings a tad dull - really?? And therefore this irrelevant fact determines HOW the msm reports, WHAT the msm reports and IF the msm reports, and the American people - and indeed the world, are expected to rely on the interpretation of world events by these too often uninformed, inaccurate, incompetent hacks - because they hanker for the fireworks of a Trumpian reality show??? Really?
If this is the standard Americans are accepting, and it seems it is, because they have watched Trump in all his excesses over three years - and he is still the POTUS - then America's future is indeed very bleak. No greatness ahead people, just endless squandered opportunities for a flourishing future.
4
"After the impeachment hearing, some in the media appeared to yawn."
How do you explain this, Ms. Goldberg after the thousands, maybe tens of thousands of editorials and op-eds? Are these not having an effect? Or perhaps are they having the opposite effect? They desensitize. You and your colleagues are making the grotesque the new normal, as you indeed write, but for different reasons than you write.
After a while it becomes the boy who cried wolf, not that I wish to impugn the honesty of those crying wolf.
Just remember who won at the end.
2
An excellent and very necessary point, Michelle. I'm tired of hearing over and over how the Democrats need to dramatically convince the public of Trump's unfitness for office. Years ago I was having some dental work done by an older gentleman. He complained that his son in university got a C grade in one of his courses. According to the dentist, the prof was not properly doing his job if every one of his students did not get an A. This ignores the possibility that some students are simply lazy or do not have the aptitude to excel in every subject area. Citizens have a responsibility to make themselves as well informed as possible about what happens in their country. If they prefer politicians who are vulgar entertainers rather than capable policy makers, then they must share some of the responsibility for the consequences of unfit leaders like Donald Trump and his corrupt enablers in Congress.
4
If there's a silver lining … perhaps "getting used to it" is the beginning of "it's getting boring". And as soon as he's perceived as boring he's done. Like any cheap entertainer. The spotlight will leave him and he'll be left in the shadows, a shuddering attention junkie going through withdrawal. That is unless he blows everything up out of desperation. (Sorry, I started out trying to be optimistic here, but I just can't.)
5
Thank you Michelle for hitting it on the head.
Your remarkable common sense has my heart soaring.
I hope the people in this country embrace it.
12
What a surprise...NOT. Normalization of crooked politicians to play "both sides do it" - to bring in the ad dollars - was entirely predictable (and predicted - by me and many others). We had practice, watching the media through the Bush years.
The loss of the Fairness Doctrine, the creation of state - run media (Rush and Hannity radio, Faux TV), preaching politics from the pulpit - it all adds up to where we are, especially when the 24 hour TV news cycle was enhanced by non-stop social media.
We are where we are, and it is frightening. I won't say all of us had a part in it - don't blame those who voted Democratic...we've been on edge and tearing our hair out since election theft night. I have no answers (those who say "get out and vote" forget that we haven't fixed our voting system). Only questions, fears, and depression about what we continually witness.
10
Shame on the Democrats for spending the last three years investigating. You were elected to do more for this country. And yes, Trump is not an "ordinary" president and there are elections next year.
I am a registered Democrats and tired of the media talking day and night about impeachment after two years talking about the Muller report. But there is a country to run. The national debt is over twenty two trillion, the trade deficit is over six hundred billion, and many more essencial issues.
1
@Templer
And this is the Democrats' fault? Which party rammed through the tax bill that's making the debt soar?
Or take a look at the mound of bills passed by the House (Democrats) that are now sitting on Mitch McConnell's desk, which the Republican refuse to consider.
Who is it that isn't doing the job they were elected to do?
19
The Democrats have only been investigating for 1 year. The Meuller report was not Democrat investigation. To not proceed with the impeachment hearings would require Democrats to abdicate responsibility.
3
Have you looked at Mitch McConnell's desk? Piled high with bills passed by the house.
4
Trump has been in office for three years and the profound level of treachery and corruption that he brought to the Presidency continues to shock everyday. We are not used to Trump - we are in a state of shock that such a cruel and immoral person could possibly be our president. I have a theory that Trump came to office already deeply beholden to Putin, whose spies most likely targeted Trump as a private citizen, collecting "dirt" on his Eastern European dealings. And thus, when he won the election with the help of Russian interference, Putin agreed to keep quiet about Trump's shady, if not illegal, business dealings in Eastern Europe (whether in Moscow, Ukraine, Romania, Turkey etc), in exchange for Trump's loyalty and efforts to possibly lift the sanctions, advocate for Russia's re-entry into the G-7, and form an anti-Western alliance to compete with NATO. It would seem that Putin actually controls Trump's foreign policy in exchange for his silence. And the very thought of this is shocking - and not at all normal.
23
That testimony is coming from so many diplomats and people in the foreign service is fortuitous. These experts use words and ideas as tools and as weapons, and I'm grateful that they are in the spotlight and demonstrating their prowess with them.
Trump and the GOP know nothings cannot win with their third rate conspiracy theories and bluster.
4
Watching Nancy Pelosi answering reporters’s questions today, I was encouraged by the strength and vigor of her responses deriding those who are using republican talking points as their basis of inquiry. Her righteous anger was well directed because the media does the country wrong when it is used to echo conspiracy theories and false equivalencies.
Listening to Ambassador Taylor and Deputy Assistant Kent speak, I was impressed by their candor and integrity in their responses to questions from both sides.
For Adam Schiff to maintain equilibrium with the many rude interruptions of the Republicans was a Herculean feat that he seemed to manage effortlessly, treating them as the spoiled brats that they are.
Quite frankly, my dander is up, and I will direct my attention at those who are destroying our democracy. In the meantime, I will be attentively watching the Impeachment hearings to get to the truth. Those will’o’the wisps who hover over Trump’s swamp will be engulfed in marsh gas.
25
Thirty years ago Ronald Reagan, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down the wall." 2019 Donald j Trump, "build the wall." Not us who lost ar our bearings, the Republican party has lost its center of gravity.
8
I remember watching the Nixon impeachment trial in my early 20's. I had no real appreciation of gravity of the event until the hearings progressed and the evidence unfolded.
As more and more testimony reveals the extent of Trump's corruption, threats, bribery and blatant obstruction of justice, America will engage.
13
On one of the networks I watched a rebroadcast of Russian TV news, mocking the evidence and the witnesses in the impeachment inquiry. They sounded remarkably like the republican defenders of the president. If I was a republican, I think this would bother me more than anything else.
42
At times like this, we have to look for the silver lining.
The Kentucky Governor election is one example of the silver lining. In a red state like Kentucky, an ardent Trump supporter lost the election to a Democrat.
Bill Straub in Northern Kentucky Tribune wrote this:
"Trump and Bevin are extremely wealthy businessmen and political dilettantes serving their first terms in high governmental offices, though on substantially different scales. Both are firmly entrenched on the conservative side of the aisle. But the most striking similarities come by way of style.
"Neither Trump nor Bevin appears concerned about representing all of their constituents. In fact, they are extremely dismissive of those who question their actions and motivations. They don’t accept the oversight duties of the legislatures they are forced to deal with or, more particularly, the press, which Trump has famously characterized as 'the enemy of the people' and Bevin has pointedly compared to 'cicadas’ because 'they make a lot of noise'."
Let's hope the nation's voters do to Trump what Kentucky's voters did to Bevin.
11
I share these same concerns and was gratified to see them laid out here. I do think that forcing specific Republicans, especially those who are running for re-election, need to be forced to state their positions on Trump’s actions in clear terms. It’s too easy to hide behind the generic party label. Bring these individual “lawmakers” into the strongest light possible. I’ll bet they’ll find such exposure very uncomfortable.
6
This is spot on as I understand the current situation with the Republican Party. The question is; where will the Republican voter who can no longer stomach the Trumplidite dogma find safe haven for their political views? Can they, after walking lock step with the Republican party for their entire lives, actually vote outside of their party? Do they truly believe that they can"take their party back" with Trump in power and the elected Republicans showing no ability to be leaders? It doesn't look good. Instead, those elected officials are on bended knee pledging fealty to Trump. The electoral college requires a coalition of people willing to step outside of their comfort zone to change this. That means Dems and Republicans finding common ground and moving forward from there. Forget instant gratification. Time to get down to the business of real governance. It's hard and it's rewarding. You have to put the time in. Reality TV is a myth.
8
I will pay attention when something is done about it.
@Maureen That is exactly the problem. It's up to us to do something about it, not wait for someone else to "save'' us
Couldn't agree more!
2
And there was yet another school shooting today.
Shame on us for getting used to that, too.
14
Sadly, I feel Michelle is correct. Like the runaway freight train, our democracy is slipping away and there doesn't seem to be much we can do about it.
5
Trump represents a progression toward the abuse of power in the presidency that has a long history that runs parallel to the influence of money on our political system. If we want to address it we must overturn Citizens United, (corporate person-hood and money as free speech), otherwise we are like the rest of the world under the power of oligarchs. This is an important point in history. It is time to wake up to the power of imperial oligarchs that have brought us to this day. It is time to address the root causes.
25
I wish someone would organize a march. Show up for impeachment, march now. It will, at the least, let us join those in Hong Kong, Santiago and Iraq in showing our support of democracy with a loud cry for the people. And sometimes it works.
19
We are not ‘used to trump’. We need the people whose job is it to run the country and to ensure is it run ‘correctly’ to do their jobs and now that is happening. We are watching and praying for justice. Wise ordinary working people are working and have to trust those in charge to do the right thing. We will do our part and vote next nov. We do not need to watch every moment of the impeachments. It can be summarized.
3
The other big news was the DC Circuit's refusal to entertain Donald's objection to the lower court decision for his accountancy firm to release his taxes.
The Times supposes the Supreme Court will make a big deal of it, circumscribing presidential immunity.
I don't think the high court will give him a hearing. The lower court binds not Trump, but his account, Mazars USA, so any directive will not directly affect Donald.
10
Sorry to say Michelle (and patriotic Americans everywhere, especially those of you who like my father and son served in uniform - a heartfelt thank you for your service!!!), the last of the real Republican Party died with Senator John McCain, a true patriot and American hero whose legitimate, conservative views, which I personally mostly disagreed with, nevertheless put country ahead of partisanship. There is a whimper left of that GOP in Senator Mittens Romney, but sadly only a whisper of a whimper.
"Withholding security assistance from Ukraine “for no good reason other than help with a political campaign made no sense,” said Taylor, America’s top diplomat in that country. “It was counterproductive to all of what we had been trying to do. It was illogical. It could not be explained. It was crazy.”
"Crazy" may explain Trump's attempted bribery, but it does not explain the Republican Party';s defense of the indefensible. What explains the current day GOP is desperation for an authoritarian rule. Republicans abhor democracy. And well they should.
America is a thriving, diverse populace, no longer a white male, pretend-Christian nation. Republicans are a shrinking white-male Christian, nationalistic irresponsible and mostly racist minority.
What is the future of the current iteration of the GOP? Even if they save a tyrant for another four years of crime, how long can this shrinking minority impose their ideology of white-male Christian supremacy on the American people?
860
@JABarry
Thanks for your eloquent words, JA. I found them so inspiring I retained a copy of your comments for my future reference and contemplation.
I have recently found myself mourning the loss of the Republican Party. It's worth noting that I've always been a Democratic Party-leaning Independent voter and have many times criticized our past Republican leaders. That said, my own "political awakening" that has come about during our country's trump fiasco has found me leaning ever more in a conservative direction. For the first time in my life I have actually thought deeply about historical Republican figures and the positions the party has taken. While I still don't agree with many of the party's ultra-conservative positions of the past couple decades, I find myself cautiously aware and concerned regarding some of the social positions our new, young Democratic leaders are espousing, and don't support some of the positions the elder leaders have adopted. The Dems don't have much to offer me. I yearn for a young, conservative, and principled Republican leader to emerge. I'm convinced there are some lurking...reticent to emerge and subject themselves to trump's paranoiac rage.
12
Living in the past can be comforting . That is where you will find the Republicans you seek.
48
@JABarry
The real Republican party is alive and well and called Centrist Democrats: Obama, Clinton, Biden, Harris, even Mayor Pete.
The group now pretending to be Republicans should be renamed the Fingers in Every Pot (friends of monopolistic "capitalists) -- someone else come up with something.
Trump in some ways is a good thing but he's more of a bad thing. Time to be careful when you vote for your Congress person and demand that gerrymandering be done away with.
28
Exactly.
And of course after a day in which more damning evidence of Trump's behavior could not have been presented more clearly, now it's pick, pick, pick about how the Democrats could have done this, could have done that, missed opportunities, etc. etc. etc., along with claims that maybe the Republicans scored a few points after all (when it's clear to anyone who watched that they were flailing). In other words, more of the usual what aboutism/both sides business.
But in the end all that matters is what we do when it's all over. If we keep him on the job for four more years despite everything, then we've nobody to blame but ourselves.
11
Please don’t group all of us as normalizing this corrupt president. Me, as well as many others I know are disgusted with him and his fixers in the Republican Party.
6
What starker way to drive home this message than w/ a black and white photo. Well stated.
2
Kudos again Michelle for another spot on piece, and putting the entire trump fiasco in perspective. I believe we may be getting close to where the lackluster public may light up their brain cells once again, and realize that this presidency is marching us directly downhill to the pit they came from, filled with con artists & thieves enriching themselves at the American taxpayer expense.
"Now that there is abundant evidence of just such a quid pro quo, Graham has moved the goal posts, saying that the inquiry is “invalid” unless the whistle-blower who revealed Trump’s Ukraine scheme is outed." This indicates that Graham has indeed crossed over to the dark side, where breaking the law means nothing.
Although I've voted for a few republicans in my past, I find nothing redeeming in their clan these days. In fact, just writing this about them makes me want to go shower again.
It used to be normal to be a happy camper living in America with all the legal freedoms that came with it, and not feel the need to watch the news 24/7 to keep an eye on the swamp rats that trump calls his administration.
I, for one, will be sleeping with one eye open until their leader is gone. I hope we all, along with our democracy, last long enough to see some good times again.
13
The impeachment hearings are a sign of how far the Democratic party has fallen: overtly Marxist and still trying to reverse the election of 2016 by any means necessary. I know it is hard for you but lets get real for a minute and acknowledge that the idea that Trump should be impeached started before he was inaugurated based on deep distaste for the man and his policies. Having failed with the faux Russia narrative and running out of time to stage their Stalinist show trial before the election, the Schiff gang grasped at a peccadillo that would have been ignored in other presidents. We can agree that Trump is a distasteful person but equally distasteful are the clowns running this witch hunt and the unelected deep-staters who think their will is more important than that of the duly elected President.
@CB
Never, ever, has another American president conspired with a foreign prince to steal an American election. You'd best believe that this is way more than a "peccadillo," it is a direct threat to our democracy as well as our sovereignty and of course our national security; and there is no way it would have been ignored in this or any other universe.
@CB
Marxist
Reverse the election
Idea started before he was inaugurated
Faux Russia narrative
Stalinist show trial
Schiff gang
Witch hunt
deep-staters
Have I hit all the Fox talking points yet?
It is repulsive to read all of the ugly lies coming out of the GOP and Trump White House. I agree that the USA has sunk below the other oligarchical governments like Russia, Hungary and Turkey and am appalled at the blatant greed of the Trump family and the amoral policies patched together by his toady underlings. Watching Erdoğan give Trump the side eye gave me the sick feeling that our President is a total weakling, willing to lick the boots of the Turk to further his own personal greed rather than stand up for the American & Kurdish allies best interest.
What will be interesting is if enough of the US citizens become so angry that they begin to form mass demonstrations as we are currently witnessing in Ecuador, Chile, Peru, Lebanon, Hong Kong, Iraq, Indonesia, Yellow Vests in France, farmers in the Netherlands and Israel. The barrier in the USA is that our cut throat Capitalist society leaves the poorest barely scraping by and the middle class self absorbed with technology, entertainment & consumer goods. Also our public schools leave too many unable to critically understand the issues at stake under the current administration much like the frog in boiling water analogy. If there was a mass uprising, a real test of the Trump administration would be if there would be a Tiananmen Square authoritarian crackdown or would Trump allow democracy to prevail?
11
I worry that Democrats are still clueless about trumping Trump.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Democrats seem to wait until Trump falls of his own weight.
I wish Democrats would focus on a new DEMOCRACY wave.
They might use the DEMOCRACY song of Leonard Cohen (1992)
"Democracy is coming to the USA"
-------------------------------------------
(Perhaps the Times could write about the DEMOCRACY song).
1
"Shame on us for getting used to Trump." ?!
"Us "?
"It's a sign of how far we have fallen. "
"We "?!
When I was a Barnard Freshman, the Freshman English teacher instructed the students that no students was to use the term : "We" in a sentence unless :
1. The student had tapeworm.
2. The students was a reigning monarch.
She relayed that one of her students had turned out to be a reigning monarch. That student was the only one who was allowed to refer to herself as :"We."
Unless Ms. Goldberg is a reigning monarch or has tapeworm,
she should use the singular and speak for herself.
She does not speak for me or for millions of of Americans .
5
@DJS: I think she was talking about society as a whole and also the press.
3
@DJS
Well, I suppose one could say that the USA has a tapeworm.
2
@DJS She speaks for me and millions more Americans. Fact.
1
It's really like a hostage situation where the hostage becomes more in tune with his captor than being a captive if that makes any sense. At least that is how I look at Trump supporters. They have become enamored of him because he is showing them he can beat the system. Get away with almost anything. This perverse perception of leadership, this show of a lack of remorse or accountability incites lawlessness, anarchy, and every other primordial state of humanity since the dawn of time in what I regard to be a bunch of Neanderthals. If it looks like one, walks like one, it always carries a club too.
6
Thank you again, Ms. Goldberg. The point here continually reminds me of Masha Gessen's "Rules" that she published on Nov. 10, 2016. Ms. Gessen knows of what she writes and speaks. Here in a very pertinent one: "Rule #4: Be outraged. If you follow Rule #1 [Believe the autocrat. He means what he says.] and believe what the autocrat-elect is saying, you will not be surprised. But in the face of the impulse to normalize, it is essential to maintain one’s capacity for shock. This will lead people to call you unreasonable and hysterical, and to accuse you of overreacting. It is no fun to be the only hysterical person in the room. Prepare yourself." https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2016/11/10/trump-election-autocracy-rules-for-survival/
4
I agree, shame on you. Your constant harping on trumpy quotes and personal shortfalls have trivialized things. The focus should be on the indelible harm that trumpy and his policies have brought on to the nation and the world. Unfortunately, writing about that doesn't get you click-bait notoriety.
5
I’m not used to it. I’ve been continuously upset for three years but did find the hearing yesterday flat. But then I know the material. However sometimes I think the Dems should amp it up a bit. And NYT, stop disparaging Elizabeth Warren and ignoring Bernie Sanders.
4
Well I'm not used to it. I continue to be horrified with the Republican Party. It's one thing to have a dictator wanna-be but it's another thing to have one of our two major political parties endorsing him, enabling him, protecting him as he destroys our democracy, mocks our ideals, compromises our foreign policy and apparently, works to dismantle the people's government.
So I ask you, if you're a Republican voter: are you OK with this? Is it OK with you if we become another Turkey, another Russia, if we're governed by an orange Kim or Duterte? Or do you still want to be an American?
It's getting late in the day. All Americans must now stand together regardless of color, creed, or political party and defend this democracy.
9
Re-Electing Donald
Get Down to cases, get on with the show,
Schiff’s follies fail, there’s no knockout blow,
So Donald will stumble but stay on his feet
Do meet and greets, hear catcalls and bleat
Ripostes and responses, insults and curses
Shake and back-slap accept no reverses;
Chutzpah he learned while cheating his rivals,
Cheating contractors, his hotel revivals-
Bankrupting those to whom he was owing
Shameless as ever while his pile was growing;
With stock prices rising, he’ll count on your vote
Hold your nose if you must but he’ll get your vote.
Will he be tried as an adult?
12
I have not gotten used to the President! I recognized Trump as an aberration, well prior to the moment he announced his run for the presidency. He is 'American carnage', the pathological one, the lie incarnate, the rabid tabloid president. I hope we have the wherewithal, civic skills, the remembered and living heritage to right the wrongs and heal the grave harm he's inflicted upon the body politic and elsewhere in the world. Much will need to be done. As for the Republicans that show servile deference or enable him, even at this late hour, they will pay at the ballot box and in the pages of history in the years to come. A truthful, well written hurtful epitaph on their house, a pox, now and forever, as their conduct and written words are going to haunt them and their families' name. Think; General Benedict Arnold, who sold his loyalty for money, title, and position to a 'golden' personage, on the wrong side of history, King George III. Trump is OUR thug autocrat.
4
Michelle,
Did women get used to being slapped on the butt, called Honey and Sweetie, told to bring coffee and make sure it is hot this time?
I doubt it.
They endured what they could not change.
I lived most of my adult life in NYC where Trump was always regarded as a buffoon, a tasteless joke, a glutton for attention.
I have always found him a combination of risible and repulsive, as did most New Yorkers.
Just because I have endured him does NOT mean I have gotten used to him and his toadies and ilk.
Trump has been done TO me.
Personally I feel no shame, only an exhausting mixture of fury, disgust, and despair with a side serving of utter puzzlement.
13
Nobody has gotten used to him. Nobody.
7
Any reporter guilty of calling Wednesday’s testimony “dull” is clearly in the wrong business. They belong in the stands at a WWF event, not in a newsroom. Shame on them for their shallowness. Don’t they need at least a bachelors degree?
Just disgusting!
10
"By any normal metric, this week’s news — the impeachment hearing, the Stone trial, the mortifying Erdogan meeting, not to mention new revelations of the senior Trump adviser Stephen Miller’s white nationalism — was sensational and historic."
We must do the right thing on behalf of our beloved country, even though the Trumpies might all be a lost cause by now. (As NPR reported this morning, Miller, Bannon and Julie Hahn were all involved. It was not white nationalism. It was white supremacy.)
2
Get used to it? Like getting used to heartburn? You're kidding.
Right?
3
I Refuse to ever let him be normalized and get used to him.
He is an evil megalomanic. What kind of a being separates infants from their mothers and fathers??
The best remedy is to disconnect from him as much as possible without sticking one's head in the sand.
Never, ever get used to him.
7
Like most nations, we're in an unhappy marriage of groups and individuals who just don't see eye-to-eye. But we all agree that the problem is the Other Guys, the ones standing against us.
I don't see how you resolve our situation. Sure, love, intelligence, and understanding would work, but those are all on permanent back-order. And we need all Americans to be immersed in those qualities immediately; time we don't have.
So maybe a friendly divorce is requisite for progress. Counseling hasn't worked. Stalling for time hasn't worked. Trying harder hasn't worked.
Who or what will bring us back together?
Maybe the melting pot idea was a bad one. People are tribal, and there's even much contention, violence, and hatred even among members of the same tribe.
Maybe there's no good answer. We just wait till we're forced to act, like with Bunker Hill, Harper's Ferry, Pearl Harbor, or 9/11.
But more likely, I'm just overwrought from years of being a political junkie. When I hit the streets, things seem normal, organized, unthreatening, and even boring. Maybe our diversions -- our cellphones, computers, TV, movies, hobbies, even work and school -- will carry us through this rough patch. It is all psychological. Many of us are fully capable of making a hell of heaven and vice-versa.
So we need to be careful and judicious in our conclusions. I know that many of mine are wrong, but I don't know which ones, at least not enough to bet my life and yours on them.
1
Sir Thomas More warned us about these people who want to be above the law in his speech to his son-in-law, Roper.
"Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned 'round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country's planted thick with laws from coast to coast– man's laws, not God's– and if you cut them down—and you're just the man to do it—do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law for my own safety's sake."
So, are we a country of laws? Or just how the wind blows.
2
A few days ago, in the NYT comment section, a reader revealed that her parents were die-hard Trump fans and unable to process facts. Last night, in a conversation with Stephen Colbert, Nicolle Wallace revealed that her Republican parents want to see Trump immortalized on Mount Rushmore. Yesterday at the impeachment inquiry hearings, William Taylor said of Trump's Ukraine gambit, “It was counterproductive to all of what we had been trying to do. It was illogical. It could not be explained. It was crazy.” I believe that in order to be a Republican and vote for Trump, you must embrace the irrational. That is the secret ingredient that flavors Republican politics and delights the Republican base. If you've ever wondered why you can't have an intelligent political conversation with your Republican parents, now you know.
5
Seriously, who has gotten used to him? Why do people keep saying that? Nobody I know, met, or read has gotten used to him. You either hate him or love him. If you love him, then he hasn't eroded yours or anyone's sense of the Overton window. Those who love him now probably supported him from the beginning and always wanted someone who would act like him. This sentence is some kind of cathartic shibboleth. Noone has gotten used to him, especially the media.
4
Shame on us for Trump, and shame on us for yet another day of school shootings which, I might add, is in relatively small font past the crease - a newspaper's way of indicating it's not big news anymore.
3
Trump is the most shocking disgrace in American history. Never normalize him!
6
Yes, hair-on-fire, threat level red! Ergot in the rye? Or maybe, my favorite theory, that this unhinged mindset, this torpor, this infection, began with professional wrestling...
Actually, I think that so very mush of this is nothing new - just now its out in the open.
The Trump presidency is macabre.
I'm not used to it.
I'm still shocked every day.
Will Roger Stone spend 20 yrs in prison?
In 1968 I worked in Robert Kennedy's campaign before he was assassinated. Is Bill Barr really head of the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice?
Is Mike Pompeo really Attorney General?
Is Trump really planning to withdraw the U.S. from NATO?
What crazy people is Stephen Miller connected to?
Did the Trump administration really sell out our democracy in Ukraine in order to ruin Joe Biden?
Will Kim Jong Un attack South Korea now that the U.S. doesn't care about S. Korea anymore?
Will Putin invade Eastern Europe now that the U.S. doesn't care anymore about Europe anymore?
Will more people be slaughtered if Trump keeps not caring
if Putin wants to run over another Middle Eastern country like he & Erdogan ran over Syria?
Is Putin, who helped elect Trump in an act of war against the U.S., really invited to Trump's White House?
Will I one day see Vladimir Putin downtown on K Street like I once saw Mikhail Gorbachev? Can Gorbachev believe what Putin is doing?
Did Erdogan just visit the White House after carrying out ethnic cleansing of our former allies the Kurds?
Did we really betray the Kurds after they fought with us & took 11,000 casualties?
Will 20 million people lose their insurance because Trump hates Barack Obama?
Is Trump really an asset of Russia?
Grotesque.
You don't have to pinch me.
I'm wide awake in this nightmare.
23
I’m not used to this scoundrel of a president. I mourn the death of our nation. I’m afraid that it’s too late. I doubt that he will he removed from office. I’m sure he will be re-elected. The right wing propaganda machine is too strong.
2
Shame on us for allowing him to be our president (which is very difficult for me to type...the word president...since 2016).
5
Many of us are not allowing Trump's antics to "normalize" us. We are angry at the continued intransigence exhibited by the mealy mouthed Republican enablers. We are anxious to see justice done...to all those who have defied the Constitution and their oath...and I do mean all. But because we must work within Constitutional constraints there are limits to what we, as citizens, can do. This is why we elect representatives to Congress to speak for us and protect the country from the kind of abuses we have witnessed in the Trump administration. When those representatives ignore their oath of office we can do little, in the immediate moment, to call them to account. I agree that democracy is imperiled at this moment, but what can we do when these same representatives are in "cahoots" with the "mob boss" himself? The answer to that is not a place one wants to go.
6
One of Ms. Goldberg's best columns ever! As I go over the $millions paid to Republican members of Congress by the Russians in 2016, I can't help thinking that they are surely demonstrating loyalty to their adversarial benefactors--not to their constituents.
Ms. Goldberg says about the false Republican attacks on George Soros, "these are the sort of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories that deform public life in squalid second-rate oligarchies like Russia and Hungary. In three short years, Republicans have allowed our country to sink to that level — indeed, to sink below it, since foreign authoritarians find it easy to manipulate our president, and scarcely seem to regard him as their equal." Perfectly stated, and tragically true.
7
BRAVA! This is truly disturbing. Thank you for shouting out the truth!
2
Nothing to be shameful about getting used to Trump as our president. How long can one be bogged down by the Trump derangement syndrome? Just another year and a clear choice before the nation. To reelect Trump of replace him with a nominee of the Democratic party from a growing choice.
1
According to NBC, the hearings lacked “pizzazz.” I wish they had provided some example of hearings with that pizzazz, as I myself have never seen a hearing that’s met that standard.
What would have helped? Car chases? Godzilla? The Rockettes?
10
The translation of all the yawning: "Is this enough to break through the Great Wall of Fox News, thus changing the minds of the overrepresented-thanks-to-gerrymandering GOP base, thus making it possible for GOP legislators to do what they all know perfectly well is the right and necessary thing to do?"
Most of America wakes up every day knowing this is all a travesty. But as long as Fox and the Internet Troll Mill keep brainwashing the requisite portion of the electorate ("Trump Good.... Liberals and People Who are Different Than You Bad...") none of it matters. The focus needs to be on getting through to those voters. The rest is important but needs to be understood as preaching to the choir (even though the choir is bigger than the rest of the congregation!)
3
"After the impeachment hearing, some in the media appeared to yawn. Two Reuters reporters pronounced the proceedings 'consequential, but dull,' writing, 'Unlike the best reality TV shows — not to mention the Trump presidency itself — fireworks and explosive moments were scarce.' An NBC News analysis concluded that the hearing 'felt more like the dress rehearsal for a serious one-act play than the opening night of a hit Broadway musical.' "
I find these media types misguided. I'm delighted with the overall orderly and factual nature of the impeachment hearings. I'd be even more delighted if the Republicans would shape up.
But for the Reuters reporters, may I recommend some entertainment? Twelve Angry Men" or "Inherit the Wind" might fit the bill.
For something more modern, I'd suggest the episode of ST:TNG in which two Klingons, Durass and Galron, met on board the Enterprise to discuss their differences. They hurled recriminations at each other until Galron said, "You will die, slowly, Durassssss..." -- whereupon they sprang at each other. Fortunately Captain Picard, being in charge, was able to avert mayhem. But it was anything but dull.
Trump debases. It's what he does. Maybe some people, Republicans, have accepted (embraced?) his debasing of the presidency, the executive branch, the rule of law, our international standing and alliances, our public discourse, our culture and our republic. The rest of us have not.
We recognize that Trump is a cancer Upon America. We would feel a lot better and the nation better off if the press, media and ALL Democratic politicians would do the same.
6
From the number of people who write letters to the editor on articles about Trump in the NY Times I'd have to say that I haven't read of anyone who has said that they were getting used to Trump. While I agree that it is frustrating that "Forever Trumpers" only listen to Fox News, and read articles from Right Wing media, I know of nobody who is numb and accepting of Trump. When Trump is finally out of office people may - then - want to get used to Trump . . . only joking.
2
When you write "Shame on Us for Getting Used to Trump" you speak only for the media and the "political class" which "seems to require ever-greater jolts to feel anything at all."
The rest of us who don't live amongst pundits and politicos never treat any of this as good or bad entertainment. To us, it's a disaster.
For the wealthy, powerful, and influential comprising the political and pundit class a continuing crisis of this magnitude is an opportunity. For us little people, it's an unmitigated catastrophe.
Trump and all the suffering he has caused, and continues to cause, has revived the profitability of news outlets that were in dire trouble and failing prior to his rise. Trump has raised not just the profit margins of Fox News, he's been the greatest financial boon to outlets and press like CNN and the Times which pride themselves on fact-based reporting.
What you describe is not new. The press you castigate played a material part in Trump's rise. Many of us increasingly believe that executives at major news outlets across the political spectrum dread the fall of Trump, as once he's gone subscription rates will fall, as will advertising revenue.
Little wonder "reporters pronounced the proceedings “consequential, but dull,” and said “Unlike the best reality TV shows...explosive moments were scarce.”
Normal people realize that this is not theater and fear that our Republic is dying. Only the media worries about a lack of "fireworks" because they fear lower revenue.
7
Wrong. We have not gotten used to Trump. A GOP Congress has abdicated its allegiance to our Constitution and democratic ideals to pander to Trump.
6
Why shame on us, Michelle?? What else could we do after three years of daily attacks on decency and truth? I think we should all have been out marching in the streets every day of these last three years, but most people can't take time off from work or childcare or are too afraid of violent retaliation. That's sad. But the shame is all on the GOP for enabling the horror to go on.
7
Great column. I find it very depressing that so many Americans, especially GOP members of Congress and evangelical Christians, accept Trump's immoral, unethical and criminal behavior as normal. Trump is a proven pathological liar, an uncaring narcissist, a racist, a draft-dodging coward, a con man who cheats and steals and brags about sexually assaulting women, a "college educated" man who still does not know basic U.S. or world history, or the U.S. Constitution, and doesn't even know how to spell at a college level.
It is also disheartening when the mainstream media fails to do its job for the American people and shrugs off the importance of the impeachment hearing because it didn't have the "pizzazz" that some reporters wanted.
7
I can't speak for others, but I'll never get used to this.
4
Unbelievably right on and inspired journalism. I try daily to just get people to look and listen. Left. Right. Middle. Too much at stake to silo. Always has been somewhat but we are letting a truly pathological leader play Joker with our country.
1
Daniel Moynihan the late U.S. Senator wrote of "Defining deviance down". It appears Trump and his GOP supporters are attempting to define normalcy down. I pray they fail.
2
I'm surprised only by Toensing and diGenova, when they appeared on the Lou Dobbs show and announced "“There’s no doubt that George Soros controls a very large part of the career foreign service of the United States State Department,” didn't tap their vest pocket and say in unison that they had the list of names right there. Boy, Joe McCarthy must wish he could be playing in this game.
4
Reuters and NBC should be ashamed. The journalists clamoring for more "pizzazz" instead of focusing on the substance of what was revealed in the impeachment hearings should be writing action movie reviews on Rotten Tomatoes instead of covering one of the most consequential political crises of our time.
4
The Republican party is no longer the party of small government but of no government. Hence Trump and his lawlessness and lies. It is imperative to remove this man from office and all that he represents. Americans who want our republic to survive and flourish cannot shrink from this responsibility. Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff are lodestars on this American journey.
2
I will never get used to Trump and will never accept the complicit behavior of the Republicans as acceptable.I grew up during the Second World War and always believed the Allies would win-I lived through the McCarthy era and believed that he and his creepy cohort, Roy Cohn, would be discredited, I even believed that the U.S. would win the Cold War and that the takeover by Russia of Eastern Europe would be reversed and we would not be buried by Communism as Khrushchev declared.Why would I lose faith now-Trump is a corrupt and compromised person and those who support him are equally guilty of questionable morals and no loyalty to their country.
1
The writer makes it seem that because of our collective failure to stop Trump it's our fault. But that is like blaming the passengers in the car for the driver being drunk. Oh wait...
Wrong. Anyone who's been paying attention already knows there are no depths to which DJT won't sink to benefit himself against the interests of all others. The ONLY thing that shocks me is how many people are enabling this horrifically corrupt person as he continues to defile our entire government.
3
Past time to stop using "quid pro quo," which at least implies a willing exchange, and call the Ukraine fiasco what it is/was: extortion.
2
@Martin I agree, and can't understand why Nancy Pelosi has settled on bribery instead.
@Martin
Bribery, extortion, obstruction. That’s three strikes.
@Kyle Gann
Probably because "bribery" is specifically mentioned in the Constitution as an impeachable offense.
Ms Goldberg, Your most powerful column yet. The yawning reporters you cite are the appalling index to the deep decadence that grips our culture. Cheap entertainment is what is required
now. Truth is boring.
3
When you are willing to through out doctrine, traditions, laws, and constitution for expediency than Republicans are the new radicals.
Just as those who seek to change Catholic Church teachings, dogma, and tradition for modernization are the radicals in the Church.
"Now the claims are getting louder. On Wednesday night Joe diGenova and Victoria Toensing, two attorneys who’ve served as conduits between Giuliani and corrupt Ukrainian interests, appeared on Lou Dobbs’s Fox Business show, where diGenova said, “There’s no doubt that George Soros controls a very large part of the career foreign service of the United States State Department.” On Thursday, the white nationalist Representative Steve King tweeted out a picture of Soros’s son, claiming, absurdly, that he was the whistle-blower. (King later deleted it.)"
This and other Republican absurdities take me back to 1983's A Nation at Risk, which recommended reform of our education system. It argued that if a foreign power had imposed the then-current system of education on the U.S., "we might well have viewed it as an act of war."
I think the same goes for today's Trump administration.
2
As Nancy Pelosi said to Trump, “All roads lead to Russia with you.” But Trump can’t be the only one on this path. It just doesn’t seem possible we’d be in such deep crisis without collusion from other Republican politicians and social media leaders. A half dozen Republicans went to Russia on the 4th of July. What does that say?
5
As soon as the republicans realize that their licking Trump’s boots are actually Russian feet and boots, maybe they will come to their senses, clearly Putin has some good on trump and he has orchestrated republicans becoming boot lickers. So much for their patriotism nationalism American flag lapel pins and exhibition of putting country ahead. Republicans have been putting Russia ahead via trump, without knowing it. When they sold their souls to trump they must have also handed over their brains.
5
"[O]ur fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
"Now we are ... testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure....
"It is ,,, for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us --
"that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion --
"that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain;
"that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom;
"and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth."
-- President Lincoln
Dark days lie ahead. May we not become blind to the perils that we face, and may we resolve to not give up the fight.
1
Power corrupts. Right Republicans? Power CORRUPTS.
2
America is an empire in the late stages of decline. More children were shot in school today. Will anything be done to protect American children? Of course not. Will Americans save their democracy from Trump? Of course not.
America is rotten to the core. Let it decompose. Maybe something better will sprout on newly fertilized ground.
@617to416
No. No. No.
Vote straight Democratic and give this country a chance to rebound.
It is not too late but 2020 will decide much.
Everyone who worries...convince your neighbor, relative, office mate.
I know. There are corrupt, incompetent Dems as well. But we have to stop this.
1
We have been getting used to Trump for quite a while. In the modern era we submitted to HUAC and Californians gave Richard Nixon an opportunity to smear Helen Gahagan Douglas and start on his famed career. It was only a few baby steps to Joseph McCarthy and Roy Cohen, Trumps mentor. Soon thereafter white grievances and white supremacy, and the southern strategy were in the political tool box of every Republican President since tricky Dick. Trump has added to the Republican political recipe in a number of significant ways. Following the decline in American educational standards, he has turned ignorance into a virtue along with greed. He has spread his mendacity like manure in the fields of the twitter universe where he and his sycophants reside. Internet pornography sanctions his well developed misogyny.
Trumps originality , which cannot be dismissed, was to elevate and amplify his role as the host of a stupid TV show and be reincarnated as President. Let us hope or rather pray that the next President in 2020 can loudly proclaim "you're fired".
1
"Like addicts to the world’s most unpleasant drug, our political class seems to require ever-greater jolts to feel anything at all.' Brilliant, Michelle. Please proceed.
3
Withholding security assistance from Ukraine “for no good reason other than help with a political campaign made no sense,” said Taylor, America’s top diplomat in that country.
Taylor doesn't get it. Nothing Trump does makes sense! That's why we're all meeting on the front page of the NY Times.
Of course it's dull. Is there much more to this, than Trump making the art of the illegal deal?
Next year's election will be much more fun.
1
Drag in Rudy Giuliani and you will see 'fireworks'.
1
Fun? Boring?
All I felt was a great sense of relief that finally the wheels of justice are turning.
But Democrats, beware! Once Donald Trump is (probably)impeached and (most likely) not removed from office, he will attempt to paint his humiliation as vindication and victory. We must not fail to vote in 2020! Impeachment does not equal removal!
Impeachment is the right thing: it will leave a record in history that we opposed Trump's madness. But we must think of next steps. It is not enough to chastise Trump for his misdeeds. If he is not removed from office by Senate trial, it will be incumbent on us to insure that Donald Trump doesn't get re-elected, for if that happens what we'll see will make what we've already witnessed seem mild by comparison.
This time around we're not voting for Democrats, Independents or Republicans -- we're voting to insure the continuance of democracy in the United States. Remember that in 2020! and VOTE!
7
That's why the Framers included impeachment for "high crimes and misdemeanors" in the Constitution. They may not have envisioned an insufferable narcissist who flatly believes the law doesn't apply to them, but they made sure a President could be held accountable so this kind of behavior would not become normalized.
Let's not succumb to boiled frog syndrome. Trump's minions will give him a pass no matter what he does or says, but the the rest of us can hold him accountable in 2020.
4
As I read about high school students killed and wounded at their school in California, I wonder again about where shame belongs. Would Ms. Goldberg agree that "shame on us" for having done so little for so many years that our children are still at risk for being shot in school? Each shooting evokes alarm and sympathy and noble assertions that we must act. Yet the political will to do more isn't there. That reflects how politicians sense their reelection in jeopardy if they take some action of consequence. That's because, too many voters, ultimately, won't support actions to make the school day just a little safer. Shameful to be sure.
4
I’m not used to Trump. Quite the opposite. I find his policies, actions and tone detestable and have done something for the first time in my 60 year-old life: volunteered for a political party even though I also detest our political party system. Yeah I’m wading into the muck because I think that Trump is worse muck.
4
Thank you for this piece. Silence is the voice of complicity and compliance. We are too silent in the face of myriad outrages associated with this presidency. The media complains that this is all too boring. I am exhausted. It seems that 40% of the population of this country are happy to be led by a lying, cowardly, con artist. The biggest challenge is convincing them of this. It is easy to fool someone. It is much more difficult to convince them they have been fooled. Trump has conned way too many of us and the media is making very little effort to explain what is going on and why we should care. I think Pelosi and the democrats have pivoted to the idea of bribery because most Americans could not define the term 'Quid Pro Quo'. Trump can't speak Latin. How could he do Quid Pro Quo? He must be innocent. Beam me up Scotty. There's no intelligent life down here.
4
I have to echo the sentiments expressed by Jon Lovett, Dan Pfeiffer, and Jon Favreau in a recent episode of "Pod Save the World": the problems in our democracy boil down to disinformation.
It is obscene that Fox Business can parrot blatantly false anti-Semitic tropes and face no consequences. It is obscene that Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Rush Limbaugh, and Tucker Carlson can spew falsities every night on primetime television. It's not just about the ad hominems, racism, and xenophobia they traffic in; it's in their reliance upon dangerously anti-democratic rhetoric to protect their own influence and power. Particularly pernicious are accusations of a "deep state" and of a mainstream media apparatus that is entirely "fake." These ideas stoke distrust in democratic institutions and pave the way for authoritarianism. Fox News has also convinced millions of Americans that the existential threat of our time, climate change, is a big-government hoax perpetrated by leftist academics.
Fringe-right conspiracy theories, which a few decades ago would have never seen the light of day, are now being broadcast to millions of Americans every night -- repeatedly and with increasing vehemence. These ideas poison the minds of their viewers and sow the seeds of anger and hatred. Right-wing media is the main culprit in our nation's polarization.
I am a historian of mass media who has spent years studying propaganda. I have never seen something like this in the United States.
10
@A. Walgren - A hopeful scenario would be if the American public gets smart & votes out a majority of Republican legislators replacing them with younger more enlightened go-getters who would be willing to tackle the right wing fog machine behemoth with new laws which will tightening FCC regulation. The legislative branch is the only area of government that could slay this Beast Glatisant that has already devoured & destroyed large swaths of our democratic Camelot.
2
@A. Walgren
Interesting that those who cry fake news the loudest get their information from a dishonest network spinning and giving false information 24/7. Go figure
When you look back at the 2016 campaign remember the persona Donald Trump and the atrocities of his candidacy. His infantile mentality aside i decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. I put aside all of his misconduct and focused upon his successes as a leader of our great country.
After the Kurd debacle i have no kind words for him. He is destroying the credibility of the United States. President Trump is dangerous and he's no longer a rookie in the political arena. We've given him three years and besides the stock market, which is cyclical , he's done nothing to advance our interests at home or abroad.
We will being paying for the country's electoral mistake for years to come.
2
You can shame all you want (although I’m not a fan of shaming) but if the economy, jobs and the Dow all stay robust and we don’t come up with a viable winnable alternative we best get used to another four years. Yes I know about gross income inequality and low paying jobs but I don’t think that will resonate if everything else stays positive.
It was a failure of voters to, last year, keep the Senate Republican led, when it was plain as day that they would contort themselves to protect Trump. A divided Congress was still not going to be a check on this president’s powers.
Next year, it will be a test to us whether we allow the Senate to remain synonymous with Trump’s corruption.
4
Speak for yourself. I only wish I got used to Trump, if getting used to Trump means feeling only about half as much shock, rage, anger, humiliation, depression and sadness as the day he "won" the election. That's what I've been living with for over three years. Not a single day goes by when I don't worry about the future, let alone the present.
If anything, what I have gotten used to is the GOP--after all, these are the people who blocked any sensible gun control legislation after the Sandy Hook massacre, continue to deny climate change and tried some 70 times to repeal the Affordable Care Act. The addition of Trump created a critical mass; whereas the GOP weaponized hypocrisy and indifference, Trump weaponized cruelty, which is most decidedly the Republican weapon of choice.
I always knew there were people in this country who think someone like Trump are their kind of politician but I never imagined they comprised something around 41%. I am forced to accept this fact but will never get used to it. There is nothing we can do for them--they have chosen their fate. I can only hope that we are not forced to share it.
6
You said it. We the American “public’ are constantly invoked by every pol. But Is there another effective way, besides chronically wrong polls, to estimate who has been most harmed by the trump mobocracy. The “public”? The next generation? Desperate allies? Our Punditry helps but the Americans who support DT no matter what should be returned to a safe third grade class in civics. Right away.
There's a difference between "Getting Used to" and not being shocked.
I was shocked when Trump made it past the primaries. I was shocked when Trump was elected. I was shocked by the fact that seemingly devout Christians were supportive of electing an openly adulterous liar and cheat.
I'm no longer shocked by any of that. I'll never get used to it.
Instead, I'm shocked that we aren't doing everything we can to go forward with a unified front opposing this administration. Twenty Democratic candidates this late in the game? I won't be used to it when Trump gets another 4 years, but I won't be shocked.
2
Better to say shame on some of us. We are not all at fault. Fox News certainly has normalized Trump's behavior, actually defending it, projecting his wrongdoing onto others, transmitting his lies as the truth. Yet, I am deeply puzzled that those who run Fox, the Murdoch family, Rupert Murdoch particularly, are not called out in the media for this normalizing effort which millions of their viewers accept without question.
5
Michelle is right. And I admire her ability to continually speak out on the immorality of Trump's presidency. I'm a little sick of the spineless day-time CNN and MSNBC guest panels where "expert" guests are trying to "keep score" and see whether the Republicans or the Democrats are doing the better job of "swaying" the undecided voters. Trump deliberately withheld congress-approved money in order to bribe Ukraine to do him a personal favor. That is a high crime and misdemeanor deserving of impeachment and removal from office.
3
Well, count me among the shocked and affronted. If we lose this fight we stand to lose not just our republic, but the planet. And redouble our efforts we must. The entirety of our civic life appears to have been gerrymandered, so that it takes redoubled truth, super majorities and constant vigilance just to keep our heads above the flood of vicious trolling, lies, hate crimes, packed courts, stonewalling and ignorance. Keep the faith.
2
Who is "used to Trump"? A better question by far is: where are the congress people who should not have been protecting him? Against them. you can be as unused and upset and outraged as you like, but the GOP has been a brick wall.
1
This may be hard for Michelle to grasp, but, Trump won the election. OK certainly the Russians meddled and the Electoral College is an anachronistic embarrassment. But, nonetheless, he won. We knew he'd be terrible and he's lived up to our worst expectations. I believe the impeachment is more about his body of work than the single transgression with Ukraine. Used to him, yes, repulsed yes, but, what can we do. The problem is less about Trump than his base of delusional citizenry that accepts his behavior as normal rather than aberrant. He's what we got, let's make the most of it and stop wringing our hands and confronting him for every moronic tweet. He's an absolute incompetent buffoon, let's try and work with the guy to ameliorate his positions rather than confrontation. This shock and revulsion thing isn't working. And with the current crop of Democrats, we may be in for four more years of him.
3
@Lawrence Siegel
No. That isn't acceptable. We can't "work with the guy" because he is a racist, a criminal, an antisemite; he has arranged for the murder of our allies and is destroying NATO, the planet and our environment.
For heaven's sake do NOT try to normalize this guy. He is truly wicked. He is like something out of the Old Testament, a golem, a curse, and he must be driven forth.
Call me a stupid, romantic, optimist. Having come of political age during the Watergate era, I draw a measure of hope in the notion that we haven't yet had an "Alexander Butterfield moment."
For those who don't remember, it was he — a relatively low-level functionary in the Nixon White House, all but unknown to the general public — who revealed that Nixon was secretly recording conversations in the Oval Office. From this shocking televised disclosure delivered with aplomb came, eventually, the release of edited transcripts, the demand for release of the recordings themselves (one of which had the improbable 18-minute-gap), and a Supreme Court decision requiring Nixon to turn over the unedited original tapes. It took months, but out of the Butterfield acorn grew the tree of Nixon's resignation-in-disgrace on the eve of the House vote on articles of impeachment.
The Trump-Administration-destroying bombshell hasn't landed yet. When it does even the most self-serving of the Republican sycophants in office nor the most-Kool-Aid-intoxicated of the MAGA-rally crowd will be unable to ignore.
If we insist on "entertainment" as metaphor, Wednesday's testimony by Kent & Taylor, though riveting and astonishing, constituted only the overture. The curtain is raised, the actors are taking their places on stage. We're nowhere near the key plot twist near the end of the second act. Remain seated, pay close attention, and DON'T BLINK.
3
Well, or it could be outrage fatigue. "Resistance" people have been screaming nonstop since November 2016, demanding that Trump be disqualified or removed for so many reasons, all, so far, debunked. Is it any wonder many people view this as just another tiresome sequel, where the outcome is entirely predictable -- that Trump will be found to be an outrageous trash talking buffoon, but not guilty of whatever er, trumped up, excess he's been accused of?
Worst, this will undoubtedly empower some people to vote for him again in 2020 -- after all, he will appear to have been baptised by fire.
2
Anyone who imagines that living outside the US, might make the outrages of Donald Trump and his criminal presidency feel a little less raw, is sorely mistaken. The feeling of helplessness (despite voting, donating and demonstrating from afar) as you watch the country you love and feel allegiance to, being dragged through the mire is excruciating. I will never get used to it. NEVER!
3
Not all of us are not shocked. I was infuriated and stunned by the testimony. But what is far more infuriating is how the republicans are bending over backwards, tying themselves in pretzel knots to turn this into a nothing issue. Would these same defenders be so indifferent and blasé if this were their child; if their child attempted to commit a crime but was stopped before he followed through on it? Would they be saying "no harm, no foul"? Kids are arrested for discussing shooting up a school and prosecuted accordingly. People are arrested for conspiracy to commit crimes yet the trump true- to-form sycophants in congress apparently believe that trump truly IS above any laws that apply to the rest of us.
I am totally sickened by their disgusting behavior, especially by the scuzzy Gym Jordan and his snarky attack on the "best" witnesses. No mention that the witnesses with first hand knowledge are refusing to answer to a subpoena (with the republicans' approval), another issue that we mere mortals would end up in jail over. Every day we sink further into Banana Republic status. Four more years of tin pot dictator trump and his complicit henchmen in congress and the transformation will be complete.
Yes, how far we have fallen.
4
As a country, most of the population is relatively ignorant and uninformed. Our attention span has also shrunk and media outlets serve to entertain and reinforce Party positions.
That’s why Americans can’t digest complex issues like climate, budget, federalism, law or something like the impeachment hearings
Yet, Americans can dissect in detail and with passion the play of a QB or the lyrics to a syrupy R&B or Country Music jingle.
1
I cannot agree more with Ms. Goldberg. The ever-worsening denial of the gross, persistent and obvious malfeasance of Mr Trump as USA president by Republican politicians does boggle the mind.
2
Who's the "us" in this article? Is it the New York Times, which still doesn't want to use the word "lie"?
Op-ed writers have been great at arguing for their point of view, but have any of them tried to persuade people to take any specific actions? Sure, they'll throw in a "call your rep.", but there's no sustained argument for why that would work, nor are there instructions for how to do it or ideas to make it easy for a generation that doesn't like calling people. Any of you guys set up a march yet? A protest? A boycott? No. You've got great arguments and great minds, but if they don't produce change, what're they for?
And let's not forget our senators and representatives who, after winning elections to lead us, constantly bemoan the lack of leadership.
We need leaders. It would be great if they could be grassroots leaders, but they don't have to be. We need people to come say to us, "*This* is what we are going to do, *this* is why it will work, and *this* is what comes next." What we get is a brilliant explanation of why what's happening is so horrible—
and nothing else.
Trump is a symptom. The disease is the America that supports him. Which is why impeachment, like the Mueller inquiry before it, is irrelevant and inconsequential. America must decide its course through politics, in particular at the ballot box. If Trump is President-elect a year from now The US will have a much more serious problem than anything related to the petty Ukraine shenanigans.
I don't find it entertaining in the least, but consider it my civic duty to follow proceedings and stay informed via the press — in my mind, no less than democracy is at stake: Trump must be held accountable for his offenses, he has violated his oath of office. His behavior, and the behavior of his enabling GOP congressional members, continually shocks me — there is no bottom to the depths of their perpetually "outlandish," unfit behavior — they violate their oaths of office, spewing propaganda worthy of authoritarian regimes, shouting to distract when the facts aren't in their favor. It's appalling and exhausting but we can't let them go unchallenged, ever.
No one is above the law, we don't crown public servants — they are all supposed to work for us, not pledge fealty to a mob boss.
"Shame on Us for Getting Used to Trump"
Please, Ms. Goldberg, don't put us all into that basket. No one I know, including myself, intend to get used to Trump. His lawlessness, obstruction of justice, pathological lies and criminality have never been witnessed to this degree in a president. Unethical and morally bankrupt behavior should never be gotten "used to." It is something to fight against, whether it be passive resistance or some other form of non-violent expression. But what we must not lose sight of is to vote Democrat all the way down the line in 2020. The country needs to get back on track and the only way is to get rid of Trump & Co.
4
Trump wants anarchy for the elite so he can escape accountability, the same way he escaped debt in bankruptcy.
He resurrected himself by making a deal with crooks who laundered Russian money.
He is selling our country to Putin and telling his base that if his fellow Republicans don’t support Trump, to eliminate the opposition.
The Republicans, fearful of losing power, listen to Putin’s puppets and have became Trump’s baby puppets.
3
Only the Republicans and President Trump's red-meat base and enablers aren't shocked by him. Interesting isn't it, Ms. Goldberg, that Nixon's party said the same things about Watergate in 1973 that Trump's loyalists are saying about Trumpgate today? Yes, our experiment in democracy has fallen far under our racist, misogynistic, unfit and ignorant 45th president. And shame on us for taking America for granted.
1
Michelle I certainly don’t always agree with you but this was a masterpiece.
Spot on. We are fully in our crucible. Now we will see.
God help us.
Vote!
3
Sadly, I think we are too far gone. President Trump runs the country as part of his business but so do some of the most powerful leaders in the world. Obviously the Republicans are ok with that. Is this the "new normal?"
3
From Nov 7 nytimes: "Trump ordered to pay 2 million to charity for misuse of foundation funds". The article states that trump admitted using the foundations' money to pay off debts, for political reasons and to buy a painting of himself. The ruling also states he is forbidden to ever run a charity again. Now, for some reason this particular crime and the lack of outrage really turned my stomach and made me despair for this country. More than anything else he's done. I went to foxnews.com to see how they were going to spin it. It wasn't mentioned at all. And that's the problem. I have outrage fatigue and half of the country doesnt even know the President of the United States stole money from a charity.
8
I was in college during the Watergate hearings. After the "smoking gun" tape was finally released, in which Nixon is heard specifically instructing his chief of staff to lie to the FBI, his Republican Senate support collapsed. I don't think that would happen now. Today's GOP would attack the authenticity of the tape, or say it was a Democratic forgery or a media scam. And I think the reason is that Nixon's Senate came of age during the Second World War, and still had a sense of America as a singular and united world power that stood for something more than winning the next partisan brawl. It's true that Nixon himself did not have any such inner constraint, but he was exceptional in this regard, and his win-at-all-costs attitude proved to be the wave of the Republican future.
2
I am shocked.
For so many Republicans, there is an absence of honor and morality. The country is defiled, the ideals that so many professed were but a convenient device to garner votes. We are forced to face the question: is Democracy sustainable in a country of the gullible? And we are shocked to acknowledge our doubt.
6
The GOP rot began significantly more than three years ago. It predates Trump and is the "deal with the devil" that marked the GOP's deliberate decision to sacrifice their integrity and loyalty to the Constitution for their strategic march to controlling and lasting power. None of the current federal GOP officials (and many at lower levels of government) can be trusted to contribute constructively to our national health and wealth, and none should remain in their seats beyond the 2020 election.
5
@ Anna “What are we supposed to do?” Decide how we want our grandchildren to view us. Do you want to be a part of the push back to the insanity of this power grab, or not. Like it or not, people in your acquaintance are looking to you for courage to get engaged or stay engaged.
Stop and take a breath when you are overwhelmed, but don’t give up on the fight. There is no guarantee we will win ourselves another chance at a liberal democracy or a “more perfect Union”, but I am trying to stay committed to fighting for it. For my grandchildren. For all our grandchildren.
2
People aren’t normalizing Trump. It’s more that he and his GOP cronies are exhausting us.
Unless and until Fox News and leading Republicans stand up to Trump, America’s founding ideals based on fact, law and decency will have no place in the Party of Trump - and America’s precipitous decline into a Russia-like criminal oligarchy will continue apace.
7
This is the consequence of the end of the Fairness Doctrine and the firewall that used to exist between news and profit. The journalists who call these proceedings boring have no sense of history, responsibility or shame. They are viewing impeachment purely as entertainment, waiting for a Perry Mason confession, an Aaron Sorkin speech or a congressional Bird Box Challenge. It’s depressing.
Here’s the ugly truth: Watergate was boring. Yes, the trials aired all day in a period when there were only three national broadcast channels. But many people were at work, homemakers were too busy to be glued to their seats and kids didn’t really understand what was happening.
What we all depended upon were newspapers and newscasters who could unearth the salient points and moments from hours and days of testimony. The apathy of some of the journalist cited in the article is both depressing and frightening.
15
I'm not "used" to Trump. But rather apathetic, and resigned.
And ready to attend the funeral of Democracy.
I'm just grateful to have been born and lived thru the 20th century for my own memory's sake.
3
I would also like to add that one of the only reasons that Trumps' followers continue to support him is due to their belief in his continued boasting about the strength of the economy. However, how much of this 'beautiful' economy is being pumped up by a trillion dollar federal deficit? What is the real growth rate of the 'Trump' economy?? As with everything Trump does, it is all lies, smoke and mirrors....the reckoning will not be pretty and we will all pay the price.
6
Taylor & Kent made me proud of what America once was. Lindsey Graham makes me need to wash my hands.
America is now the party of Graham, McConnell, Trump & Barr. An America in which a political majority can be obtained without a majority of votes and maintained by cheating. The Republican political majority is superior to and "Trumps," if you will, the rule of law. It is not hyperbolic to conclude this means America, and the dream of America is lost and squandered merely for a few men's aggrandizement.
No "smoking gun" will save the Republic. The exposure of unethical conduct that motivated Republicans to remove Nixon has no currency with the small men, always men, leading the Republicans today.
All in the service of a grandstanding conman who has never distinguished debt from income and cannot discern "tough" from "cruel." He and McConnell have accomplished some Republican talking points and appointed judges. That will fade. They will be remembered as men who dismantled America, ended faith in its institutions and finally and fully cemented America not as a champion of freedom, human rights and democracy, but as a bad and untrustworthy country shunned by its allies and enemies alike.
The people of rural states can't distinguish Taylor & Kent from the likes of Jim Jordan. They willingly believe the humanitarian Soros a criminal and Trump a hero. They control the senate & electoral college.
I'd like to believe in the America of Taylor & Kent. I can't find it.
30
It is scary that people will respond only to a “viral” moment. It’s as if there is no sense of independent thinking, only herding toward the most fascinating episode that provides a momentary dopamine rush. There isn’t even a baseline level of mental engagement. Everything is guided by transient flashes of emotion and conformation biases. We talk a lot about a wealth gap. There is also a vast gap in mental engagement. Some are willing to make observations and parse the truth. Most are just happy to drink the koolaid.
9
It's crazy time. If the standard now is to win at any cost possible, God help us all. Do oaths no longer matter? Are we now accepting that only some of us have to obey the law?
9
There's a lot to chew on in your column, Michelle. Two points stand out and both are chilling. First, that the hearings were boring. I'm not sure this is reporting. It is, rather, commentary by media accustomed to analyzing performance over substance. While it's true that the substantive and performative could coincide, it's not essential. Many of us find that facts alone to be riveting--and as far as the "performances" were concerned: the witnesses were powerful, rock solid, not led astray by the numerous shiny objects thrown at them.
The second part is the insidious increasingly un-subtle Antisemitism of the Republican party/Trump cabal.
The two are related and together they scare me half to death.
15
I fear that most of the people that fall into the Trump/GOP orbit, while decent people in their daily lives with family and community, are just prone to believe not think too much. Of course this is applied to the many complex societal problems (many longstanding and unresolved) we face in our diverse increasingly multicultural, technological country. They find it a daunting task to adapt to change. They sense loss and defeat, though no one is out to get them.
Republican politicians have been adept at coming up with simplistic slogans: no new taxes; immigrant invasion; open borders; fake news; and back at the beginning, the government is the problem. When you and your neighbors can choose and “freely” elect representatives. We choose the Government of the people and for the people. Democrats more than conservatives offer plans based on studies and experiments and data. (see Warren) Republicans, not so much. Repeal ACA yes,but Replace? still no coherent plan. Climate, ditto. God will take care of it. Belief. Much easier and much better than analysis and “atheistic” science, they say. And of course it's what they are told by interested (in money) media.
Sometimes I wonder if these people still believe that 2 + 2 = 4.
5
The seriousness and level of knowledge from the witnesses was jarring next to the spew that served for questioning from the Republicans.
I found myself saddened that the Americans vote for and promote people like Nunes and Jordan, and that people like Taylor and Kent serve in areas of the government where they have very little influence or are ignored by politicos that only care about their next election or the next bribe.
20
I appreciate your outrage.
But this sentence caught my attention :
"...There is nothing Democrats can do to make their Republican colleagues side with upstanding patriots like Taylor and Kent — who embody the virtues conservatives once venerated .."
I think I am a patriot because I do believe in our country and would do everything to defend - though I am now 70.
And I am a Republican.
But to say that these two civil servants were marginalized and therefore, it is an affront to their patriotism - a bit exaggerated.
Keeping civil servants in dark - is a long known, well practiced Washington practice.
Kissinger is by far the poster child. Heck, he even had kept Secretary of State Rogers - a long time friend of Nixon - in dark.
But Secretary Rogers did the honorable thing - he resigned.
These two Patriots took upon themselves to think what Ukraine policy should be.
Given their high positions - when they found out being in dark like Secretary Rogers - they should have resigned.
And like Paul Revere - come from the Foggy Bottom (appropriately named) - and rode down Pennsylvania Avenue to Congress to ring bells.
But no, they second guessed, they went behind backs of others.
To me, that has nothing to do with patriotism.
It is Kissinger in reverse.
@Neil
"These two Patriots took upon themselves to think what Ukraine policy should be."
The only things they took upon themselves are (a) freedom and democracy matter, here or overseas, and (b) all roads should not lead to Putin. Extorting Ukraine into sabotaging our elections is not a policy. One wonders whether it is time to write off the mulishly intransigent Trump base.
4
I’m somewhat surprised by this headline. Ms. Goldberg of all writers must be aware of American apathy, disinterest and amnesia regarding our politics.
In the past so many Americans believed in America and themselves. That is not the circumstances today.
We are immersed In ourselves and celebrity. Just like the series on HBO- all will be fine, everything will work out fine.
Unfortunately irony and skepticism are being overcome by the endless, relentless propaganda of unattainable hope. We can cure any disease, survive any storm, overcome any problem with our cheerful reliance on hope.
The hope trough is now empty. Take a very close look.
2
"The hearing made it clear that Trump subverted foreign policy in order to cheat in the 2020 campaign."
Trump did not merely "subvert" foreign policy. Trump threatened, and likely already has done long term damage to, U.S. national security.
Trump, once again, as he did with the Turks and the Kurds, improve Russian foreign policy, and Russian national security. And this is what Congressional Republicans are 100% behind.
23
@Robert Henry Eller Thank you for saying what is really going on. Ironic, isn’t it, that the campaign slogan for Trump has been MAGA - Make American Great Again.
In actuality, Trump, the “loser” is making America the Loser.
He is morally bankrupting our country by destroying our moral fiber for his own political gain and self-enrichment. He is destroying our institutions and our standing in the world. Maybe in 2020 he can pull off another hacked election by being the “MAIN” man ... Make America Insignificant Now ... that would really please Putin, BFF.
I found the hearings to be captivating and shocking. So much so that I watched the first 3.5 hours twice.
Taylor gave a lucid account of how a cabal of the President's minions tried to undermine official foreign policy at every step systemically.
The context provided by Kent and Taylor about the war in Ukraine made the repulsive nature of the crime much more salient. Trump was extorting an allied country as its citizens die fighting an invader every week.
The hearings also depicted the ongoing assault waged by this administration on long-serving government experts.
Therefore, I fail to understand how Reuters and NBC journalists can claim that the hearings were dull. Perhaps they should stop projecting their feelings and let the public decide what is interesting.
36
It seems that we are all making an assumption about party loyalty being the force behind what looks like insanity. Maybe just maybe there is more behind the behavior.
I think there seems to be FEAR there of something worse than just political consequences. What could generate such intense controlling fear?
Please think it through and talk to others and maybe post here and other places.
I think we need to be open to possibilities that are not obvious unless you maintain an open mind searching for explanations for this perplexing situation.
5
@Laurence
The fear may be related to the Russian money laundered through the NRA to the RNC in 2016. And what was up with that trip to Russia several Republicans took following the election?
2
Think about a possibility that maybe this has been going on since the 1970s . . .
1
The fact of the matter is that I no longer recognize many, if not most, of my fellow Americans. Something very tragic has changed here. Somewhere along the line, Americans stopped being citizens and became instead simply consumers for whatever they were being sold.
21
@Bob Burke
We aren’t even consumers so much as the product. Google and the rest mine our data freely given in exchange for photos of kittens. They sell that data to others who will in turn try to sell us something else. We are rats running on their profit wheel.
4
The benefits of incumbency: This time, Trump is not waiting for Putin to help him steal the 3030 election, as Putin helped Trump in 2016.
No, this time, Trump will "show Putin" how to steal an election. Except that Putin has already demonstrated Putin knows how to steal Russian elections the way Trump is trying to steal the 2020 election. Except that maybe Trump's odds of succeeding are not quite as good as are Putin's.
3
It can't be regarded as helpful, to the prudent weighing of the facts and high probabilities presented here, raising the question of the President's removal from office, to adduce this laundry list of symptoms of how squalid he and his associates are. Is the act to be predicated on specific factors, or swayed by an irrelevant albeit incontestable rottenness in this government?
Let's hope and work toward the idea that things of this nature are cyclical. It is hard to believe that anyone would truly support a man as self-centered and egotistical as trump but could it be a harbinger of a little more self-awareness and empathy by future Americans?
1
We experienced high drama, not boredom or even required education, at Wednesday's hearings. The Republican party brought a clown show, complete with bells and whistles and insults and ignorance. Two career diplomats sat imperturbable. Over years of service they had honed the ability to be approachable and human while not giving a single inch. (It's called civility). And they didn't take the bait from either party, kindly and quietly refusing to say whether what they had witnessed was impeachable.
Kent went a bit overboard with the bow tie and the vest and the mop of prep school hair. He also did some unbecoming lecturing about the US policy in eastern Europe over the years. But Taylor saved them from being labeled upstarts wanting to follow their own ideas of good policy. He recited the many times he had asked his superiors whether the odd doings of the irregular diplomats meant the President or anyone else had changed US policy. He was reassured that no, we still care deeply for Ukraine's independence and safety from Russian invasion. When Taylor realized his regular diplomatic channel was overruled by the irregulars (and even Pompeo, who had assured him of continuance of US policy when recruiting him to replace ousted Yovanovich), he did the honorable thing. He resigned.
I've testified a few times before a legislative panel. I was riveted, watching these two guys refuse to get drawn into the circus. High drama to see them do it as if easily.
6
I worry not about my fellow citizens, but the about the media. They've gotten addicted and dependent on 24/7, pre-made outrage and the ratings boost that it has provided.
Do they still remember how to produce news programming?
7
@A. Reader
It’s a for profit business.
Therein lies the problem.
2
Ms. Goldberg, I _shall_ read rather than skim, as just now, your entire column, later--But the headline hit a nerve.
It's almost funny. About 6 months ago, I forget what incident, I think it was before the fatal (literally) call to Erdogan, that cliche about 'just when you think T can't do anything worse' started popping into my head--just about weekly, sometimes daily.
I am finally at the point where I'll be looking for mass demonstration info, along the lines of the Roll Back Reaganism DC gathering, which I attended as a grad student.
Meanwhile, I've written to Lee, Harris & Feinstein re: my concerns over Trump (and wonder that there were no consequences for the storming of a closed hearing by rowdy republicans & their cell phones).
Comments tell me I'm not alone in my concerns. So I think it's a big "If" to suggest we're not shocked. Even the 'nothing there'/'witch hunt' comments are receding a bit....
I think the problem is we are all also leading our 95 per-cent lives as well.
Again, I haven't fully read your essay, and I do realize the writers don't write the headlines. So thank you also for an additional prod.
If we could gather in DC en masse to protest the policies--not the impeachable actions--of a Reagan, I hope we'll see similar actions against Trump in the coming weeks and months.
PS As I former Manhattanite, I urge NYers to call for Trump's Taxes!
1
Not quite sure who of "us" is supposed to be ashamed because we've gotten "used to tRump". I've never gotten used to him. I vote, I donate, I support candidates in opposition to tRump. I live in a blue state so ranting is mostly preaching to the choir, but I do what I can. There are many more like me.
10
Observe the courage of the Hong Kong protesters. Then compare it with the lethargy of the so-called Trump opposition in America.
If this isn't a time to take to the streets, what is? We are all, to a man and woman, lacking in courage and conviction.
28
Emile: as long as you stay in the streets of NYC, you will be fine. Just don’t venture out into the real world because you will have a rude awakening.
2
There are those of us who do not accept the notion that Trump is the ‘new normal’ for America. We are well known as critics of his conduct. And, we bare the slanderous conduct by his local supporters. We troubled that fellow Americans could overlooked his conduct in the 2016 election to vote for him, and continue to give him their support. We are not indifferent or uninformed about Trump’s conduct and plan to undermine Democracy. We cannot understand the Republicans in the House and Senate who continue to support him.
7
We CAN figure out the Republican behavior if we investigate and probe while trying to imagine possibilities.
Where are those Republican senators who raked Boeing over the coals over their gross indifference and subterfuge in their handling of the 737 Max design, FAA certification ( outsourced to Boeing) and response to the crashes. Perhaps direct American deaths need to be placed at their feet resulting from
Trump’s corrupt decisions and those of his administration.
13