"Because he can". The Democratic party and its culture, which is liberalized and feminized, is no match for a brawler like Trump who plays to win. There are no 'safe spaces' or 'trigger warnings' in major-league politics, folks, real life is not a progressive bubble like Oberlin College et al. This is why I think Trump will win; the Democrat culture simply doesn't have the steel to withstand him. And just wait until we get the guy after Trump (just as aggressive, but actually competent & effective).
1
How dare the writer discuss Trump's personal motives . His attorneys say as long as he is claiming he is doing anything in the public interest, it cannot be illegal. His attorneys leave out as the writer explains that Trump is incapable of drawing a line beteen personal benefit and public benefit. If shooting someone on Fifth Avenue serves Donald's purposes, then it is in the public interest and cannot be a basis for a crime and impeachment
31
"The Simple Reason Trump Does What He Does"? Because he has identified and found he can manipulate many frustrated and discontented voters. Unfortunate that so many people have apparently given in to trumpist demagoguery.
20
When there is little or no consequences to your actions either through sweeping it under the legal rug with daddy's money or simply using one's power of position, then the ability to be a tyrant is rather easy.
22
Every time Trump has been forced to settle a law suit, the settlement has included a “no admission of guilt” clause. El Supremo may be forced to pay but he’s never wrong.
15
Even if Trump falls in November, what about his mob...all those grand folks that keeps showing up at his rallies? Can we be so naive to believe that, now “all worked up” about how hated they are and what victims they have become of an open and free society, they are just going to drift away quietly? And if elections are disputed, who will adjudicate? Nobody believes information from the opposing tribe, and our institutions are seen as even less credible. Trump may not be an autocrat (yet), but democracy is hanging by the slenderest of threads.
39
While Republicans are interested in maintaining power, it is no less true Democrats care about little else that accumulating, as well as maintaining power.
The problem, at ground level, is a two-party system that cares about nothing other than power. Statecraft and statesmanship are long dead for these acolytes of banksters, corporate profiteers, and Wall Street 'Masters of the Universe. In the end, it's one bird with two wings.
10
Trump also gets away with it because we have a grotesque justice system. He stole millions of dollars from his charity and his whole punishment was to reimburse most of the funds. In other news, a woman was just imprisoned for ten months for stealing $100 worth of groceries.
He's overdue for a permanent jail cell, as are many of his enablers.
66
"The Simple Reason Trump Does What He Does:
Because he can."
Sort of why dogs lick themselves, or so goes the old joke.
18
And it will get worse, and worse and worse because he can.
21
And like those who stand layers deep in raw sewage and swear they cannot smell a thing are the GOP senators (51 of them) as of Friday’s vote. You can possibly add the blind Chief Justice to that number.
40
"So? Whattya gonna do about it?"
- Donald J. Trump
12
Jeffrey Epstein's case and his death show that rich and powerfu people are above the law.
13
This "opinion article" from Mr. Leonhardt should be published in every newspaper around the United States of America. In addition, it should appear over and over and over again.....up until November 3, 2020.
29
With a population whose ignorance is growing exponentially, an autocrat will always win, promising everything and nothing, disparaging the different and unique and putting on great shows for the masses.
Hitler, Mussolini and Mao did these same things very well, Putin and Kim Jong Un, Trump's besties, are doing it daily.
As long as there is bread (employment even at minimum wage) and games (see the above) - most of the population is happy. Autocracy? Whatever - doesn't bother them!
20
Trump gets away with it because he is a master of crime and deception. Inhoff is standing up there saying no evidence of quid pro quo.
First, soliciting a foreign nation for interference is impeachable without one. Next, the transcript was all the proof anyone with least common sense would ever need:
I say to Inhoff and the rest of the bought gang of plutocrats:
"Read the transcript, you hypocrites"
President of Ukraine Zelinksi says "...we are almost ready to buy more Javelins from the United· States for defense purposes. ..."
Immediately thereafter Trump says this:
I would like you to do us a favor though because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a lot about it. I would like you to find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine, they say Crowdstrike. I guess you have one of your weal thy people... The server, they say
Ukraine has it - There are a lot. of things that went on, the·whole situation .. I think you've surrounded yourself with some of the same people.
"...a very poor performance by a man named Robert Mueller, an incompetent performance, but they say a lot of it started with Ukraine. ... Trump then goes on to say:
,.. The former ambassador from the United States, the woman., was bad news and the people she was dealing with in Ukraine were bad news so I just want to let you know that...." ...a lot of talk about Biden's son, that Biden stopped the prosecution.
7
Please.
The Simple Reason Trump Does What He Does is because pseudo-left liberals have been enabling the Right for decades and Donald Trump for the last three years, while hysterically claiming to be the “resistance”.
5
@Chris : They still don't know what to resist.
2
This article is indeed thin gruel, or to quote an old cliche,"All bones and no meat!"What PRECISELY has Trump done to you, Mr. LEONHARDT, to make your life worse? What programs has Trump initiated that are so distasteful to you and the American people and which warranted expenditure of over 30 million in the MUELLER investigation, then millions more as a result of the impeachment gambol? Is the liberal media and Democratic Party ONE? Certainly appears so. Were the FISA warrants justified? Do u agree with Kate's Law, oppose "catch and release,"disagree with Rahm Emmanuel's wise words that with so many American families 1 operation away from bankruptcy, we cannot afford all the giveaways to those who r not "citoyens?"Do you oppose open borders, supported by so many on the left, including Minnesota A.G.Keith Ellison, who is seen wearing a tee shirt proclaiming his belief in "Pueblos sin Fronteras,"and why have u raised no questions about Ellison's alleged misconduct towards his "petite amie,"when he would pull her off the bed by her hair? Suppose a Republican did that to his "inamorada?"Is it not "loufoque" to talk about a free press, while over 90 percent of journos r registered Democrats?Give us some straight answers, if you please, to very straightforward questions.Have a hunch about your "arrieres pensees,"but would like to read a written apologia from you personally!"Est ce que Monsieur Alexandre vous en demande trop?"
4
Yep, so true, but David doesn't have the space here to go into detail about how Trump gutted his casino business - rather than go to the trouble of running it in a profitable way at a time when other AC casinos were making money - paying himself for his name while ruining his investors and abandoning his employees. Because when you're a star, they let you do it.
17
Trump succeeds and delivers. That's why he gets away with this.
And this is very likely why he is reviled so deeply. Because he's so successful.
5
@AACNY
Yes the success evident in when he redrew the weather map. He was so openly dishonest when he used that sharpie. I mean a less successful president would have got someone to alter that map in a way that was not so laughably dishonest. He is honest about his dishonesty. That is why we all love him; that and his loveable ignoramus big mouth. Adorable. I am expecting him to use his very convincing sharpie to redraw the Kansas state border so that Kansas City is well away from the border and nowhere near Missouri. I knew where Kansas City is and I live in Australia. I am actually interested in America; unlike your successful and adorable president.
28
@AACNY: And Americans hate success. Right.
3
@AACNY six times he's filed for bankruptcy. He's cheated many out of money they're owed. He's used and allegedly abused women. He's successful in your eyes and the eyes of many because people don't have a moral compass.
He's delivered on skyrocketing the deficit to such heights it makes Obama look like a miser. Successful in what?
37
Trump wins every time because he has a better game plan than the Democrats.
Game over.
3
@Premier Comandante no because he plays on the ignorance and hate of the American people. If you play the racist card combined with "I'm going to make you rich" mantra, you win, sadly, in America.
19
@Premier Comandante
I guess that is right if you think lying constanttly is a winning game plan.
13
@Premier Comandante all the republicans are complicit in trumps cheating. They simply turn their heads away.
11
"If the Senate [votes] to acquit [Trump] Wednesday, how can you argue we are not an autocracy?"
Let me guess -- because Trump was elected?
5
"It is the bitter irony of history that the common people who are devoid of power and are the prospective victims of its abuse, are the first to become the ally of him who accumulates power. Power is spectacular while its end,the moral law, is inconspicuous." A.J. Heschel The prophet
21
Leona Helmsley once proclaimed, "We don't pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes." Now, the Republicans can boast triumphantly, "We don't follow the rules. We change the rules as it suits us."
I heard the House Managers give their final summary in the Trump impeachment trial earlier today. They and especially Lead Manager Adam Schiff were brilliant. Schiff brought me to tears.
Will Trump get away with the "murder" of American Democracy? We'll find out on Wednesday. But, if you're expecting Justice, don't hold your breath!
33
"Staying in power trumps all."
So dies our democracy.
10
You know that military school that Trump's father sent him to when he was so out of control? I wonder if they could get a refund.
9
Trump* called Jerry Nadler, a U.S. representative, a "sleezball."
Well, in the timeless tradition of the Brooklyn schoolyard-comeback:
Hey there Little Donny Trump: "It Takes One To Know One."
*Donald J Trump is the current president of the the United States. Beat that with a stick!
7
Because he's a "scoundrel".
6
Let us be honest.
We knew Trump was a rude, crude dude when we voted for him in 2016.
And so we have a rude, crude President who has no class, horrible orange hair, and an personality that makes you want to barf.
But he is our guy and the Dems have nothing to match him.
2
Words fail me, as they always do in extremis.
There aren’t words to describe the depths at which Trump has lived his life. Depraved doesn’t cover it. And now we are all being dragged in, too.
Likewise, describing Mitch McConnell and his gang of thugs and cowards is difficult without using a long string of four-letter-words, complete with hand gestures.
How did we get here?
How can we leave this place?
20
Ultimately the fault lies with those who voted for him. Knowing trump was a cheat, a liar, a grifter, a racist, a bigot, a scofflaw and morally corrupt didn't matter. They voted for him anyway. And for the most part they STILL support him. What does that say about them?
27
"The Simple Reason Trump Does What He Does - Because he can."
Sounds like many of his predecessors and other current elected officials. Why do you think that is, David?
2
@hm1342 I'm a Dem and I actually call this Clinton reasoning. When Bill Clinton was caught in the Lewinsky scandal he was asked, "Why did you do that in the oval office?" Bill's not-so-brilliant Ivy League reply? "Because I could."
Power corrupts all, from Bill to Donald to Bezos and Gates.
Since Ronald Reagan this shift has been obvious. Trump simply imitates what he perceives are successful strategies and applies it to himself and his self-image as a high and mighty president and the "most powerful leader" in the world. Fred taught him well about the corrupt use of power and position minus any responsibilty or accountabilty for his actions no to mention the many people who he and his family have intentionally wronged. Huey Long of Louisiana might make a great case study for Trump and his enablers.
9
Tons of respect for you David. My only question is; “What took you so long to come to this conclusion?”
This was my conclusion during the pre-election campaign.
I saw the media hungry for his game. The then-candidate got free media coverage every night during the campaign.
Remember that free 7PM to 8PM nightly live coverage? Remember the media sucking up to the candidate?
Remember Joe Scarborough green lighting him only to now play this make-believe game that they don’t like him?
Remember Les Moonves talking about how good the then candidate was for TV ratings?
Remember how long it took for The NY Times to call out his behavior when he made comments that focused so much on race and ethnicity?
I gave up pointing the finger at him when I realized the media endorsed it.
Like I said. Tons of respect for you David. But this is something that should have been said when you guys initially saw the behavior.
Sure he tells a lot of fibs. But he was honest about how he felt in designated areas because he repeated it over and over.
A significant number of individuals in the media just pretended they couldn’t see it.
When he wins again; and I say so because the media pattern hasn’t really changed, you know, the obsession with giving him endless media coverage; he should first thank you guys.
After all, without that 24/7 media obsession with him, many would be able to focus on real issues versus nonsensical tweets etc.
251
@Nigel The "nonsensical tweets" emanating from this guy and and the many who support and enable him and his MAGA campaign are what I now like to call "igno-rants". I find it has a certain ring to it.
27
The dreadful behavior of Trump is no longer newsworthy. What continues to be shocking is that a lot of people still support him - often quite passionately
25
Clear and sussinct statement of who Trump is and where he's led us as his tragically willing co-conspirators. If the Senate voted to acquit him Wednesday, how can you argue we are not an autocracy?
13
The animal fable "the Scorpion and the Frog" sums it all up.
11
When Trump failed to convene a"Federal Election Security Commission" in January 2016 to protect us against hostile foreign and domestic bad actors, I knew we were in deep doo-doo. No one even complained. THAT was his first impeachable offense.
Now, he has opened the door and invited in all the enemies of democracy. Because he and Republicans benefit. They cannot win elections using our old ways.
Democrats mean well, but they are so inept at messaging. It's scary.
Maybe it won't matter that much, since we are turning over an UNLIVABLE planet to our children.
Just Wow.
15
Because he can, but mainly because he's a sick individual whose main motivation is avoiding what he considers humiliation - losing. He wants power for the sake of power and the image it provides him. He couldn't care less - much less know less - about governing and policy and our history, etc.
20
Trump has the ring of a copper clad coin thrown on a bar that has know silver.
3
David asks how trump gets away with what he does and how he does it -
and yes, he's right : trump gets away with all that precisely because our ( political) system allows it. arguments such as we've heard from the likes of senator Lamar Alexander about his reasons for voting against having witnesses and needed documentation would never hold in ANY court. but it did for trump. why ?!
try listing one, only one court in the land which will conduct a trial WITHOUT witnesses and needed documentation ?! none, of course. yet- when it comes to the king (without cloths) we've allowed - its all smooth ride home.
had he been around today, Shakespeare might rephrase his immortal cliche : " something is rotten in Denmark " to fit into the correct country.
6
If you really want an eyeful about what happened to American politics, watch “The Best Democracy Money Can Buy” with Greg Pallast. Then watch The Family on Netflix. I hope we can turn it all around.
9
As a very conservative Republican Texas voter, I have always liked Biden.
But the only problem, is this: Cognitive issues.
He starts a sentence, only to end in embarrassed silence while he is trying to figure out what he started to say.
Beginning dementia. The lights are on, but no one is home.
4
@The Premier Comandante - There's a "Texas" in Russia? Weird!
6
And because he doesn't know how to do anything else...
I would say because like a good trickster, he charms people, knows what they want, and they trade their souls in to allowing him, colluding with him, or letting him get away with it. And when you have fame, it’s even easier. Gaining the presidency and it's powers continued his progress. He in fact made a deal with Mephistopheles and became his instrument. But this is all a lesson for us...as in Goethe's Faust.
2
George Washington:
"Associate yourself with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation for 'tis better to be alone than in bad company".
8
The revelation of Trump is that he says what the rest of them have been thinking all along. His narcissism provides his cowardice with an almost suicidal hubris - and now he stands emboldened after a countless series of crises (many criminal / some treasonous) a single one of which would have toppled any normal republican politician. But even that is shifting. Now Republicans do not even pretend to offer reasoned arguments - they just assert ridiculous talking points in interview after interview. And so, after 40-50 years of undermining the best public education system in the world the harvest is in. And as Hillary noted - it is bloody deplorable.
7
What makes trump such a threat to grown men & women in the republican party? There has never been this much fear produced by one man. Is AG Barr the new J. Edgar Hoover for trump? Why does his base act like a programmed audience where a card is held up for them to laugh, applaud, boo, chant? What has happened to America where we celebrate a man who constantly belittles, insults, makes fun of disabled people, lies, & uses a sharpie to change maps to suit him? I am appalled by the disintegration of America & the loss of respect for human life. How have these people (base & gop) fallen so far from civilization? It is not just tribalism but jungle mentality running rampant in America.
12
It will be interesting to see (though I won't see it, because I can't stomach looking at the guy) if the State of the Union address turns into an opportunity for blustering, insults, and self-aggrandizement, instead of a focus on many significant issues yet to be addressed - because of the time and energy this President has wasted in office because he really doesn't know what he's doing, just wants to tear down anything related to Obama, and spends a heck of a lot of time golfing.
His fans will doubtless eat it up.
7
Unfortunately this article fails to point out that Mr Trump is far from the only wealthy person who gets away with whatever he wants. There’s Jeffrey Epstein, the infamous rich guy who raped little girls for decades and got away with it - simply because he was rich. No one even knows to this day how the guy even got rich in the first place. That’s because his main benefactor, Les Wexner is another ridiculously rich person who also has no accountability. Mr Trump’s attitude is abundant in the circles of the rich & famous. The uber wealthy folks in this world do whatever they want with little or no accountability. Trump is not unique in this.
6
Trump was Epstein’s business partner for quite a few years. We voters need to hear a lot more about that arrangement. Here’s hoping some of their figure models have some stories to tell.
6
And he can because we allow it.
2
I am very proud of Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff and the entire Impeachment Management team. They demonstrated what real elected officials are supposed to do -- and did it with intelligence and dignity.
That said, the Senate and House Republicans have painted themselves as enablers and lackeys. Don't bother with the excuses why you didn't want to have witnesses and documents (although no doubt Pat Cipollone and Deven Nunes were either in the room or acting as a go between/courier and had first hand knowledge and could have filled in first hand knowledge).
There is no more that needs to be said -- the Republicans have violated their oaths of office -- period. The American people wanted documents (oh - now 24 emails about this very case that will not even be considered). History and voters will remember you as the most disgraceful bunch of sycophants -- save your pathetic excuses.
12
We are witnessing a triple homicide, Mitch McConnell, the senate republicans, Alan Dershowitz, and the White House council are murdering the power of the co-equal branches of our government, our democracy and our constitution.
I have not heard mention of the claim made by Lev Parnas that Devin Nunez, Lindsay Graham Rick Perry and Pat Cipollone were “in the loop” , if this is even a question , should there not be some recusals?
What about John Bolton claiming that Pat Cipollone was present when Trump requested Bolton’s assistance with investigation and Ukraine.
Yet he is leading defense team???
Are the senators not allowing witnesses or going to acquit Trump to protect Lindsay Graham and others involved?
Where are the recusals?
Oh, that’s right, I forgot, the law doesn’t matter.
6
“Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose”
The Trump base lives by this.
5
I think Donald Trump does what he does, not because he can, but because he's a malignant narcissist of means and our society allows the rich to cheat. If Tump was the same person without the money he'd be a two bit con man in and out of jail and always on the verge of homelessness.
8
bananarepublicans are trumpzombie, oligarch supporting, corporate stooges, foxfakenewzers that don't want any facts that would upset their gerrymandered, voter suppressed, electoral colleged, democracy denying grip on power.
Please, no facts in history, science or American democracy!
3
After reading all of the comments I have hope.
VOTE!--
5
Trump didn't only learn his attitude that the rich can do anything they wish and get away with it from his father but also from Roy Cohn, the gay bashing gay man who was an aide to Joe McCarthy. Yes that Joe McCarthy the one who ruined people's lives, was a fascist, and was an enemy of our democratic principles. This describes Trump and his minions very well.
The American people a re becoming disenchanted with the wealthy class and their disregard for the good of our country as they are seen as self serving elitists. Unfortunately many white people, who have fantasies of becoming rich one day, have been duped by a system that has total disregard for the country, the environment, and the common person who they view with disdain and are looked down upon as unworthy of respect and empathy.
1
No one has answered the basic question: When was Trump ever a "star"?
He has never accomplished anything, created anything, performed anything, or articulated anything. He has been a self-promoting blowhard and fearmongering buffoon since the 1980s, except back then his essential ridiculousness did not appear out of place next to McDonald's silly Hamburglar character. I cannot fathom how any sentient being observes his posturing and phoniness and finds anything to admire. Even dogs hate him.
8
Bill Clinton and Trump
Que pasa, hey, hey, Bill Clinton, you bet
Flew by impeachment, just read the Gazette,
Like a hero, ha-ha, slick Willy did well
Seducing his vics in a fifth rate motel
Ying/Yang to Trumpster, way smarter than he
Same protocol but they let Willy be.
A very lucid, sharp, and concise column. You would make a dynamite head speechwriter.
6
This column is the height of conventional wisdom. The historical facts show that 3 of the 4 impeachments were political moves. Nixon knew about and supported the Watergate break in: A crime for sure, but it doesn't compare with to the Gulf of Tonkin Fraud perpetrated by the LBJ government and the fraudulent WMD perpetrated by Bush II. No impeachment proposed there. Clinton was ostensibly impeached for lying about his sex life, totally unimportant. Trump is somewhere betwen Nixon the the LBJ, Bush non-impeachments. I have concluded based upon history that impeachment is merely a political tactic designed to interfere with a sitting president, bread and circuses to be sure but not conducted because of merit to which Congress is incapable. Whether or not this trial was worthwhile depends upon whether Congress gains power and Trump's reelection is interfered with. No morality is involved as Congress has shown again and again that its incapable of acting because of ethical principles.
45
@Michael Cohen You forgot (perhaps) to mention Iran Contra? Even though the Gipper is still held in almost holy high esteem, that particular episode does still fit into the overlooked category. I might also comment on how American it is to rant on about Clinton's imbroglio while completely overlooking, or trying to overlook, ethical lapses that actually cost people their lives and/or throw the concept of democracy and freedom under the bus. It would be nice if there was a reset button so people could actually get a grip and think for themselves instead of only reacting as directed.
21
In my observation, the progressive wing of the Democratic party has been more interested in condescending moral posturing than in winning elections. You prattle on about ahistoric, unscientific, and untestable theories that come from ethnic and gender studies, and take the part of law-breaking immigrants over that of average working people. You insult anyone expressing a contrary opinion, calling them racist or sexist, or some other form of "ist" or "phobe," and shout down reasonable people when they attempt to speak in public forums. Representing a small minority of the electorate, you progressives seem oblivious to the practical realities of politics, attacking and alienating the persuadable middle who will be the very ones to swing the 2020 elections one way or the other. Ironically, you reincarnate a latter day version of the slogan from the 1950's that, "It's better to be dead that red," except that red is now the Republican party rather than the Soviet Union, a further irony in itself per Mueller.
Being conservatively moderate politically but a patriot in the old sense of the word, I am appalled by the will to power that has corrupted the Republican Party and subverted the Constitution. But will the Democratic party face the fact that calling anyone in the Republican party "deplorable," and any Democrat to the right of Bernie Sanders a "sell-out" is counterproductive?
You need the rest of us to win this fall, and if you do not, our prospects as a democracy are grim.
232
@D I Shaw and here it is, the moderate centre threatening us with Trump if we do not cater to its whims. Just like Murkowski, these “centrists” claim to care about the system but will hand the victory to Trump by voting republican anyways. Or not voting at all, despite their claims of caring for the norms. Don’t kid yourselves, centrists are not moderates, just Republican lite. Dems, don’t let them dictate your choice of leader, they still won’t vote for him/her, they’re still just attracted to power... it’s the Republican way.
143
@D I Shaw they represent the majority, 63 to 60 million, and midterms show similar trend. Trump will be humiliated by all the moderate Dems, just like in the midterms.
60
@D I Shaw
The blind, willful acceptance and promulgation of blatant lying and corruption is "deplorable" and anti-American to the core. Trump supporters whine incessantly about how the co-called "elites" hold them in distain; this is the primary reason. Hillary Clinton's deliberately-taken-out-of-context statement turns out to have an aura of truth to it.
149
This is in part is why so many supporters like Trump. He’s in your face. He never backs down, he never apologizes, he always fights and he always fights back when attacked. Even with 3 years of constant attacks by the main stream media and democrats, he never relents and never gives up. Those are the qualities we Trump supporters like in a leader in D.C., someone battling the entrenched institutions and power players. Say all you want, there will never be another President who has this type of fortitude to confront the throngs if those determined to destroy and remove him, at any cost and through any means.
Go Trump 2020.
92
@JP And I hope you are right that there will never be another President who has this type of character. And I also hope this President is a one term aberration.
797
@JP I am glad you are so happy with your hero, and who am I to dampen your belief in a magical strongman who has no humanity at all. Have you thought at all about the effect on the future of our country as Trump sweeps away no only his opponents, but our constitution, rule of law and the very foundation of our democracy itself. What kind of person do you want leading our country, one who asserts his will at all costs, I shudder at the lessons of history, or someone who can bring us together and respects us all?
697
@JP
You confuse might for right, rich for capable, consistent for logical.
Leadership is not about the fight in the dog, but vision. Trump's defines division where he sets himself above all. There is no excuse or rationale for him or your support other than your own aspiration to be just like him.
711
A lot of what we read about 45 can be attributed to Social Media. He has exploited Twitter like it’s HIS channel to speak to the entire world. Sadly, he drops tirades, racially insensitive taunts, inappropriate (and incorrect) jabs and false information. Then, people get triggered, run with it, retweet it, argue for or against and ENABLE HIM. Where is the responsibility in all of this? Certainly not at the WH or the offices at Twitter. He CAN .... and he DOES.
3
Very good column, DL.
Alas.
8
A cruel, sociopathic con man with zero character. Have his voters any sense of decency and kindness?
13
Exactly. He is raping American democracy.
America is the one being jailed and vulnerable. Trump is the top con man in the jail and MS13 are the GOP supporting him.
6
Affluenza on a grand scale. Believing your contrived reality with a trailing echo chamber. What could go wrong?
6
Many in the top quintile of US income distribution believe they are in the top 1%.
4
I pledge allegiance
To The Flag
Of The United States of America
And to The Republic
For which It stands
One Nation
Under God
Indivisible
With Liberty and Justice for All
I hope that those spewing venom toward These United States and throwing around the word “hitler” can find a few moments to recite and reflect on the meaning of Our Pledge.
2
Donald Trump proved, in front of the cameras, to the nation prior to a football game, that he doesn't know the words to the National Anthem. It's hilarious Trump supporters actually believe the Pledge of Allegiance has any relevance to Donald Trump. There's zero chance he knows it.
And as for "Hitler," let us know when neo-Nazis and the Hitler-worshipping alt-right stop supporting Trump, or if he ever condemns or disavows them.
5
@Brewster’s Millions Give us a break. You are using the rhetoric of your hero.
4
@Brewster’s Millions Except Trump and the Republicans have changed everything, haven't they? So these days they've turned it into:
I pledge allegiance
To the flag
Of the Fascist States of America
And to the oligarchy
For which it stands
Two nations
Under Mitch
Irreconcilable
With Fealty and Free stuff to the Rich.
Just sayin'.
5
It seems to me that Americans are only concerned with winning.
I always was told, "it's not wether you win or lose, but how you play the game". Apparently that's just a weak sauce liberal aphorism for idiots. If its not illegal, we can do it. Thanks Mitch.
6
Right -- and because of that, he is one of the last people any non-idiot would want to offer the power of president.
For God's sake, wake up America. Get rid of this scourge, this stain.
Because of our antique 'electoral college system' -- the Senate must do it.
7
The last line, sadly, should be "...is not yet an autocracy,..." OR even worse "...not yet a dictatorship...".
Yecccch.
1
Amen.
1
Capitalism has replaced religion, or more accurately it is the new religion. The wealthy are the venerated clergy of this religion and therefore above the law. We've always had a two-tiered justice system based on wealth and race, and Trump has just turned a mirror on us as a society.
He's a creature our society has created and will continue to enable because money, celebrity and entertainment is all that matters to us. Period. We're all to blame.
6
A typical Trump tweet:
“Our case against lyin’, cheatin’, liddle’ Adam “Shifty” Schiff, Cryin’ Chuck Schumer, Nervous Nancy Pelosi, their leader, dumb as a rock AOC, & the entire Radical Left, Do Nothing Democrat Party, starts today at 10:00 A.M. on @FoxNews, @OANN or Fake News @CNN or Fake News MSDNC!”
The NYT says that “Comments are moderated for civility.” Under that reasonable standard, Donald Trump would be rendered mute. What would happen if the ultimate Dem candidate started calling him a “vile short-fingered creep”? His base would love that kind of food fight but the nation would suffer. In November, 2020, let’s moderate his civility into the rear view mirror.
10
I see a lot about Mitch McConnel in these comments. What the reign of Mitch McConnell has demonstrated most clearly is the need to drastically reform the role of Senate Majority Leader. The role, unlike that of House Speaker, is not contemplated in the Constitution, and arises as a function of Senate rules (which can be changed by majority vote at the beginning of each new term). And the role didn't even exist prior to 1920! (The problem didn't arise until McConnell assumed the role because, frankly, I don't think anyone ever contemplated that such an outrageously unscrupulous individual would ever be elected to the Senate.
The Constitution does not contemplate the existence of political parties at all, let alone a party majority leader who would have such complete control over the business of the Senate as a legislative body, resulting in one individual having untrammeled power to control what comes to a vote before the Senate. This is an utter perversion of what the founders ever intended!
But this won't happen unless and until voters begin demanding it.
9
Trump does what he does because we let him. As frustrating and terrifying as it is, our fellow Americans voted him into office. Americans that are angry, disillusioned and left behind. The Trump supporters who live around me upstate (and there are a lot of them) firmly believe that they've got nothing to lose. The world has left them behind. They're working 2+ jobs to stay above water. Their kids, if they went to college, are mired in debt. But, we've also seen a morphing of the Republican party. Since Lyndon Johnson sighed the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act the Dixiecrats migrated from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party. They took all the retrograde hate with them. They created and pine for a non-existent history and was largely the creation of television and movies. At the same time the entertainment industry itself turned its back on democracy. The most common memes in movies is the "rule breaking loner", the Constitution only protects the bad guys, that government itself is evil and corrupt, and that only a single strong leader can save us. Social media and conspiracy driven outlets like InfoWars pile on and reinforce it too. The NRA's core meme is you need to be armed against your own government. Reagan, during his administration said his goal was to shrink government enough so you could drown it in a bath tub. After 50+ years of that drivel why are we surprised that we have Trump?
6
@AnObserver I want to add that the growth of the Evangelical movement has a part of this too. Their brand of Christianity is all black and white. There are no shades of grey. Their religion and churches preach a specific set of behaviors that brook no argument. The repeated stories of people who've left those churches are are then shunned in their communities is a frequent refrain. That movement is all about absolutes and a world without ambiguity. The icing is the companion Dominionist and Prosperity Gospel movements. Sadly, it is the very antithesis of what our founders had in mind for this nation and why Jefferson believed that a wall needed to exist between Church and State. Today Trump actively caters to them and they love him for it too. This is a very, very dark time.
4
It seems to me an even better example of Trump having impunity for whatever he does is the video and audio Lev Parnas recorded during his April 2018 dinner with Donald Trump. Although Trump has claimed he never met Lev Parnas, Trump said during this dinner, referring to the US Ambassador to the Ukraine at the time, Marie Yovanovitch, "Get rid of her. Get her out tomorrow. I don’t care. Get her out tomorrow. Take her out. Okay? Do it." If Lev Parnas worked at the State Department, one wouldn't be sure whether Trump was asking for Yovanovitch to be fired from her position. However, Trump knew that Parnas didn't work at the State Department, so it seems to me that we need to consider whether Trump was ordering a hit on the US Ambassador, similar to what Trump's buddy, Putin, does when he wants to get rid of somebody. As a result of the Senate not calling witnesses to answer questions about this possible attempted murder, Trump has proven that he literally could "shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not get in trouble." I realize that Trump might "only" ordering someone to get rid of the US Ambassador to the Ukraine, and we don't know whether that would involve shooting or poisoning her, and Trump isn't actually going to shoot somebody himself. Either the Senate or the House need to call witnesses from the State Department to determine whether the sudden recall of the US Ambassador from the Ukraine was to protect her from an imminent assassination ordered by President Trump.
7
Because he can and because no one has ever persuaded/forced him to do otherwise. This is what bullies do until taken down...
6
@HapinOregon those who tried in the beginning were either ridiculed or publicly humiliated. The fear among republican elected officials is real. Also the absolute power he wields by his gag orders and refusal to give any documents, or reveal only redacted documents.
4
I’m not a mental health professional, but I think he has the classic symptoms of Narcissistic Personality Disorder.
To avoid this situation in the future, it should be mandatory that the president undergo a physical exam AND a psychiatric exam — including screening for personality disorders.
Better yet, make it mandatory screenings to get on the ballot in any state so we can avoid this in the future.
7
Yes, Trump does what he does because he can.
He also does what he does because he employs the worst aspects of human nature.
He feeds, encourages, and promotes them.
And he works to bring them out in others.
Mitch McConnell is a kindred spirit.
McConnell also embraces the most sinister and destructive forces
Of human nature, and has done so throughout his career.
It is these forces that have allowed this infection to fester in our government.
It is is this infection that has corrupted our government to the point that Republican Senators, led by Mitch McConnell, will easily disregard their oath to the Constitution as well as their oaths of impartiality in the impeachment trial, to protect Trump.
Without being true to their oath of office, each has betrayed the Constitution, and rendered it moot.
Everything that Trump touches, dies.
Trump has touched America.
It is corruption itself that has protected Trump from justice.
6
Trump's behavior doesn't surprise me; he's always been this way. I am more shocked by the fact that elected Republicans are so cowed and unwilling to acknowledge the truth. And I'm completely freaked out by the numbers of people and media outlets who revel in the lies, hatred, and gaslighting, and the fact that half of voters actively do not care because they are getting what they want. Honestly, I never never thought I would see such a thing in this country. So now, I wonder if I ever understood what being an American is all about. It's crushing.
7
Two Republican senators recently said that Trump “had learned his lesson”.
Which is most certainly untrue by the very fact of who Trump is and has always been.
But what have these House and Senate proceedings cost—even if somehow he did—for him to “learn his lesson”?
4
Trump acts the way he does because millions of poorly educated people, trained by the Church over hundreds of years to follow a “priest” blindly (here is where “faith” becomes useful), have decided he is their new god.
4
With no coherent ideology remaining, the group of human beings that make up the Republican Party agree on only one thing: power. That need for power coalesces at the President. He wields absolute power over that group because they derive their power from his. It is a disgusting feedback loop, one that has created a de facto autocracy.
6
He does it and gets away with it because the press is complicit in this nonsense. Instead of calling him out for each and every lie and holding his feet to the fire, they repeat and report every lie as if there is a grain of truth buried somewhere in the lie. They then turn around and pretend that democrats do the same thing. They have let him get away with soiling the Constitution, dividing this country and breaking any law he doesn't agree with, all for clicks on a web page and money.
4
There's been a lot of speculation about whether and what mental illness Trump "suffers" from. Many think it's narcissistic personality disorder. As a mental health professional, I think it's wrong to diagnose someone I haven't met. Yet, as I read this, I can't help but think of antisocial personality disorder or a mixed disorder. Whatever it may be, it's no excuse for Trump's behavior, actions and words. Since the Senate is wimping out, it's time for voters to show Trump that there is a red line he cannot cross.
4
When Trump has the military surround the places where you vote in November of 2020, and deny entry to anyone registered as a Democrat, then what? Not as far fetched an idea as you might think.
4
As a former New Yorker, it was clear to me why he does it. What is not understandable is how he gets away with it as President. That his party supports all this behavior literally sickens me.
7
Media companies that use the model of only delivering that which you like, right or wrong is more responsible for this than any others
Mitch will one day be judged for his run of Senate, though I'm certain based on history that when a future dem prez does what DJT did that he will suddenly feign amnesia and scream foul. Good luck with that.
2
A good leader can make a flawed system work for the better of society. A bad leader can destroy even a good system.
4
I would ask anyone who says they will vote for tRump to stop for just a minute and consider whether this is a man you would trust if he were your neighbor, your co-worker or even family? Would you give him your last $10 because he promised to bring it back with more?
6
The US is taking a huge step toward autocracy with the acquittal of Trump's impeachment. In effect the Republicans said - no witnesses and no documents means he cannot be guilty so case closed. - This was as much of a sham trial as any ever happened in the worst dictatorships in world history. Going back to the GOP stealing the 2000 election in Bush v Gore, our democracy has been slipping away right under our noses to the point where elections are becoming entertainment with the ending already written - older, conservative, white men remain in control no matter what anyone wants or says.
6
This is what happened in Germany in 1932/1933 and now you know it can happen to the USA. All you can do now is pray and vote and maybe you'll be luckier.
4
Impeached President Trump has never had to deal with accountability for his own personal actions and those of his businesses. And he has never done the right thing - it has always been for Donald J. Trump, past, present and future. We cannot count on him - the president of the US - to do the right thing for our nation.
The House of Representatives held Trump accountable by impeaching him. Will the Senate hold him accountable by convicting him and removing him from office?
Unless 2/3 of the Senate grows a spine, Trump's Senate enablers are about to acquit him - another free pass - and hold him unaccountable for his actions. They will embolden him to do further worse acts.
This was never a trial. It’s a cover-up, led by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
We're better than this.
Every Representative who voted in the House against impeachment must be held accountable.
Every Senator who votes to acquit him in the Senate must be held accountable.
And we must make sure that Trump can’t take further action to interfere with a free and fair election in 2020 and continue to undermine our governmental and democratic institutions.
It's now up to us to hold Trump and the others accountable.
Because there is no one else to do so.
3
This is much bigger than "because he can". This is the virtual end of American democracy, even if trump loses a second term, reestablishing trust with our allies will be problematical. Correcting the effects of global climate change may be improbable, reversing all the corrupt damaging self-serving "executive orders" will take years. Not to mention stocking our federal government with trustworthy patriotic people after all who quit or were released. Let us never forget that the Republican partly who were greatly anti trump when he ran, now serve him because he gave them what they never could gain themselves, freedom to lie, cheat and steal from the American worker.
6
Just listened to Adam Schiff's closing arguments again. He is a true American Hero, soldiering on in the face of mind-numbing corruption. How do Republican senators not feel the pull of their consciences or their constituents' consciences? Waiting and Hoping for a miracle.
8
What you see is not a star; it is an asterisk.
Trump* gets away with it because he is aided and abetted by the Republican party, who actually cheer him on rather than be a check on his transgressions.
5
“The short, plain, sad, incontestable answer is no, you can’t. You can’t trust Adam Schiff to do the right thing, not for one minute, not for one election, not for the sake of our country, you just can’t. He will not change and you know it. A man without character or ethical compass will never find his way.”
1
and he can because the gop, much like a dysfunctional family it has become, refuses to discipline their truculent, delinquent offspring for fear that he will destroy the house if a fit of pique.
2
Trump has jacked the deficit like no other.
Trump is Russia's man, not America's.
6
The Senate Republicans constitute the jury that would acquit Trump of shooting someone dead on Fifth Avenue in broad daylight.
6
The Republican Senate is part of the Cover Up.
7
Like a juvenile delinquent, a strung-out junkie, a sloppy drunk or a career criminal, Trump has one thing most people don't: a phalanx of enablers. And they are United States senators, a handful of delirious cabinet members, and a few horrible handlers committed to Trump's continued felonious marauding across America and the world. No witnesses, no documents, but a corrupt team of lawyers who know he's beyond guilty. GOP senators who exonerate him should resign immediately — and never show up at any event that celebrates Democracy.
3
Yes, and instead of seeing this guy as a kind of anti-Christ, which his history of countless amoral actions justifies, the evangelicals and the rest of the Christian Right treat him like he’s The Second Coming of Christ.
Ditto for all but two Republican senators. To quote Tim O’Brien, who wrote a book about Trump, the inside of Trump’s mind contains 4 things:
- a putter
- a cheeseburger
- a porn video, and
- someone else’s credit card.
That’s the mind that’s given the Christian Right, and all but a handful of Republicans in Congress, their version of The Second Coming. May the Lord take pity on those people’s souls, if they still have them.
6
I remember where I was when I heard the Access Hollywood tape. I will remember where I am when they acquit Trump. When decency dies, your heart recoils...and remembers.
7
Because no one did or will stop him.
That is why. Not just because he can. He can do a lot of things, but he knows everyone will talk and lecture till they are blue in the face, but no one will stop him. That is the insight we need, not your litany of old news. Thank you.
1
Donald Trump, is beasty and says it in this way and does it in this way like no one else. Like when he says that women let you do it if you are famous does not speak for him because in this hypocritical world we live in all men are to blame for this when I saw many women hunting a situation like that to be craped by a famous person, the president is one of many. Jobs Jobs Jobs! That is what people care about there is no need to abuse the law followed by 50'000'000 people.
Actually the real leader of the USA is Rupert Murdoch. Trump is just the front guy.
3
The current President of the Unites States has the attention span of a two-year old. Anyone who sees the video from Mar-A-Lago of Trump's antics while the National Anthem was playing during the Super Bowl and refuses to acknowledge this President is mentally ill is willfully ignorant to that fact.
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/article239913588.html
This is beyond insanity. He is beyond insane.
2
Trump is doing overtly what the GOP has done covertly for at least half a century and even more. The reason he can, Murdoch's fox news which 65% of supporters get their information, coupled with christian evangelists, represent 40% of the GOP voter.
The vast majority of GOP voters who are white, male and over 50 year keep voting against thier own economic interests because they feel, women, people of color, the educated, the young. etc. are responsible for their misery and NOT their own life choices. While other GOP presidents dog whistled these irrational feelings Trump is the only GOP president who overtly reinforces their idiocy.
Christian evangelists have one of their own in the Vice President and Secretary of State, the number 2 and 4 most powerful politician in America. As their two leaders demonstrate, they can hold the bible in one hand, yet at the same time promote, hate, bigotry, war, misogyny, etc.
A good example of the GOP voter are the followers of Wahhabi leaders of Middle East, Putin, Kim, the Ayatollahs of Iran, etc. who are more like cult figures with zealot supports who can do no wrong despite obvious evidence of their wrong doing. As with the majority of GOP voters there is no compromise or rational thought!
The GOP politician has figures out their only path to power is to continue to overtly and covertly be one with their voters, and show no comprise. Facts are useless with these people.
5
With Trump, it is not a star; it is an asterisk.
He gets away with crimes, insults, buffoonery, incompetence, and other disgraceful displays because the Republican party is full of greedy enablers aiding, abetting, and cheering on.
The Republican Party is cutting its nose to spite its face, with wild abandon.
2
An entitled, egotistical, spoiled.little rich not in an.older man's clothes. Just what this country needs.to.lead is.down the garden path to ruin. As a nation we deserve what we get.
1
Silence is indeed consent, albet aided and abbeted by T's partner-in-crime, his grand vizier in the Senate, Mitch McConnell.
2
Trump is forever trying to fit in with the it crowd. And forever failing. In school, in business, in New York’s polite society.
Now in politics, he is trying his damnedest to be one of the boys, Kim, Bin Salman, Putin.
Except this time, instead of being shunned, he is being played.
Because he is intellectually challenged, he will not know that he is being used. Instead, he will try his best to be like them — corrupt, amoral, and authoritarian.
3
That's the one thing identical in all impeachment.
1
It's sick how people as a mass seem to only need is somebody to be entertained by. I think this is why Trump has supporters. Also I think a lot of those people mistake having the courage to have strong opinions with blatant ignorance, being plain rude and wrongly unapologetic.
2
Trump doesn't have a chance of re-election unless he can cheat at the voting places.... And he probably can. Our so called voting machines are all connected to the internet and rely on secret Windows software that can be hacked. The paper ballots are never looked at by anyone. They are read by machine and if there is a question the stack is fed to an identical machine.
The voting system is in shambles.
7
If partisan politics continues to dominate the Federal government, it will be all but impossible to remove a president from office, no matter how bad he is. At least two thirds of the Senate would have to be of a different party than the president. What are the chances that an election would result in a president of one party and two thirds of the senate from another party? It happened during Andrew Johnson's impeachment trial, but not even that resulted in removal.
2
Yes, Trump has always, always done what he wants to do, because he has never had to suffer personally for inappropriate behavior. Oh sure, there may have been money paid (NDA's, fines and penalties from lawsuits, etc) but he has always had the money.
What he has never had is respect from smart people, people who try hard to understand other people and what is going on in the world as people represent their countries on trade, borders, human rights, the environment, and the future.
Without the power of the Presidency, Trump reverts to being the little man shouting from the sidelines about birth certificates, stolen servers, miscellaneous conspiracy theories, and how unfair everyone is to him. He would be no threat to anyone once removed, and the country could move on with Mr. Pence, still have time to run a nomination process, still put up a credible Presidential Candidate, and have a nice fresh election with no taint of subversion from our overseas friends.
And Mr. Trump will finally learn a lesson or two about what a reputation means, one he missed from his schooldays. One, that an impeccable reputation will serve you well if you ever find yourself falsely accused of impropriety, because - two, people will give you the benefit of the doubt in times of ignorance of the facts.
Far from the Cherry Tree Cutter who could never tell a lie, we have the Boy Who Cried Wolf. His only defense has to be provided through other mouths because his own lips have alway, always lied.
7
You still can't/don't get it. Our President does what he does because we elected him to do what he does. Acting as though he's a rogue outlier makes you far more removed from reality than we knew. At least we're solidly facing 5 more years of our nation's healing.
@J Brian
Did you elect him to illegally hold up $391 million to Ukraine and to pressure Ukraine to interfere in our elections to his advantage?
2
@J Brian nope. He misused his power and covered it up from you. He thought he would never be caught but. Whistleblower did his duty.
2
Should this type of "Presidential power"-- this ability to defy the law and easily defy the democratic norms we have lived by since our founding--be allowed to exist and grow, all of the Trump supporters will hopefully take credit for the America their children and grandchildren grow up in. Some of them might even be allowed to vote.
4
@john: The mystery of how God works is resolved. Call Trump Exhibit Number One.
"Because he can" covers the periods when he "could", when his position or money allowed him to. There have been other periods where he was vulnerable, when he was trapped in bankruptcies or failing businesses and had to be bailed out. Yet even then he managed to land on his feet. This speaks to a different thing, which I expect is "force of personality". The ability to act or project the entitlement that still garners deferential support even when he was at the mercy of his creditors. Personality, extreme risk taking, and hubris have a big role to play in why he gets away with what he does.
I’ve never been a fervent partisan. I’ve nearly always voted D, not consciously because they were D’s, but because their positions agreed with mine. At least I’ve always believed that to be the case, and I’ve told myself I could vote for a R, even if I seldom did.
But that is a luxury we no longer have.
The corruption of the R’s is now too blatant and is so deeply embedded that I have come to believe that the future of our democracy now relies on as many people as possible voting a straight D ticket. For the upcoming election season the mantra needs to be: Vote D–every election, in every place.
The only way we can adequately punish the R’s for their malfeasance is to vote as many as possible out of office, in the House, in the Senate, and in the White House. The Party needs to experience the wrath of the people, and either die or reform. They are clearly on the wrong side of history, but they are fatally blinded by the power they are corruptly abusing. Trump is obviously malign, but he is propped up by R Senators, and to a lesser degree Representatives, so a significant number of them also need to be chastened.
The impeachment fiasco was the final straw. Having to listen to the R’s claim that no evidence or witnesses need be heard was a shock that demonstrates how dire our situation has become. We can no longer rely on good will. Only the blunt force of massive defeat will shock the system sufficiently to allow it to heal.
20
"‘The answer is elections, not impeachment,’ Trump’s defense says."
Wow, how's that for legal logic?
Election, the upcoming election, you know, the thing he was trying to manipulate in the first place. The answer is what he was messing with in the first place.
9
Everything the President’s defenders say, every argument his lawyers advance, is the same circular logic used to explain and defend religious faith: in spite of all logic and without any evidence, I know it’s so, I believe, because the Bible tells me so.
You can’t debate people of faith because they just believe and no proof or suasion matters since they already know what’s what, just like the Republican Senators who basically said, why bother with a trial, or fool around with divisive evidence or testimony because we already know what we have to do, we already believe he should not be held to account... because.
And then there’s the corrosive influence of too much money.
2
"the sharp rise of inequality has empowered conservative donors and activists who want to protect their fortunes by shrinking government."
This does not relate to President Trump because government spending has increased during his presidency.
I also think there are other motivations and circumstances that make people want to shrink government. US was founded partly on freedom from a distant, costly, and intrusive government. Unfortunately President Trump is not working toward that.
I agree with the rest of this article. Romney said it's hard to sell income tax cuts because half the country doesn't pay any income tax, so it's not a big issue on their radar. A racist clown show is one way to sell income tax cuts to people who don't pay income tax.
3
Not unlike how another president could perjure himself and his party would refuse to indict. Democrats already made it possible.
1
You left out his cheating on his taxes for decades as well. Trump is nothing more than a two-bit criminal. Without his daddy's money he would be selling 3rd rate condos in the FL panhandle or used cars on some dilapidated lot.
I do not understand how he has managed to pull the con off on 40% of the country and all of the Republican congress but his, his family, and his administration's time over the barrel is coming. Here's to the next Democratic President throwing all of the book at this criminal syndicate
16
This makes me very, very sad. We've collectively unleashed the scary monster - DJT, those that surround him, those that continue to support him - that I don't think we can ever recover from.
I'm very proud of the House D's who had the courage to stand up to the umber con man. Now the rest of us need to do our job.
13
As an explanation, it's quite credible. As an attempt at a human being or a cockroach, it's inexcusable.
4
Why Trump? sensible people around the world cry out.
When I was a youth, Peter Paul and Mary had a hit with a folk song you may remember, "If I had a hammer," which became a sort of anthem for the civil rights movement.
It is the hammer of justice, the bell of freedom and a song about love between my brothers and sisters. But at the climax it affirms, 'if I had a hammer, I would tear this building down.' I conclude there is, in part, the explicit intent to demonstrate that, having been denied justice, trumps people are willing, Samson-like to bring this building down on all our heads, even at the cost of thrir own.
In short, suicide of despair and revenge.
4
I see the normalization of corruption, nepotism and outright lies, and the elevation of an unworthy, unprincipled and unqualified man as the worst long term effects of this "presidency." This cynical push for power represents a real threat to society's cohesion and values. Political differences aside, this is the worst level of corruption and norm-breaking in the U.S. in the last 30 years that I have been following politics (or maybe even longer). I moved to this country over 20 years ago and made it my home. But now I really worry, for the first time, about the prevailing values and the direction, where the country is going.
249
@Angelica : Trump's conduct is born of bullying. He has bullied people his entire life. As a kid with ample experience with bullying in the schoolyard and the sports field, I knew the answer to it: punch them in the nose.
In the public sphere, a punch is inappropriate, not to mention illegal. Legal recourse is thus the appropriate response. When an entire party resorts to bullying and/or covers for the bully, we can only hope that a handful will stand up to them. If not, everything will revert to the schoolyard, where might is right. Maybe it already has. So sad that America has come to this.
18
@Metastasis I know and agree... Trump was a known quantity, visible here in NYC for many years. But, as you pointed out, the tragedy is that bullying and all his other outrageous behaviors are normalized by a major party and many voters (maybe not a majority, but still many). That threatens the core principles on which this society is based... And any other prosperous society, I believe. I know first hand that cynical abuse of power breeds cynicism that infects many generations. It's very painful that it's happening in the US, though I hope for the best, I am very concerned.
9
@Angelica When you employ words like "corruption, nepotism,outright lies " ABH wonders whom you are speaking about: Biden or Trump? Both are "truands,"and we are not talking about students playing hooky from school!. But nuance,"Trump is charming, a born entertainer, always himself, and he has accomplished a great deal for America and Americans in terms of creating a sellers market, unparalleled prosperity,curbing, opposing illegal immigration, forcing NATO members to pay their fair share,and not apologizing for American exceptionalism.Recall expression from 1980's movie about a private/public school in which headmaster advises that there is no such thing as "general studies,"so unless you are being specific you are not being educative. Unless we learn from each other, what is the point of writing comments?ABH knows of your prejudices, but little else? As RR Palmer wrote in his "History of the Modern World,"a great historian who taught at Princeton: When Adam delved and Eve spanned, who then was the gentleman?" Who indeed? We are all born with original sin.
Why? Because most people are uneducated regarding the symptoms of mental illness and their own enabling behaviors - whether unwitting or not. The avoidance and denial of Trump's unfitness to serve and emotional and mental instability are staggering. I must have been in denial as well, however, as I now see clearly the GOPs merging of church and state and their dark hearted manipulations to turn the clock back to a time in the country that never existed. I never guessed they were as dastardly as they have proven to be. We are in perilous waters and all most of us can do is continue to describe it. It seems we are powerless to do much else. God help us.
12
@Anne: I thought the advent of computers might illuminate that the human soul is compiled of cultural software and the experience our progenitors that is voluntarily re-programmable. It's still a tough sell.
No, we are not yet fully an autocracy; however, since an article in today's NYT noted that there are states that are not allowing primaries and there are others that are only placing Trump's name on the primary ballot. This sort of behavior is what is present in autocracies, e.g., a page out of Putin's, or Erdogan's, or Xi's, Un's playbook.
The question this raises is what are they afraid of? That Trump will not win the primary?
Talk about autocratic behavior and a win-at-any-cost mentality.
10
Best opinion piece I have read in last three years on Trump and his Republican enablers. Everyone who opposes Trump or offended by him should read this article give a copy to those who support Trump.
5
"If you’re rich, famous or powerful, you can get away with much more than most people understand."
Like Hillary Clinton, refusing to accept papers served in the Tulsi Gabbard lawsuit. Or Hunter Biden - getting a job he NEVER would have gotten without Joe Biden being VP.
"The political scientist Theda Skocpol offers a useful two-part explanation"
Actually it's not a useful explanation at all. Leftist elites are still without a clue about the 2016 election. I'd like to see a good alternative to Trump but aside from Bloomberg the field isn't all that impressive.
3
@Dave
Or Jared, of real estate fiascoes, with no experience but because a SENIOR advisory to the P Resident of the United States.
Continue to toss stones in your glass house.
And "rightist elites" are somehow a-ok with you regressives? You love being used by them so much.
@Dave
Or Jared, of real estate fiascoes, with no experience but because a SENIOR advisory to the P Resident of the United States.
Continue to toss stones in your glass house.
You’re mixing apples and oranges here. You can’t possibly compare what Trump has gotten away with and Hunter Biden getting rich off the family name. As for the Democratic field? It’s a mess.
Trump does what he does because his mother and father did not love him enough to expend the effort to teach him about respect, being truthful, or kindness.
9
Which one of these sorry excuses for public officials will test their bases for approval this year if they don't have to?
I'm very grateful for Trump - he has brought clarity where before there was only confusion. I know now that I am not an American. I was born and raised here, lived most of my life here, but I am no longer an American. What I thought was my country has been revealed to me as nothing more than a free enterprise zone, with more care for corporations than for citizens. It doesn't really matter who wins an election here because the oligarchy carries on. The senate has shown the world there is no longer room for doubt about the corruptibility of the American government - up for sale to the lowest bidder! Yes, I was born in America - but I no longer consider myself a member of its constituency.
23
The current President is just another crass symbol of the extreme egoism made 'artful' by the unscrupulous behavior that personifies our culture today.
I re-read an article from 2016 by Robert MacNeil Christie that attempts to explain how we've bought into the flawed rationalization of our debt driven economy that excludes the economic participation of the majority of our population.
Its an interesting, prophetic piece The Other Culture War- The Ego and the Commons June 11, 2016
2
David says correctly in the article about Donald asking for foreign assistance, "Trump has done so repeatedly, starting in the summer of 2016 with Russia and then with China, Ukraine and perhaps unknown others. He had the ability to do it, so he did it."
Yet many still believe the Barr initiated NO COLLUSION mantra.
5
Welcome to the future of politics; this impeachment has defined the future of the presidency. You now can essentially do as you please, and little to nothing can remove you. The "people" can always elect another president, in response to the argument of lowering the bar of an impeachment. Who could've guessed; our democracy is broken.
5
The Republican Party has been a minority party since at least the 1992 election. It cannot win without not just the electoral college but voter suppression and gerrymandering. The result is we have one party that acts like it has no restraints and can do whatever it wants.
11
Thank you, Mr. Leonhardt, for putting it all together so very clearly. At age 71 I never imagined our country would fall so far so fast. And yet, here we are.
24
America seems to have lost its moral compass. Mr. Trump does what he can because Americans let him. And because Americans let him, he’s about to grab what he can — which, it turns out, is Americans’ tattered illusion of constitutional democracy. Perhaps one good thing will come out of this increasingly imperial presidency, though. He’s just made smoking rubble of those smug fantasies of American exceptionalism. Let’s see: A “trial” in which the jurors announced their verdict before hearing the evidence; in which evidence itself was suppressed; in which attempts to extort personal favours from a foreign leader were dismissed as acceptable if it was on behalf of the president of the United States; in which the president’s defence was that he can’t break the law because the law doesn’t apply to presidents? Henceforth, no one will mistake American preaching about the virtue of democratic institutions for anything more than flavour-of-the-moment snake oil. What’s next? Appointing a horse to the senate? A special Grand Masters for the president in which he shoots 18 consecutive holes-in-one? The message to the world is pretty clear — don’t believe a word Americans say about anything. It’s going to be an interesting decade, not least for Mr. Putin in Europe and Mr. Xi in Asia where they confront US allies who bet the farm on US trustworthiness and its apparently empty promise that democratic institutions would deliver stability.
22
@Stephen Hume: The US Founders generally believed that God had left this universe to run on its own, so this hypothetical personage wouldn't be a factor in the governance of the nation.
2
God doesn’t have anything to do with this. Of course, the cynical Caesars who demolished their senate in their creation of Imperial Rome routinely had themselves deified to legitimize their power, so maybe that’s coming, too. One of them appointed his favourite horse to a senate seat. Another pressured the Greeks for the favour of an Olympic garland. Mr. Trump doesn’t seem to be that into animals so maybe you’ll get a golf cart. And a lifetime achievement Oscar for best actor, ever!
@Steve Bolger
The Founders created a Constitution that the GOP feels does not apply to them in any way, shape or form.
Corruption in government is as old as the republic itself. But now it is in your face, what are you gonna do about it corruption.
Note: There is a financial correction coming just as there was in 2008 when Bush II slithered away from office. This one is going to come close to if not completely bankrupting the nation.
After decades of getting what he wants, he's in a small, walled-off section of society where he has been taunted, called a liar, is unable to get good people to work for him because he's a criminal. What happens? He stacks his cabinet with other criminals because no one else will work with him.
The gop's line about let the voters decide in the 2020 election is just that - a line - that we're not buying. Putin and other despots are there waiting to steal our country and resources.
Wake up we're walking into fascism with our eyes wide open.
21
@Gonewiththewind: They should put their money where their mouths are. Every senator should stand for election this year for what they are doing now.
4
Donald Trump exudes the vindictiveness exhibited by corporate czars. In 1979, the corporate vice president of the company I worked forced the division vice president to sign a pay raise for me. The division vice president found his revenge by replacing my former boss with a bully who did everything he could to micromanage me. I dread what might happen if Rand Paul forced the revelation of the 'whistleblower'. Thankfully, we have legal protection for the 'whistleblower' and a Chief Justice who will defend that protection..
7
@bnc: Rand Paul is the Grand Dork of Libertarianism. He dumps his yard waste on his neighbor's land without permission.
Underneath it all Trump has been right all along, you can get away with anything as long as there’s no one to stop you. His craven sycophantic Republican allies and the feckless, bumbling, out-of-touch Democrats ensure this. Both Democrats and Republicans in Congress are more concerned with posturing, gamesmanship and their own re-elect than the good of the country or the constitution. There’s clear historic parallels to this, namely Germany and Italy in the 1930’s, when the political elite had an opportunity to stand up against tyranny as individual rights and liberties crumbled. This is not a new concept....you can do anything you want when you have no effective opposition & complicit allies.
7
@Phil - Don’t insult the Democrats. Speaker Pelosi, Rep. Schiff, Rep. Nadler, and the others did everything legally and ethically possible to bring to light just two of Trump’s many unconstitutional actions. What would you have them do instead? There are, I guess, always different ways to accomplish something, and we all have 20/20 hindsight. However, when dealing with utterly ruthless and lawless thugs, no matter what the Democrats would’ve done differently wouldn’t have resulted in anything better.
5
Remember Giuliani who said he has insurance against trump...I was thinking that like typical criminal cartel they all have insurance on each other.
trump has insurance on senators, I'm sure dirty Russian money is the key word, since it's not a cult of personality, instead it's cult of greed and brazen corruption.
And finally Putin has insurance on all of them...
"All roads lead to Putin"
8
"The Simple Reason Trump Does What He Does" is that Emperor Trump is America's first obvious, overt, and overbearing Emperor.
An Emperor is what an Emperor does.
Fortunately, for our once "promising" and sometimes progressive country has a naturally correcting 'body politic' --- which when it swings toward authoritarianism, totalitarianism, fascism, plutocracy, imperialism (as in HS History textbooks often call a chapter "The Age of Imperialism"), et. al. --- has always swung back toward Republic, democracy, justice, equality, and liberty.
So in some respect, having an Emperor, like Emperor Trump, who is so obvious, so odious, and so obfiscating to the ill-informed should be easily 'exposed' and educated to all who will listen, think, and recognize as "acting like an Emperor" --- which Chris Cuomo openly warned of on CNN's national TV broadcasts as early as October 2017 is "acting like an Emperor":
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2017/10/13/cnns_chris_cuomo_to_rep_jim_jordan_on_obamacare_subsidies_why_arent_you_saying_the_president_is_acting_like_an_emperor.html
4
Trump does what he does because his father didn't love him or was incapable of showing or expressing his love.
2
And sent him away to reform school for rich brats upstate when he caught him with a 42nd Street shiv.
People obey the laws and follow standards and precedents because they realize that for the most part it's in their best interests as a society to do so. No amount of policing and enforcement can force them to do so, as was shown with Prohibition and more recently drug use. All it takes is a sociopath who refuses to follow the rules and has the wealth and notoriety to defy them to show how very tenuous the "rule of law" really is.
9
Autocracy is a nice word. Undermining institutions like the press leads to a different kind of government. Taking away the right to vote, or making it too difficult might not be a political prison but it it is a political prison. This is not autocracy. It is the beginning of something dark and dangerous. Democracy in America has always been constrained. We are a republic. So was Weimar. Europe was dominated by Trump and O’Connell like folks and they had a following that became party made of sycophants and nationalists.
When the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court presides over a show trial, we are in deep deep trouble.
The rule of law is the first thing to go and then “Autocracy” ends up as fascism and Stalinism, and Nazism.
7
Doing what he vowed to folks he'd do in an unpresidential way he swore to voters he would.
3
David, you, like most people give only passing credit to the real foundation of Trump’s ignorance and cruelty and that’s his base. Republican politicians aren’t installed by the President, the people vote for them and they’re well aware that they’ll be voted out if they don’t embrace Trump enthusiastically. I’m not excusing Republicans for their cowardice, I’ve quit jobs for a lot less, but like it or not let’s stop avoiding the elephant in the room.
5
"Because he could" is an acceptable reason for why a dog licks himself. It's really not a good reason for why a president should embrace corruption, thuggery and sexual assault.
8
TRUMP = best President ever
2
@Nycdweller
Trump's real crime is beating them over and over again. I'm listening to Schiff rage away now when under it all it's clear he's really angry because Trump beat them.
Americans despise losing.
1
What a strong argument.
This is our Weimar/Hitler moment. Let's see if our system and our nation does better than the Weimar Republic and the Germans did. So far it is not promising. Don't forget that Hitler was around for a number of years before he became Chancellor. It did not happen overnight. That there there were lots of "conservatives" who "liked what he did." And that he did not hide what kind of person he was. Audacity works well under certain circumstances. I am not optimistic.
14
He does what he does because democrats have either not come up with a specific strategy to call him and the republicans on their hypocrisy or they think people will come around to some sensibility. We're past that point. When they go low we need to go there to point it out. We need to be as visceral in our attacks as they are. We need to get the attention he gets otherwise he will suck the oxygen out of the room regardless how ignorant his comments are. Bill Clinton knew you had to fight every comment made by republicans. We need to point out every lie by calling it that at the least. Instead of reacting we need to act first and put them on the defensive.
3
Republican lawyers are closing their argument with lies, saying Democrats wanted to impeach Trump for purely partisan reasons. It’s classic Republican smearing everything good and true, and it proves their support for Trump doing anything what he wants. Republicans will not even mention what he did to warrant the impeachment inquiry. Democrats thought Trump had committed an impeachable offense when he solicited Russia’s help during the election, and then in office obstructing justice by firing the FBI director, and many other acts detailed in the Mueller report. Ukraine and the evidence he was going to cheat in THIS election, too, was just the last straw for the decent people in the Democratic Party. Republican Party is full of liars, and enablers including his lawyers. Trump can do whatever he wants because Republicans will not even say what he did. “Hey Russia if you’re listening “, etc etc etc.
The Senate acquittal throws gasoline on the fire of fury of people of conscience toward the Thug-in-Chief, and his Republican enablers.
7
So Trump called Ted Cruz, “Lying Ted.”
He tweeted an unflattering photo of Heidi Cruz and threatened to expose something scandalous.
He called Cruz’s father an accomplice to the assassination of JFK.
Now Cruz licks Trump’s boots.
The voters need to get rid of both Trump and the likes of Ted Cruz so that politicians know we do not abide cowardice.
16
@Ben I think trump was getting back at him because Cruz took advantage of the Steele dossier? Remember it was initiated by republicans and only then Hillary Clinton seized it by buying it legally.
1
Everything Trump does, he does not just because he can, but also because it corresponds with his pathological nature.
Take yesterday's two Super Bowl commercials: each a classic of over-the-top self-promotion, with his usual lies tossed in for bad measure.
This president, who is as well-known for his inferiority complex as his power plays, yesterday played the former to perfection in promotional messages that were at once pathetic and desperate.
6
Absolutely agree with Mr Leonhardt. I would like to add that DT is ALL as described but coupled with an total lack of culture bordering on cretinisme, he can hardly speak english, probably never read a book or went into a museum...
The trumplovers as well like "do whatever they want" an definitely don't want the elites in big cities "tell them what to do" like pay taxes (it reminds me of an interview I saw on TV during the campaign where this guy was asked about gouverman in Washington, answer: "too big" we should do away with all this.. then when asked how he lives, I
"I get food stamps".. and how do you vote: "Republican of course"
They have been brainwashed and "uneducated" for 30 years since Reagan and these are most of the GOP senate voters. It might explain in good part the slavish way all these guys behave in front of DT.
7
I hope enterprising research journalists will review public statements of the 53 + senators voting to acquit President Trump for any statements they made about the jury verdict in the 1995 trial of OJ Simpson.
The brazeness of OJ’s illegal acts and the continued denial of any culpability had roots in the state of mind discussed in Mr. Leonhardt’s editorial: When you are a star (football, movies and television) “they let you do it….anything you want.” This state of mind is a thread running through the minds of OJ, Harvey Weinstein and Donald Trump.
Twenty five years ago, when the Simpson jurors succumbed to the power of celebrity, they were roundly condemned -- no doubt-- by every one of the Republican senators on the Trump jury, as well by large portions of “the base.”.
Many of the jurors on the Simpson case reported being shunned thereafter, largely by fellow Caucasian co-workers who thought racial identity and victim bias caused them to betray their oath as jurors.
Senators voting to acquit will themselves -- I hope -- be treated the same way by their fellow citizens in the states which elected them.
David Coleman
Berkeley, Ca.
5
Bill Clinton renting out the white house bring back fond memories? Just asking.
And that reminds me of China tax Free-Zone in California
It's not a crime to be a psychpath. But you arrest and jail them (Trump and his co-conspirators) when they've committed crimes. Because they can't.
1
Curious there's no mention of the one person who trump willingly accedes to. When observing the two together, it's very clear who's the dominant and who's the submissive.
Watching them side by side at the Helsinki conference, or on any other occasion shows an uncharacteristically subdued trump.
There is one person who can control trump and it's not McConnell.
Putin has trump on a leash. Somebody out there knows why.
10
Because he has been enabled to do whatever he wants his whole life, and now he has a complicit GOP Congress and a whole "news" propaganda network to help him continue to get away with whatever he wants to do at a dangerous to the whole country level.
1
One reader writes this about Trump:
"No conscience, no intellect, no curiosity, no taste."
But apart from that, you like the guy?
1
David Leonhardt, You write, "The country is left with a president who has spent decades doing whatever he thinks is in his self-interest". Please look at these words; they have no value.
The country is not "left with" Trump. It is precisely this language that fosters the apathy of the voting populace that is the reason for this mess.
The American people rallied around every protest imaginable; Woman's March; Black Lives Matter, etc. Now, in the face of total deceit and corruption the American people have decided to lay down and do Nothing. This is at the heart of the current situation.
There is no political fix for this level of sustained corruption. Have you noticed? The people must take to the streets. Think Big. Like MLK wanted to do...........10 Million in Washington, planned and supported to be effective. Stay until change is made. Anything less will get you fascism, as you can plainly see.
American democratic voters will do nothing, however. They will not put themselves in the fray but will complain without ceasing.
This is why Trump will win in November.
Journalists, you are not helping us by not understanding the words you are using. Trump is not hurting us; we are just doing it to ourselves.
6
Trump is no different than Xi or Putin; all are "leaders" of elitist fascist-controlled global military empires. America's fascism is expressed by two competing elite parties: both trying to kill the other one off..so they can control the empire.
It's classic Wyoming. Simple when you see it.
One party rule!
1
I thought we were better than this awful human being. I hope the youth of this country rises to send him and his pathetic GOP supporters packing. What happened to Lindsay Graham?
3
We have thrown off a King before.
3
@Molly Ciliberti
But now we have millions upon millions of Americans who *want* a king. A king to enforce things their way without any of the messy democracy stuff getting in the way.
I've written before to say that just as animals of different species are wired to seek out and follow the Alpha the same is true of the human animal where there instinctual need for the Alpha, for the King, is very strong. Not all humans are free of their more primal instinct to follow the strong man.
2
What I can't understand is the level of support Trump maintains. Yes, he lost the election by almost 3 million votes but ... he lost California alone by nearly 4 million votes. He WON the rest of the country by almost 1 million votes.
The democratic party has to find a way to either energize democratic party voters who sat out 2016 or convert some Trump voters in 2020 to win.
2
@TP
California alone by nearly 4 million votes. He WON the rest of the country by almost 1 million votes.
This is a nonsense information.
He certainly didn't win my state of Massachusetts for one. He lost here by 905,000 votes. He lost NY by 1,736,590 votes.
3
The explanations I have read from posters for why the GOP has lost its conscience sound reasonable, but I wonder if another factor helps explain the global appeal of the trumpian moment: the decline in prestige and perceived power of the USSR in the 1970's and 80's. Almost nobody in the USA after WWII saw the USSR as exactly a role model for us, but in the propaganda war there was a perceived need to show the Third World that the American way was more attractive than communism. Even if right-wingers resented the power of unions, the civil rights movement, etc., to improve the lives of millions, it was useful to be able to point to the relatively decent standard of living of those millions compared to their counterparts behind the Iron Curtain. The rise of OPEC and related factors (e.g. oil money funding Islamism) upended the bi-polar conflict of the cold war and reduced the need for hypocrisy about inequality. (Recall Nixon's pride in Pat's being a "cloth coat Republican?" How quaint.) Vulgar opulence now burnishes the Trump/GOP brand. And this falling away of hypocrisy is not a purely American phenomenon.
1
The "real" Americans who support Donald Trump are the ones who know "he never relents and never gives up." He is valiantly committed to fighting for white nationalism, totalitarianism, hatred of science, spitting on the constitution and the destruction of the rule of law. These are qualities his supporters love. Let's hope there are still enough Americans who know where the Super Bowl winners are from and who come out to vote in the 2020 presidential election.
5
Corruption has to have its cost. Pelosi should extract that price from Trump and the Republican Senators by disinviting Trump from delivering the SOTU speech at the House, and the Democratic Senators should refuse to attend a SOTU at the Senate.
5
At least one commenter describes our government as "a fascist dictatorship."
Please recognize that, though I think Trump is "Guilty as charged" and should be removed, I believe he DID get fairly elected in 2016. Many Americans sincerely believe that the impeachment effort is ONLY an effort to undo the 2016 election, and the utterly absurd "collusion" allegations support them.
2
@Commenter
"... the utterly absurd "collusion" allegations ..."
I guess you missed the Mueller thingy in which the Republican said, with the full concurrence our own intelligence agencies, that the Russian sabotage of our elections was "sweeping and systematic."
7
I have NEVER once believed that Trump was “fairly elected”! It seemed suspicious that only 70 thousand votes in crucial electoral states, WI, MI & PA (with large electoral votes counts) guaranteed him a win! 70 Thousand votes that could easily have been changed by Russian hackers in less than an hour. That is what I believe happened and worse, that is what will happen again in 2020! Unless he’s gone!
So far, Trump has not sent secret envoys to scuttle peace talks and keep the U.S. at war. Nixon did that as a private citizen in 1968--it's well documented, and then-president Johnson's remarks on the subject are on publicly-available tape.
Reagan's team negotiated directly with the Iranian government to keep American hostages in captivity till after the 1980 election. The pro-quo was weapons (in violation of U.S. law), which incinerated hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians in a war fed by American weapons sold to both sides.
Nixon also incinerated hundreds of thousands of civilians for no good reason, as did Johnson and both Bushes. Obama and Trump have continued this practice on a smaller scale, and Reagan and Clinton on a much smaller scale.
When you’re a "superpower", they let you do it. You can do anything.
1
We are now an autocratic dictatorship. There is no knowing what Trump will do now. He now knows,if he didn't before,that he can do anything that he wants to,lawful or unlawful. Launch an investigation of every potential candidate on the Democratic side? Why not? Investigate all the House leadership? Why not?Declare himself President for life? Why not. Refuse to leave if he is defeated in November because of voter fraud? Why not?There is no longer any limit,so some totally unimaginable idea that occurs to him could easily become the new normal.
3
@sarss Yes, this is exactly the risk we face. Where is the line he needs to cross before the excuses and the justifications of his behavior and action will be too much for the GOP and Fox News? We already run the very real risk that armed citizens will not let Trump be removed from office regardless of the vote count in November.
Actually the GOP is not that much different than the Communist party in right China. They put party over country as the impeachment trial showed very clearly and they do anything to stay in power. The separation of powers is slowly vanishing (Justice Department, Congress coequal branch), gerrymandering, attacking the free press and trying to quiet them, replacing justices and key positions with incompetent loyalists, inviting Russian collusion and much more to list. They even have their own State Media outlet with FOX. As the European press wrote correctly, America is leaving Democracy.
5
In my view, Trump is contemptible. However, it should be noted that contemptibility has been and continues to be a successful strategy and one that is silently acquiesced by the ethical and moral liberal progressives.
Perhap an allegory might help. The white man invaded North America. If we are led to believe there was a period, apparently fairly brief, during which the white man coordinated with the indigenous peoples. But then there were conflicts as the white man began to embrace the land that had been occupied by the indigenous. So then the white man began to kill the indigenous.
Of course not all white men killed the indigenous. The liberal progressives were not comfortable with the killing but, lo and behold the land became available and the liberal progressives moved onto that land and began to exploit the bountiful resources which hitherto had supported the indigenous peoples. There may have been some residual ethical doubts, but the harvest needed to be planted and the crops gathered.
A similar allegory occurs with the recent tax cut, which, by most accounts benefited a very small, very wealthy group of individuals and organization. AND anyone, including liberal progressives who had their life savings invested in a 401k.
Appartently I was alone when the stock market dove at the end of 2018 and I withdrew my meager funds into cash, hoping that it assist in removing funding from the market and leading to a clash. Hahahahahaha.
Silly me.
I repeat the comment of one reader -- after this impeachment exercise, the only limits on Trump will be his imagination and the laws of physics.
4
None of this would be a problem if the U. S. had a parliamentary system like everyone else. Your back-ups are almost all gone. Separation of powers? Constitutional remedies? The American Government is a shell of its former self. Approaching 100 percent dysfunction. It would have been no problem to dump Trump in a parliamentary system.
4
If minority rule continues for some time, people will lose faith in the current system. Eventually it will lead to violence. We need to change all that before that happens.
1
Frankly, it must lead to violence!
"When you’re president, you can do anything."
Those were clearly the words that passed through Clinton's head as he got busy with Monica in the Oval Office. And they didn't remove him either. The Democrats are just as bad. In this case, they could have gotten their witnesses if they'd agreed to make Biden testify; that was a deal the Republicans offered. Why not agree to that, if Biden has nothing to hide? The truth is that deep down the establishment Democrats don't really care much about removing Trump, they're much more concerned with protecting their own corrupt kingpins at all costs, while doing everything possible to sabotage honest men like Bernie, who threatens to overturn the whole apple cart by exposing them as the scam artists they are.
President Trump's supporters give their power over to him because he is their political avatar. Through him, they get to vicariously live out a fantasy of unrestricted white male privelege without any consequences. Trump is catnip to an electorate that is demoralized and frustrated and feels beseiged by difference and hemmed in by bureaucrats and regulations.
3
Donald Trump shows who he is in the most beasty way because that is who he is. Billy Bush, Trump's slipping tongue about women who are often hunting situations like that just to be famous is a part of our reality today. People care about jobs jobs jobs! No need that he actually abuses the law when he is followed by about 50'000'000million people.
The Republicans don't believe in facts and data,science, laws, morals or the will of the people. 70% of the country wanted witnesses. They will lie cheat and steal to stay in power. I am so sick of them. And it is worse when you are true blue and live in red state. We have to get out the vote and keep hammering on Trump and his lies. Maybe a few will wake up enough to turn the tide.
2
Republicans, the new American authoritarians: Everything we do is ultimately fine. The rest of you will be severely punished.
2
Trump is President for Trump, period. Nothing will change that. He switched parties because he found he could resonate with the hatred, bigotry, fear, and resentment so prevalent in those describing themselves as "conservatives"; predominantly the GOP. Of course today's GOP was formed immediately after President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law; Dixiecrats (read: racist/segregationists) switched to the GOP. The "christian" supporters of the GOP find themselves having to explain their positions supporting right-to-life, contrasting with a POTUS who breaks every other commandment. Total hypocrisy.
The Democrats in the House need to subpoena Bolton, Mulvaney, Pompeo, and take it to the courts to re-establish the checks and balances, to rub Trump's corruption in his face, and keep his corruption in front of the voters all the way to November
3
He doesn't know right from wrong, and that's the simple reason he does what he does.
Not pertinent to this editorial: The bad-faith of the president's lawyers in their final arguments today has been scandalous. Untruths, misdirections, obfuscations. Lies about the words and actions of the president, false patriotism, fake claims of acting on behalf of our system of democracy.
2
Dave,
Thucydides capsulized the situation nicely, 2,400 years ago:
"The strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must."
Question for you - Are we just too fat and happy to get strong? Do we need another Great Depression, Vietnam War, "Jim Crow" Era, to get us riled up enough to show strength?
Raph Richman
NY, NY
2
Does executive privilege extend to Jared Kushner? Any lawyers here?
2
Sounds like the similar reason that Clinton messed around with an intern -but with infinitely less real consequences for the country.
1
I seriously hope the Democratic Party will forever abandon their pitch as the "Party of Inclusiveness".
After all, the only leading candidates they can offer up are elderly white people.
Dems, you have no credibility.
Trump wins 2020. Game over.
2
"Because he can." BUT WHY CAN HE? Because we/they let him. Enough said.
325
@Patty GOP just gave Trump the huge green light to do Anything. Buckle up Buttercup; Trump Will take away your Healthcare.
32
@Patty:
Because of the GOP.
6
@Patty Just listening to Adam Schiff's closing comments today. I agree with him to the depth of my being. ENOUGH! Just stand up and say ENOUGH.
17
Thanks to developmental psychology, we can see the underlying forces that help us understand Mr. Trump's world view. The developmentalists describe a frame of mind they variously call warrior, egocentric, impulsive thinking and self-sovereign. This stage is characterized by impulse gratification, little or no empathy and lack of trust. To this mindset, life is a brutal dog-eat-dog fight and one must often use ruthless means to keep control. Trump has much in common with the warrior world view, as we have seen repeatedly from his tweets, interviews, history of sexual predation, tendency to banish members of his inner circle for acts of perceived disloyalty and his drive to maintain presidential power that led to impeachment.
Historically, the rise of the warrior consciousness brought humanity benefits. But we must recognize warrior consciousness--and those adults who inhabit this stage--as what it is: immature and less advanced. In fact, most reach this stage as children, from about ages 7-10. But many evolve to later stages (including traditional, modern and postmodern--the 3 most common stages in America today), where values like respect for authority, moral regard for others, faith, self-sacrifice and nonviolence are hallmarks.
Let’s hope that with awareness of developmental psychology, that we reach a place where we include the best of each world view, while transcending the detrimental aspects. Ultimately, perhaps we can reach a peaceful end to the culture wars.
@Celeste, Narcissistic personality disorder at a pathological level more accurately describes the problem with trump. Many believe narcissistic personality disorder is hardwired.
1
I have reached a level of Trump-fatigue bordering on mind-numbing indifference. Like an abused person who just expects to be hit.
I feel utterly let down by our country and the institutions I believed in. I am not young and naive. I do not have delusions of altruism in politics. But I used to have a belief in a shared set of values regarding respect for the constitution and the office of the President of the United States.
What is shocking to me is that I don't even feel like showing up to vote. I will of course. But I have no trust. No faith.
I am trying to hold onto hope.
5
Long after Trump and Mitch are both gone. We will still be feeling the impact of Sanders' supporters helping to elect Donald Trump and his Republican enabler in 2016.
Which put two judges on the Supreme Court and hundreds of unqualified judges on the federal bench.
I know the Sanders' supporters will make excuses and say it's not true.
Don't take my word for it, Google, how many Sanders' supporters voted for Trump in 2016? How about 10 - 12% or upward of 6 million votes.
I bet if Sanders doesn't win the 2020 nomination, this same percentage will vote for Donald Trump again in 2020.
Don't be surprise this time.
2
@Listening to Others
That's funny, blaming Bernie for Hillary's inability to beat a clown like Trump. And I suppose if Biden can't stop putting his foot in his mouth and stinking of corruption that will be Bernie's fault too.
@Samuel Russell: James Comey's stunt with Anthony Weiner's computer won the election for Trump, and nobody wants to know anything at all about the chain of custody of that MacGuffin.
1
Why are we all surprised? Trump is doing exactly what his voters send him to do and come November, they will do it again.
I understand that David doesn't want to talk in conspiracies but where we are as a country was by design. One need look no further than Thomas Hofeller, the Republican strategist who tried to get a citizenship question on the census because he scientifically determined the implementation of the question would suppress non-white participation while making it seem that it would benefit real Americans. This scheme traveled through the Republican machine, was packaged and sold to the American people through Right Wing Media, and was only stopped at the Supreme Court because the conspiracy was revealed. This effort took a lot of money, a lot of people, a lot of coordination, a lot of planning - all with the intent to thwart the Constitutionally mandated census of counting everyone residing in the US to determine representation.
This is just one of many conspiracies enacted by the Republican party to gain and maintain power, all at the behest of the wealthy who provably have benefited from Republican rule (income inequality). The anger of the rank and file voters was manufactured by the Right which, after killing the Fairness Doctrine, opened the door to all manner of falseness to penetrate deep into the psyche of rural Americans to stir resentment of "liberals" who were branded evil and corrupt. The Right historically was the party of business but remade themselves to appeal to just enough voters to keep themselves in power by manipulating voters' fears and anxieties.
7
If one take time to read or, hopefully, re-read the US Declaration of Independence, note that many of the 'Injuries and Usurpations' quite easily describe the actions of not only Trump, but many in the Republican Party.
So, if we still believe that "...that whenever any form of Government becomes destructive of these ends [that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness], it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness", then the Republicans are close to starting a revolution, one that is sanctioned by our very own forefathers.
When government becomes destructive — erasing environmental reforms, selling off public lands and resources, reducing or eliminating controls on chemicals that can poison air, water, and soil, destroying our good relations with other countries, etc. — then We, the People, have the Right to alter or abolish it.
Perhaps it is time to abolish the Republican Party.
13
Mr. David Leonhardt is one of my favorite columnists in the NYT but I wish he would write columns talking about new insights and things that we don't already know. The things which he covers in this article have been common knowledge for many, many years.
People who have followed The Donald's career in "business" have known that he is a con man from his days running casinos. He a narcissist whose outstanding characteristics are shamelessness and brazenness. But that has been known for some years.
To me the key to understanding The Donald is to remember that his greatest business success was as a pretend "businessman" on The Apprentice.
He is now running The Apprentice Presidency. He loves being President because he is the center attention even when he is talking nonsense. His policies all make sense if you remember that wants to be reelected and he wants to play to his base. For example a key part of The Donald's base are the Christian Evangelicals so he wants to pander to them. Many of the Christian Evangelicals love Israel and Bibi and hate Iran. So The Donald loves Israel and Bibi and hates Iran.
The Donald wants to unify his base but distract and divide the democrats.
All lot of people (including me) dislike The Donald. But writing columns in the NYT won't get him out of office or hamper the GOP program. To do that the democrats need to win elections -- specifically keep the House and gain control of the Senate and the White House.
7
I knew the office carried awesome power. I just never dreamed that it would be occupied by a vengeful monster prepared to use all its levers for his own self-interest.
When saner times arrive, I hope a chastened nation will enact laws that protect against his excesses, and devise a way to remove a president that respects the rights of all but doesn't allow the person charged to obstruct and slow-walk things through courts ad infinitum.
17
Trump will continue to do what he wants because he is backed by the GOP who clearly is not moderate.
Democrats trying to find a moderate candidate will lose.
6
The House democrats did a lot of hard work, for the people, to investigate to present their case for impeachment. The Senate republicans renounced the Constitution and showed their cowardice, by doing nothing but sitting back, waiting for the democrats to get through; so that, with their already pre-biased oaths of impartiality, they would acquit Trump; against the Constitution; essentially anointing him as dictator/king. Should People believe in republicans who are renouncing the Constitution in support of a King? Yes Mitch McConnell said, "the Senate should not do the House's work". Well, now that the Senate, did not do their work, to convict and remove the president. Mitch and his congressional republicans, have passed their job on to the People. This is bad because Mitch and his republicans could have already ended Trump's anti-Constitutional regime, before passing the senate's responsibility to the People. Now since Mitch McConnell and his republican cronies did not want to do their job; Now the People have to do it. Then why do the People need Mitch and his people if they cannot do their job?
10
Trump is the worst president this country has had at least since Andrew Johnson, who failed to be removed from office by one vote.
But Republicans had good arguments for not removing Trump from office. Leonhardt should have listened to them.
Alan Dershowitz gave an hour presentation which was mostly ignored by the NY Times. In it, he argued that many presidents had been accused of abuse of power, including Washington, Lincoln and Obama. He argued that "Obstruction of Congress" was part of the checks and balance built into the constitution, that arguments between the executive and legislative branches were envisioned by the framers of the constitution, and regarded as part of the proper functioning of government.
Many Republicans (but certainly not all) agreed that Trump had done terrible things, but also bought Dershowitz's argument that the articles of impeachment were too general and would result in impeachment becoming commonplace.
For example, the proper place to argue immigration policy is the House and Senate. Yet Obama gave amnesty to hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants through the Dreamers program, which bypassed Congress.
I believe this action of Obama was a mistake. What it does is say: Let's not decide things within Congress but rather by executive order of whoever happens to be president at the time.
Could Democrats not see that this mistake would come back to haunt them?
For a democracy to function we need a national discussion on immigration.
2
Those illegal immigrants you speak of grew up in this country, went to college and got jobs. Better than many citizens. But they’re brown, right? We don’t need a national discussion on immigration — we need a national discussion on racism.
And the Alan Dershowitz you speak of is an opportunist (see Simpson trial) who could care less about the Constitution or the truth. We have become a nation where the facts are whatever one says they are.
2
@Blaise Descartes
As soon as you mentioned Alan Dershowitz I knew the rest was as much nonsense as he spouted. Using the Republican Playbook Dershowitz simply made things up to support his cause.
Remember Obama took the action he did because the House and Senate, where it is supposed to lie, did not.
And if immigration is superposed to lie with Congress why does Trump take so many unilateral actions and why do the Republicans constantly argue that immigration is at the President's sole discretion?
3
Trump conspired with a foreign power against our right to a fair election. Trump is a fever, the repubs are a disease
3
'The Simple Reason Trump Does What He Does
Because he can.'
It's a character flaw developed early in childhood.
Trump is a prime example of why it's so important to utilize effective, sensible discipline when raising children.
It doesn't take much, and it shouldn't be corporal, but you do have to be consistent.
The payoff is usually well adjusted offspring who are willing and capable of showing consideration for others.
7
Amen.
2
"Staying in power trumps all." Not being a politician myself, I've never understood the point of power for its own sake. And yet, as documented in the new book "A Very Stable Genius," Trump lives for power, especially the opportunity it furnishes for cruelty.
As for the Senate's current majority leader:
"A few things are curiously missing from the Mitch McConnell–Elaine Chao Archives at the University of Louisville. At an exhibit designed to celebrate the Senate majority leader and his wife, there’s almost no mention of any bills McConnell has authored in his 32 years in the Senate. There’s virtually nothing about the people he’s helped, nothing to highlight courageous speeches made on the Senate floor. Instead, McConnell's exhibit almost entirely pays homage to the elections he’s won."
To any normal person, that's a wasted life. https://www.vox.com/2017/1/2/14123496/mitch-mcconnell-motives
13
If only it were so simple. 'Because he can.'
The problem is no longer just Trump, it is that he now has the Republican serving him up America on a silver-finish platter. He gets them a paltry few things, 30 pieces of judicial appointments and tax cuts, and they give him their souls. That deal is done.
The question is now, Will America stand by and let his become what he longs for, everybody's CEO/King. The Republicans are stuck with the Senate's collapse. Their fault, their burden at least until November. It is no longer just a question of stopping the Don, but stopping the zombie party that my parents and I were once proud to work for. The Horror! The Horror!.
Forget how we got here. Here we are. Just Say No. No to Trump and his zombie party. No!
13
We are becoming an irrelevant country like any other country regardless of wealth, even China, that does not follow a rule of law, but rather a rule of money, power, fear. Pair this article with the one about the graying of Iowa. We need immigrants, not racists. We need all generations and peoples in our government, not just old white men, holding onto power for dear life before theirs slips away. We need people who actually believe in their own Constitution at least as much as they do in their next paycheck. We, the people, need to wake up and act by voting these cowards out of office and beginning the painful process of tearing our eyes away from the circus and paying accountable taxes for things like infrastructure, alternative energy, health care.
9
Thank you for this perceptive column, Mr. Leonhardt.
I would only add that there is no need to be polite about the virulence and prominence of white racism in the American electorate and Republican party by using terms like "ethno-nationalism."
It is apparent by now that about 40% of the American electorate is irredeemably racist, and this is the "base" upon which the modern Republican party rests. And the billionaire class magnificently exploits this racism by talking about makers and takers, entitlement reform, Obamacare, immigrants, terrorism, religious freedom, Second Amendment, etc., all while creating a new Gilded Age that has created extremes of income inequality unseen in a century.
And, of course, that income inequality is what really creates the economic and social conditions which mire white Americans, poor and working class, in their misery.
The last stanza of Langston Hughes' poem 'Let America Be America Again' seems apt:
Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain —
All, all the stretch of these great green states —
And make America again!
13
Yes, of course. Everyone who disagrees with your political philosophy does so out of an extreme amount of racism. It couldn’t be that we can’t support any candidate who will bankrupt the country fiscally and morally, having bought votes with others’ money on the promise of free everything. It cannot be that our interpretation of freedom is that it is a double-edged sword that both allows Jeff Bezos to become the world’s wealthiest while simultaneously making hundreds of thousands homeless. My grandfather was put to work when he was 12; my father at age 14. I, therefore, will be forever grateful that I was allowed to graduate high school. Me parents couldn’t afford college so I didn’t belong there. Contrary to popular liberal belief, a sizable portion of the population doesn’t want a nanny state government, regardless of their station in life. My employer pays me well below minimum wage but I would never turn to the entrenched bureaucracy for relief. I understand that only the aggressive succeed in capitalism.
3
Beautifully rendered. I am moved by your words and Langston Hughes’ poetry
2
@From Where I Sit
So you enjoy self-flagellation. How strange. I wish you had gotten that college education. You might have learned a little more nuance. I suspect like most "capitalists" you'll be all too eager to turn to the nanny state when things get rough.
4
Trump doing what he does because he can explains some but not all of his behavior. He also happens to be a moron as evidenced by his sincevcorrected congratulatory tweet to the K.C. Chiefs after they won the Super Bowl: "You represented the Great State of Kansas . . . so very well." (And special congratulations to your quarterback Patrick and all of his homies).
5
And the leftists are is crisis , as this journal, which endorsed the impeachment and lost , and keeps publishing publishing false news about the Brazilian administration that is cleaning up the leftists gang that sole billions from Brazilian people
1
This ain’t Brazil.
He’s white. He’s rich and he’s made a life of being an
Absolutely horrid bully and cheat. And society has let him get away with it.
Now he’s had his Reichstag moment. Can only get worse.
10
Trump does what he does because he can. That may be true.
He believes he can do this because he is two parts deranged and one part stupid. He has been engaging in corruption all his adult life, to a degree that it is second nature to him.
It is not as though he can not tell the difference between right and wrong it is that corruption is his first instinct , the only course of action in his mind.
He has apparently suggested that it should be legal for US corporations to be able to bribe foreign officials in order to get contracts.
This is why I say he is deranged and totally lacking in any sense of morals . If you got in his head you would find a putting iron, a porn tape, and a credit card that was not his.
There is no point in trying to fix or make sense of him, we just need him to be voted out of office and he needs to loose his reelection as he would say 'Bigly'.
9
When are people gonna stop writing about this jerk?
3
Republicans have suggested that the radical Democrats are committing a ‘coup de’etat’ by wanting to overturn the election of 2016. I submit it is the Republicans in the Senate who have attempted a coup, by overturning our rule of law based on theConstitution and not fulfilling their duties as United States Senators in conducting a fair, unbiased trial on the two impeachment charges. They say the people should decide but the people decided (70 percent) wanted evidence and witnesses, like any other trial. Over 50 percent want Trump removed from office. Justice will be served. The day of reckoning will come.
12
@GraceNeeded In 2016 the people did Hillary three million more votes. If he wins again the Hounds of Hell will be let out. Jim Trautman
1
King Don is such a princess!
(Apologies to Kate and Meghan.)
4
Trump can lie with impunity and his lies are amplified by his mouthpiece, FOX News. His supporters believe his lie that he is the reason for the rebound in the stock market. How easily these dupes forget or refuse to accept that the economic rebound was shepherded in by Obama-- who, by the way, didn't have over 16,000 documented public lies after three years in the presidency. But of course, the racist trumpanzees don't even know they're racists, any more than they would know a fascist dictatorship if it were shoved down their throats by Mitch McConnell. Stock market good. Trump good. That's how pathetically shallow his minions are. Democracy and decency be damned.
9
The simple reason is very uncomplicated, he's not very bright. And he has surrounded himself with like minds. Innovation to him and his followers is building a wall. Give me a break. All other options are off the table. Thinking and thoughtfulness is not part of current state of affairs in the USA.
7
I believe this impeachment "trial" marks the end of the American union as a cohesive political entity. No, I do not predict or anticipate actual secession. That clearly is a non-starter. But I do think that some regions, particularly the west coast, New England, and some Rocky Mountain states, will begin to assert ever more autonomy. They will simply start telling Washington that they are going to do things their own way.
This will lead to further disintegration of the already fragile bonds between regions of this country. It will also lead to even less willingness on a national scale to address our society's problems. The end result will be the loss of American dominance on the world stage. This will take a few decades, but my mid-century it will be complete.
All of that has been accelerated by the rise of autocracy in the White House and the utter ineptitude of Congress and refusal of the courts to address it. We are watching, in real-time, the rise of an authoritarian government. We are watching, in real-time, the demise of political ideals and traditions that have animated this country for 244 years. We are watching, in real-time, the overt abandonment of basic principles of renaissance thinking - that facts matter, that law should apply equally, that there is such a thing as the public interest.
The United States of America, as we have known it for all of our lives, is in its death throes. Like any powerful being, it won't die quickly. But it is dying.
8
@CastleMan Time for the Blue states to cut off the money taps to the Red states. Kentucky sucks out $49 billion more than they put in. No wonder they love Mitch. But if Trump wins and gets less votes it is going to get ugly. California is now the 5th largest economy and can go its own way. Check out the California Bear it is the California Republic it was once and can be again. Jim Trautman
Yeah well this fool needs to be imprisoned for the rest of his life, he is no better than you or myself, he is just flesh and blood with no real power at all.
3
Trump continues because of his craven enablers in the US Senate.
Support The Lincoln Project lincolnproject.us to help fund ads like these against Republican senators:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpYCxV51bykhMY-wSUozQRg
4
Let's not forget one key thing. It was YOU, the media, who propped Trump up. You continue to do so with your Trump Trump Trump stories. In case you have not noticed, we want to hear nothing about Trump. You continue to report each and every comment and parse it to death...even though it comes from a crazy, who should have been ignored from the outset. Now, you have created the monster who becomes more monstrous by the second! Enough...we can't stand to watch CNN, MSNBC any more, with their constant footage of moron Trump. Ignoring him would be the best strategy for all media...he is not a newsworthy item.
1
Another useless but right-on article damning Trump and his lack of moral compass, intellect and basic humanity. Also on point is the utter absurdity of almost half our population dumbly following this wretched man, regardless of lack of pay raises or job opportunities. We are still a very rich country, but getting more third world every day, thanks to the Republican white-man world view. A view of white supremacy that has brought turmoil to many parts of the globe.
My message to Republican voters: Instead of continually trying to grab the gold ring - there will never be enough gold rings - why not try to clean up the planet and just get along with your neighbor, instead of always be on the look out in case you feel the need to shoot him?
My message to Republican Senators and Congressmen: With any luck, many of you are going to loose your positions in the coming election and value to society that you may have once thought was worth striving for - which you have greatly misused - in just a few months. It’s really too late, too many craven, thoughtless words spoken. In my small sphere, people like you often join the peace corps to make amends after destroying an institution or other people, and there are good people in that organization that could explain the real meaning of life to you. Just a thought.
My message to Trump: There is none, you’ll never, ever learn. That’s life - there’s always one in the room. It had to be you.
2
"white male rage, it's white male rage"
3
The Hitler analogies are becoming more apt in a frightening way.
7
We have two sets of rules in this country - one for politicians one one for the rest of us. Our politicians are okay to do insider trading but the Martha Stewarts of the world go to jail. Our President can coerce with Russians but the rest of us go to jail. This is not just a Trump problem or a GOP problem. What we really need are very strict term limits and a Revolution. I think the Revolution will be here before the term limits.
2
All true. But what is really sad is that half the people in this country support him despite all his despicable actions.
3
Let's hope that he is one DNA test away from his downfall. You can not be this corrupt for this long, you have to eventually stumble. I hope.
4
To see the republican party lying, projecting and gaslighting the entire country is beyond disgusting. I don't care what party your from, no decent person would think what Trump did is ok. He is a danger to the country and our national security as long as corrupt republicans are in power. It is up to us now get involved and get alll of these craven swamp creatures out of our gov't by voting for democrats and supporting their campaigns. Our democracy literally rests in the balance. It is up to us, 'the People" now to do the right thing and say No to criminals in our gov't and hold them accountable for their abuse of power.
13
It's the perfect crime....the White House robs the bank (i.e. us), the Republican senators drive the getaway car while the Justice Department looks the other way.
7
The Simple Reason Trump Does What He Does?
Because the GOP are spineless, unethical hypocrites.
8
Correction: He does it because we all allow it.
19
For most of us we learn from the pain of loss, failure and consequences. For all his business disasters, Trump had wormed his way out of the pain of defeat. Since he constantly cheats any system -- from his taxes to his golf game-- he never suffers the consequences of his actions.His judgement is awful-- from any of his outrageous policy decisions to the disgusting cast of the criminal types he surrounds himself with he makes one rotten decision after the next. His lies protect him, his wealth protects him, his enormous ego protects him.
He lacks the knowledge of the machinations of anything beyond the world of real estate and influential power of the uber wealth. To enter the world of politics he needed mentors and shills. He has no particularly complex understanding of anything so he relies on others. For all his bravado he really lacks self-esteem. He needs to be surrounded by people who will stroke his ego, assure him he is right. Putin knew that way back in the 80s. McConnell knows this. Trump is the perfect patsy for those who know that power does not necessarily lie in those who sit on the throne but rather in those who whisper into the ears and pull the strings from the shadows.
.
9
And the Senate just let him do it.
11
Trump perfectly embodies what the Republicans have always want to be but were prevented from devolving to their basest desires by societal norms. Now they have a "president" who is a full-blown sociopath and has eliminated those norms. Now the Republicans, the Party of Sociopaths, are free to be exactly what they are. They care nothing about society, or people or anything else. They are in it solely for themselves. Everyone and everything else is irrelevant. Including our country.
11
Ken Starr is taking about rule of law. It is very clear that trump did not follow rule of law. But what is Jen Starr doing. He is saying the house managers did not follow rules of impeachment. It is most laughable. And the Republican audience is most gullible. Thankfully we were not born yesterday.
Yes, Trump broke rules. Yes trump is guilty. It has nothing to do with house mangers. Every time ken Starr points his finger to the prosecutors (which he himself was) know that he is playing the distraction game. Distract from trumps crimes. Eww and sheesh.
5
My personal observations have led me to conclude that President Trump does what he does because there are simply too many ignorant voters that share his views and his beliefs. Autocracies are born when this level of corruption is allowed to advance with impunity.
5
Reading the comments of the liberals on this demonstrates that the liberals are still bewildered about the American voters. Liberals wonder what has changed. Simple--the voters are no longer buying the nonsense the liberals are trying to sell. If you want the whole country to look like the homeless encampments in L.A. then vote for the liberals--you will get it. If you want a strong economy with full employment Vote for America--Vote Republican.
3
The fact that Donald Trump is a serial sexual assaulter, not to mention an avowed racist is what his supporters love about him. They identify with because of those things, not in spite of them. Trump supporters are essentially no different than he is, minus the inheritance.
4
@Jonathan White male privilege.
2
Your comment demonstrates one of the most ugly and infuriating attitudes from Trump Republicans, the idea that American Democrats or liberals are not voters. It goes right with the idea that Democrats and liberals, and their beliefs, are invalid and anti American. This goes well beyond a difference of opinion as to the best solutions and way forward for our country. And you wonder why they are so angry. The dumbest part of the idea that only Trump Republicans are real Americans? The fact that the vast majority of Americans are NOT Trump Republicans.
1
I think this can be summed up more succinctly.
Rich white guy who inherited hundreds of millions of dollars, and then discovered how easily he can abuse people using that wealth.
His children are now waiting in line.
Please sir, may I have another?
11
Please remind me which president said he could do what he wanted with a phone and a pen. . .
Like many sons of successful fathers, Trump never outgrew his infantile narcissism. He never learned that he had to recognize and accommodate other people get along in life.
As a corollary, he never developed a healthy sense of self, so he sees enemies everywhere, and bullies people to compensate for his low self-esteem.
What Leonhardt offers is a description of what Trump does, but not an explanation of why he does it. This, I submit, is a plausible explanation.
7
Might makes right. Us versus them. There can be only one. The top guy, the chief cheese knows better than anyone else. He must be obeyed. These ancient tropes of mind have guided and constrained human civilization for as long as we have records. Do read the Melian Dialogue (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Melos). It will be our race's epitaph.
3
We learned about honesty from Washington and Lincoln. We learned about perseverance from FDR, and personal dignity from Obama. As a general, Eisenhower helped save the world from fascism, and as he departed the presidency he warned us about the military industrial complex. Trump? He has shown that an ignorant man-child can ascend to the White House, then cheat to stay there.
7
How Evangelicals do not equate lawlessness with Godlessness is, well, nevermind.
9
The fact that he can get away with it does not cause his behavior. If that were right, other rich people would try to get away with a lot of the stuff Trump does, but they don't.
Trump has malignant narcissism, which is a combination of narcissistic personality disorder, antisocial traits not rising to the level of a personality disorder, paranoia, and sadism. This mental disorder and the fact that he is privileged go a long way towards explaining him.
Wikipedia will get you started if you want to look into it.
5
America has moved from "Yes, we can," to "Yes, he can!"
8
"Lamar Alexander", a name that will live in infamy.
10
The telling quote from the Access Hollywood tape is Trump's Rosebud.
3
As far as I can tell, the shameful excuee for a "trial" we all witnessed can only mean one thing. American is on track, in terms of corrupt government, to become Ukraine. As we watch Ukraine try to clean up their act, we appear to surpass them, having elected the most corrupt politicians in recent history.
Hoping this country will wake up by November and clean up our own house.
2
Trump is not alone. Bankers got away with looting the country, granting predatory loans and stealing millions of homes. The medical industrial complex robs sick patients and kills them. Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld got away with torture and war crimes. Cops and soldiers get away with murder. Farmers, chefs, animal shelters, medical labs and pet owners get away with animal torture and abuse (so did Sen. Frist). The rich get away with tax evasion, break OSHA laws and exploit their employees. None of these monsters were punished for their crimes; they were rewarded. The list goes on.
8
Trump’s election on his platform of “I can do anything I want. I can assault women. I can as Russia for help. No one can stop me” is proof that the Republican Party is morally bankrupt. His election proved they think a thug should be President, should preside over our nation, and lead us into the future. This impeachment hearing with Republicans refusing even to hear witnesses is more proof of the hollow place where their consciences should be. Fox News can’t provide them a conscience with its anti-Democratic slant on everything; it can only provide them with the votes of their hardcore base. The arc of the moral universe bends toward justice only if moral people are in power. There will never be justice if we are governed by immoral people like Trump and Republicans.
3
Why won't anyone talk about his cheating when he golfs, his fake tan(or orange), and his really fake hairdo? He gets away with it because others are afraid of his name calling and degradation. He is nothing but a shell of a person. No heart. No brain. No couth. No class. No politeness. No patriotism. No idea what he is doing!
He doesn't understand others, or their viewpoints, because he is too busy looking in a mirror. This want to be king needs to be exposed for what he is, a fake!
Let's not give up on removing the Prevaricater-in-Chief. Urge all to vote. A large turnout will cook his goose. Get busy!
6
Sadly, abuse of power in Vietnam created a last-ditch solution for some soldiers. It was called fragging.
The only way to truly defeat Trumpism will be to take out the Republicans who have allowed him to get away with it. Every House member who voted against impeachment and every Senator who voted against witnesses should be hounded endlessly by decent people until they are run out of office.
We cannot allow forgiveness in this particular case. None of the Republicans who have supported Trump were forced to do it. None of them would have suffered more than a stupid presidential tweet and possibly the loss of an election if they had stood up to him.
And shame on Lamar Alexander. He may be retiring, but let's not let him off the hook either. He is afraid to "pour fuel on the fire" of a culture war--so he sides with the man who represents the absolute worst of American culture?? That's Lamar's legacy. Let's not let it become America's legacy.
Let's stop at nothing to get rid of Trump and each and every one of the cowardly officials who have let Trump get away with it. If they are not punished, it will be easier for the next Trump.
3
Without the Republikan Party, Trump would just be a crazy voice shouting into the wind. The Republikan Party needed a Trump to cover for it as it dismantled America, turning us into some sort of dystopian authoritarian gulag, from Sea to shining Sea.
Trump is just a carnival barker, luring the angry and the credulous into a sideshow to entertain them with weird characters, while partisan pickpockets drain them of their common senses, and Republican ideologues hypnotize them with lurid racism.
From Nixon to Reagan to “W” to Trump, the path of the poison is a straight line.
4
If it makes him rich.
It was awful [though also pathetic] for Trump to claim grabbing rights in the case of women's private parts. It's awfulness of another dimension altogether for him to assert grabbing rights in the case of the country's public institutions, beginning with though not limited to the Constitution and the laws based on it: he believes he is entitled to pick and choose what if anything, who if anyone, might govern his behavior. And now he has Chief Sophist Alan Dershowitz and a huge posse of craven Republicans on the latest version of the gang on the bus, this one called Access America. Surely is time to stop that bus, round up the scoundrels and send them off to a petting zoo [sorry, animal friends] for the rest of their sordid lives.
3
The GOP senate is a sham. Even Trump’s former chief of staff thinks they should have called witnesses. He’s hardly a liberal stooge. But ultimately, it’s voters who have let this happen. People who will accept the thrill of Trump baiting liberal voters in exchange for their unquestioning support. People who have been left behind by a backward education system and who would rather blame something or someone else than actually tackle the problem head on. If your only education is a lackluster high school diploma you have very little chance of thriving in the 21st century. There are literally billions of others who can do anything you can do. Tariffs and trade wars and border walls won’t change that. Trump knows this. His children all have elite coastal educations, just like him. But the beauty of a con is to get people to look past all the obvious facts and believe the unbelievable. Tax cuts for the ultra rich, absolutely no progress or idea on healthcare, a stupid wall with only 8 new mile built. Why focus on that when you can vote for a man who complains at rallies about how many flushes it takes to empty a toilet? He cons you, because you let him.
3
The 2008 economic debacle revealed all. Wall Street engineered the downturn and they got away with it. We paid the price for their rapacious greed. Trump can get away with being a lawless president with a GOP with no moral compass. Greed and a lust for power by any means are recipes for success.
Do the people who support Trump teach their children that it is perfectly acceptable to lie, to call people cruel names, to denigrate others so callously and to brag about being able to grab women’s genitalia? Is that what the evangelicals and rural population teach their children?
3
They home school them to believe in a simplified version of the world, in which all key decisions have already been made and your job is to join the throng... while stay8ng far away from anyone not just like you so that your can braid on your fears, hatred, and mistrust instead of confronting your own reality.
1
@Pottree
If that is true, it is very frightening and explains a lot.
He does what he does because he is allowed, especially by the majority right. Listen for a few weekend to Christian radio and you will see that he is allowed to molest a nun on fifth avenue and get away with it as long as he appoints judges who are against abortion and knowledge, especially about evolution of life on earth.
He is not circumventing the system he is using the system which our constitution has allowed to evolve. He is a survivalist and will take what you don't guard.
What baffles me is why the Republicans enable him. Yes, he’s on their team, but usually if a team member is grossly incompetent, dishonest, and an embarrassment to the team, they get rid of him, because he makes the rest of them look bad.
Republicans: the party of no shame.
4
Who says we are not an autocracy?
If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, maybe it's a duck.
4
Blindingly obvious. Rich and famous is a scale elevating one above the law (across the world and increasingly evident in the USA). Add arrogance, ignorance (not required), whiteness (required), maleness (very helpful) and narcissism – voila, you’re 100% above the law. It can be calculated like a credit score. But unlike a credit score, it’s almost completely “unearned”.
My wife is from the Ukraine. Her explanation for routine bad behavior be it sexual, political or business by white men (usually older) has always been - "Because he/they can". She is perplexed by all the debate for additional motive. Maybe she's right (hopefully she won't see this comment).
3
Message for Donald Trump:
You can fool all of the Republicans, some of the time. You can fool some of the not-very-smart people all of the time, but you can’t fool the rest of us, ever. And that my friend will be your undoing in the 2020 election.
2
He's certainly a class act. That is if class stands for cheat lie and steal spectacularly.
1
I say bring back attainder for government officials who betray the public trust. That would cure a lot of ills and make the donald and his spawn tremble.
Great article from what Inread, but I couldn't read it a ymore. I just can't do it anymore. My blood boils and has been for too long now...
This is a catch-me-if-you-can administration.
3
There are much wealthier people than Donald Trump, but most have an authentic education (academic performance not hidden), religious base, and have been raised to respect the rule of law and their fellow humans on earth. The bottom line here is that Trump is an excellent example of what you can do if you're not afraid of nor respect anyone or anything period. In parallel and equivalent to the Billy Bush tape, he has grabbed the republicans in Congress by their genitalia and they have succumbed to his assault. He has brought out the ugly truth, front and center, that all republicans in Congress are sniveling cowards and would rather sell their souls to the devil than lose an election. They no longer represent the American people, only themselves. We put these traitors to the American people in there and it's time to take them out.
3
Yes, the bone-spurred republicans have reordered priorities to self>party>nation. They have given free license to ANY politician, not just future presidents, to make many of the claims, and do many of the things that trump has made. From now on, it's all OK. It is a downward course that will be hard to reverse. Shame! Shame! Shame!
1
The biggest mistake is to wait for November.
The republicans are working on the fix right now, I suspect.
One website called for a mistrial, if that's possible, then do it.
Secession might be the only answer since it will be better than a corrupt, fascist theocracy that we're sinking into now.
2
I agree with you. The great State of New York should secede from These United States.
1
@Brewster’s Millions . California, too.
Trump has divided us, so let's finish the job.
Imagine the republicans horror at what they've created!
1
Leonhardt writes: "The Trumps didn’t want black people living in their apartment buildings in the 1960s, so they refused to rent apartments to many black people." As Trump has said, his tenants didn't want black people living with them. Leonhardt sanctimoniously would have us blame Trump for not doing what would certainly have threatened his business.
Like everyone on the planet, Donal Trump can’t live forever. He will age off the stage, one way or another.
The stupidity that elected him will endure. The same people who give this evil man a pass are the same types who randomly shot at Buffalo from train windows, in the 19th century.
They’re the same people who refuse to truly learn and understand. We’ve had these types since there have been types to have.
Education is the only solution to our difficulties.
Donald Trump can do whatever he likes, because we let him.
Period.
When will humanity learn?
2
Much too simplistic- because he can. Other rich powerful men do not(though some do). It is just because Donald Trump is a thoroughly unpleasant and dishonest human being with no morals and no sense of right and wrong-basic things his parents obviously did not teach him.
2
It’s important to remember President Obama’s words of wisdom that you’re not a sucker for having integrity.
He’s right. It takes a lot more strength to keep oneself in check than to be like Trump who bullies his way beyond accountability.
3
American democracy is dead. Trump killed it in 3 years. With the help of the american media establishment which only cares about making money. 3 little years to kill a 250 year old Constitution ! The institutions were too weak. He has gotten away with this Ukraine abuse of power intended to steal the election this year. He got away with it. So he is now free to steal the upcoming election. His base does not care about democracy. When reelected, he will cement his autocracy. American democracy is dead.
More to the point, why does McConnell do what he does. Why does do Republican Congresspersons obey McConnell, why does the Grand Old Party marginalize the Constitution, and why do Evangelicals marginalize the Ten Commandments? Can they all be avaricious, evil, narcissistic stable geniuses?
2
"When you’re a star, they let you do it." I would add "when you are a white star". But right on, perfect column!
I suggest Democrats say the following, repeatedly -
"Trump cheated on three wives, and brags about grabbing women's genitals without their permission. Republicans senators described Trump’s behavior as "unfortunate" or maybe a crime, but not a "high" crime. 5 people Trump hired were already convicted felons. Others are indicted, including Parnas and Fruman. “I don’t know them,” Trump said, then he’s on a tape talking to both of them, planning getting rid of an American Ambassador. Trump isn’t just a liar. He’s a mob boss.
4
It should be so easy to hold trump accountable. He truly is unfit to be in our government. But the republicans of today are the real evil. They allowed him in because, as you stated, they want power. The republicans in our Congress are not concerned with the majority of citizens of the U.S. I truly believe they are only concerned with conservative, religious bigots. trump is the perfect puppet for them. In exchange, the republicans will allow trump to trash the Constitution. We must remain true to the Founders’ vision. Shame is all republicans are giving us. We must Vote Blue and refuse to live with their shame.
3
......and 63 million Americans share his values.
Really.
When did you figure this out?
I am 80 years old and I have known it for at least 70 of those years.
Power, money, greed, hate. Sums it up
1
Isn’t all politics a dance with the devil...the first rule is to vote for the candidates who can “bring home the bacon”...guess what, the GOP has figured that out. I myself a former union member and Democrat found myself agreeing with Reagan that the party has left me. If someone doesn’t like the current administration then donate the the net rise of their portfolios or forever be branded as hypocrites...pontificating only to choir isn’t going to win anyone...people don’t like sore losers!
Silly laymen trying to grasp the grifter psyche. It's sad and amusing. Let's do this so even pedantic naive reporters can understand.
Trump's a gifted grifter and we're largely a nation of frustrated marks.
Grifter's say and do anything to make the sale, anything.
Marks all have weakness which the grifter senses and exploits.
Grifter's never show weakness, contrition, or regrets.
Grifter's never stop selling, even after the sale is concluded.
Grifter's crave adulation and appreciation above all else.
Grifter's won't stop the con until the victim is bereft of resources.
He's not done with us yet.
Grifter con's always get more elaborate as the Grifter is never sated.
Hold on to your hat folks. He has plenty more to say as his itch still needs scratching.
2
He can, because we let him.
1
Donald Trump won the votes of 63 million Americans in 2016.
Among them were 58% of the white European American voting majority including 62% of white men and 54% of white women.
America doesn't have a national election for President. .America has 50 separate sovereign states elections to allocate Electors in the Electoral College.
In our divided limited different power constitutional republic of united states The only popular vote that matters is that cast in each individual state.
Moreover, neither the Republican Party majority in the Senate nor on the Supreme Court of the United States are meaningful checks and balances on an increasingly imperial Presidency and an unhinged amoral immoral incompetent ignorant inexperienced intemperate insecure diva narcissist President of the United States.
Particularly one like Donald Trump who is beholden to the hacking, interfering and meddling of smiling and smirking Benjamin Netanyahu and Vladimir Putin for his election in 2016 and retaining power in 2020.
4
David Leonhardt hit the nail on the head.
You got it right.
He's been a spoiled little brat (that is the nicest most civil word I could think of) since the day he was born and he found the perfect group of toadies in Mitch M. and the rest of the Republican party.
1
This article is fabulous.
It holds a mirror up.
Republicans, now infamous,
are thoroughly corrupt.
Money and power. Monstrous greed.
The rest is fairy tale.
This President, and those he leads,
are rotten without fail.
The fact that this vile G.O.P.
has chosen Donald Trump
reveals it all. We all can see
they’re creatures of a swamp.
America the Shining Light?
It may be on the wane.
What’s wrong is now become alright.
Our country’s gone insane.
2
David don't forget his main focus is statute of limitations in the state of New York.
Vote them out and don't forget the pathetic House republicans.
Prison time will be awaiting him in Jan 2021.
Even the spineless Senate Republicans up for reelection like Shelley Moore Capito Bill Cassidy Susan Collins John Cornyn Tom Cotton Steve Daines Mike Enzi Joni Ernst Cory Gardner Lindsey Graham Cindy Hyde-Smith James Inhofe Martha McSally Mitch McConnell David Perdue Jim Risch Pat Roberts Mike Rounds Ben Sasse Dan Sullivan Thom Tillis and retiring Lamar Alexander
should have enough courage to convict on Wednesday .
If not it simply means they also have no character , no conscious and definitely do not care about our country.
67 votes and the lunatic is immediately gone and we still have a Republican President Mike Spence.
The country and the republican party will be in great danger with a lame duck Criminal Con Man in Chief, Donald the lame duck is an extremely scary situation....
remember prison time will be awaiting him in Jan 2021.
3
“ When they go Low, We go High “. Sure, if LOSING is the Goal. There is no compromising or appeasement with Sharks, Snakes or Republicans.
Seriously.
2
Lamar Alexander said Democrats made their case against Trump but his offences weren't bad enough to get rid of him.
People who had a dog that killed chickens would sometimes tie the chicken carcass round the dog's neck and leave it till it rotted off.One would think the people that had to be around the dog would be overwhelmed by the stink long before the dog lost it's appetite for chicken.
1
Years ago a psychiatrist enlightened me about our troublesome colleague. There are two types of sociopaths, successful and unsuccessful. One goes to jail the other is the department or company head. They are both personable, charming, cunning, shrewd and driven go-getters. DJT is who DJT is probably because he was never good enough for his father and protected by his mother (they share the same hairdos). Unintentionally Pres. Barack Obama (at a Correspondents' Dinner) egged DJT on (probably unintentionally) to be president by roasting him, giving DJT the strong motivation for revenge. As David Leonhardt apptly points out, DJT has learned he can get away with anything, but he'd be unsuccessful and in jail if he didn't have protection and support. Now that mom and dad are gone DJT has the Republican Party to support him, and they do it because while DJT is drawing the focus the Republican Party "successfuls" are getting away with anything. Meanwhile. We The People, watch the show. Here's to hoping we change the channel.
3
Trump finally won the big prize and it is everyone’s wallet. He will bankrupt the country and enjoy it. If his supporters find that attractive, perhaps they are part of our population that makes up the percentage of sociopaths one reads about. Trump is nothing short of repulsive and he trained his family to grift along with him. It is deeply saddening and we can only hope, what goes around, comes around. But it seems unlikely here and equally unlikely is Trump leaving the WH, the biggest grift of his life.
The New York Times & media are infected with the DJT virus, which prevents the infected from seeing any good result from his policies, obsess wildly about the future and create fictional stories. It looks like it’s terminal.
1
Bill Maher is right. Anti-Trumpers should fight back with every weapon in the arsenal: deep-fake videos, extravagant lies, personal attacks, wacko conspiracy theories, the whole magillah. Don't play by Marquis of Queensberry rules while the Republicans load their boxing gloves with horseshoes.
You don't bring a reasoned argument to a knife fight.
2
"Let me tell you about the very rich... Even when they enter deep into our world or sink below us, they still think that they are better than we are."
Fitzgerald told us about Trump and yet we're surprised that we let them get away with it, but the fact is we're still in love with the Gatsbys. We still agree with them that they are better than us, otherwise we wouldn't let them get away with doing whatever they feel like doing. We have this misguided belief that if we follow them they will pull us along in their wakes and make our life better and the real joke of that is they could care less if we benefit or not from their being there because they're better than us and all they care about is affirmation of their superiority. When it comes down to it we are still their serfs, grubbing about the landscape for undigested kernels of corn.
Trump has gotten away with it...because...over 60 million Voting Americans have enabled him. A Fox's Nation of our fellow Americans....family members,neighbors,coworkers ! That's not saying much for quite a number of us !! Vote Blue...and go on !!
1
He's fleecing the average person and they don't even know it, or care. It disgusts me
Millions are absolutely sick of Trump being in our face everyday. And why is that?
Trump’s most disturbing character trait is his “nasty” disregard for all the people who criticized him from the start. He’s not president of All the People. He only serves his base and considers everyone else “losers.” He shows no respect or interest in anyone except those voters who will keep him in power.
His Super Bowl ad Sunday shows him as the hypocrite he is; the ad showed a group of African-Americans praising Donald Trump for all he did for them, but 99% blacks know that Trump OPENLY sought the vote of white supremacists, and was very condescending and disrespectful to one of their legendary heroes, Baltimore congressman Elijah Cummings before he died.
That’s just a start of how bad a character Trump is. He is a fraud and a con-man, who schmoozes cowards and bullies, and degrades heroes like John McCain and those with any sense of decency and honesty. Everyone he rubs-up against becomes toxic. We’ve heard all this before, and will continue to be witness to his degradation until the day he’s no longer in power, when he no longer commands everyday media propaganda from Fox News.
America demands a president who possesses decency, and who is respectful of all people. Censure him next month, and don’t let Trump forget we are waiting for a chance to put him out to pasture like President Eisenhower initiated with Senator Joe McCarthy in the 1950s. -- “Have you no decency sir?”
5
Like a lot narcissistic men, Trump actually has a very fragile ego. You can get to him and unsettle him by criticising his appearance (weight, bad hair, fake tan, lack of physical fitness, noticeably ageing etc) or abilities (poor general knowledge, poor critical and analytical thinking skills, lack of foreign language skills, poor vocabulary and spelling). This will expose him for the person he really is, unsettle him and cause him to make big mistakes.
1
Trump is America's Strongman.
His supporters love that. He grabs women by their crutch: that would wind you up promply in jail in many countries, but not so in America.
Morality, and apparently legality is a flexible thing in the US. Does the Rule of Law count for anything.
And his religious supporters, just how do they reconcile his immorality with, say the 10 commandments (probably justify that by the old chestnut that the ends justify the means).
I understand that Colonel Gaddafi repeatedly sexually assaulted women as well.
1
The reason given by Republicans for not allowing witnesses and for voting to acquit Trump is 100% percent poo poppycock. It is the argument of a party of ethical zombies. The President, they admit, violated his oath of office to protect the US from interference “both foreign and domestic” but they then blankly say that this isn’t enough to find him guilty and remove him from office.
One has to ask if these upright gentlemen (and most are “gentlemen”) would find themselves proclaiming with the same equanimity that their wives had broken their wedding vows and committed adultery with their business opponents and everyone in town knew it, and that they knew she was guilty and had shamed him, but he would nevertheless take her back! I suspect that they would be lying to themselves and to us if they said they would. In fact, we don’t “suspect” they are lying to themselves; we know they are lying to themselves.
And we know they are betraying all of us and the Constitution at the same time. Their desire for political power is their deal with the Devil — and I don’t mean Trump — selling their souls. They show that they cannot be trusted because they have broken their own oaths of office and faith with the American public.
While Trumps behavior is deeply rooted in his upbringing, his political maneuvers are rigidly drafted from his apprenticeship years under the family attorney Roy Cohn.
1
The author is happy to condemn the Republican Party for being willing to do anything to stay in power, but Democrats are not looking in the mirror. They do the exact same thing, and no one is willing to acknowledge that. As a Trump supporter, I am well aware what a sleaze ball the president is, but on the whole, his policies are much better than anything Democrats propose.
But more important than Democratic policies is the misplaced liberal self righteousness.
We all know Trump's call to Ukraine was wrong, but Obama did a lot worse: spending money on the ACA that was not allocated by Congress, failure to execute the laws by ordering ICE not to deport illegal aliens, refusing to give Congress documents related to Fast and Furious, refusing to investigate Lois Lerner and her cronies for denying conservative groups non-profit status.
The Clinton Foundation was heavily funded by foreign governments, and was in effect a government-in-waiting while Hilary ran for office. In theory, those governments gave the Foundation money because they thought it was a great charity; it has nothing to do with politics, right But when Hilary lost, suddenly all those foreign governments no longer thought the Foundation was a good cause, and the money dried up. Coincidence ?
The Kavanaugh hearings were another liberal fiasco. Believe the woman *because* she is a woman ? Leak information at the last minute so Kavanagh cannot defend himself ?
Times readers are blind to their own hypocrisy.
2
Many Americans admire Trump. Perhaps it is the boasting they most admire. What is it in your case?
It is fascism. Don't kid yourself that it is anything but.
The question is who will be first to react? The rest of the world or the well-armed citizens of the USA?
I mean, the Republicans are so terrified of not being in power and are letting fools like McConnell lead them down these amazingly misguided paths, that they do not realize what they are helping build: a fascist state.
And more to the point, the do not realize that millions of Americans are - truly are - going to realize that the jobs, the prosperity, the stability, and all the rest of that American Dream, are not there and are not coming.
And it will be Trump, McConnell and a load of other Republican fools who will be on their minds, and I just don't think they'll be satisfied with merely voting them out of office.
After all, once a person (finally!) realizes he, she, family, and grandma have all been conned, lied to, and made a fool of, that person usually takes it pretty personally.
I wouldn't want to be a Republican in the next decade.
2
You nailed it!
Sorry Dave, we're an autocracy and have been for awhile.
@Tom Walker
no, we have been a plutocracy - especially since Citizens United. While Congress has allowed presidents to expand Executive power since at least Nixon, the move toward an autocracy has only been since Trump.
“Just do it!”
Sounds like a slogan.
Maybe Trump should patent it.
Do voters know that every single one of Trump's attorneys' points is easily debunked?
https://thebulwark.com/the-gops-sham-no-witnesses-arguments-explained/
Makes it absolutely clear the senate post-impeachment process, whee witness and documentary evidence were banned, not a trial, but a sham created by Senate Republicans
2
Banana Republics typically enable gangsters to rule. So it is with what the founding fathers created. Nothing new, here.
1
You can get away with anything until the day you can't, just ask; Bill Cosby, Harvey Weinstein, Jeffery Epstein and a thousand others. Trump will have his day of reckoning, if karma exists Trumps number is log-rhythmically negative.
2
You can't do whatever you want in life without Enablers. The Great Divider found himself a motherlode of them on one side of the aisle on Capitol Hill.
Hannity kept placing baseballs on the tee for Trump to swing at in Sundays interview, and I swear I could hear Stephanie Grisham banging on a trash can in the background.
2
This is the main reason Trump must be removed. He is an unrepentant repeat offender. From the beginning he was guilty. He solicited foreign interference throughout is campaign. Remember "Hey Russia, if you're listening...."?
Yes, Mueller did not find that Trump "conspired" with the Russian "government" but Mueller did find that he colluded with Russian thugs to hack Democrats and leak them with Julian Assange and Wikileaks.
In addition, Mueller proved that Trump obstructed justice ten times (!), but because he can't be indicted while he's President, (per AG Barr), so it would be up to Congress to impeach him
Trump extortion of Ukraine was just the last straw in a parade of disgusting and illegal conduct. His continued abuse of office revealed Trump -- as if there was any question from the beginning-- as a bloody cheater, a repeat offender, and a threat to national security.
But Republicans don't know the facts. All they know are conspiracy theories invented on Fox News. For example, the day the FBI decided that Hillary Clinton did not commit a crime, Fox News spent the whole day speculating that the FBI was corrupt -- and that was the "news" division. On Fox the only people who are doing anything wrong are Democrats, and Republicans are God's only children. It's a Republican ad campaign running 24/7.
How can this country survive with such a divide between Democrats and Republicans who think Fox News is "news"?
2
Blame Trump, certainly. Blame his sycophants too. Blame the spineless and ethically-challenged Republicans as well. But such people have always been with us in one form or another. We've never lacked for scoundrels and cowards. Still, let's place responsibility where it ultimately rests in a democracy, namely the citizenry. We apparently are not quite as exceptional as we'd like to believe. Mr. Leonhardt has perhaps overestimated a goodly number of his fellow Americans, sad to say.
When a constitution is based on inhumanity and corruption, things are bound go badly eventually. I'm surprised that things have gone as well as they have... that is, if you're a heterosexual, White male or married to one. Claiming to be a Christian is a plus as well.
The US has never been a democracy and it's even less so today.
The US is not No. 1 in everything and it never has been. But the US is No. 1 in a few key areas: in gun ownership, mass murder by gun, racism and generations of slavery and extreme social, income and wealth inequality. The US also had the bloodiest Civil War in history. The US is No. 1 in exporting weapons of war and in having the largest military in world history. In fact the US has a larger military than the next 10 nations combined! It's obscene... and it's why people in say Denmark and many other nations have a higher standard of living than the US does.
The US is No. 1 is using atomic weapons against an enemy. It's the only nation ever to do so. The US chose to nuke 2 major population centers. The US is also No. 1 in toppling foreign governments, and in global torture.
Illegitimate 45 is now the first US dictator. Being a savage nation kind a makes you proud, doesn't it?!
2
Like lemmings off a cliff, the Republican party - senators to voters - will blindly follow Trump. Whether it's because they want to maintain their precious hold on power or because the lies that Trump spews confirm their own thoughts and prejudices, they have and will continue to go along with him. And democracy dies as well.
I find it a little hard to believe this insight about impunity is just arriving at the upper levels of our cognoscenti.
The banksters got away with trashing the global economy - not a one was jailed.
They let you do it when you're a star.
Thousands of Roman Catholic priests and bishops got away with a decades-long. global child rape ring - and Cardinal Law of Boston was awarded a Vatican sinecure when he should have been indicted here.
They let you do it when you're a star.
Sports stars abuse wives and girlfriends, suffer at most a short layoff - we need him for the playoff.
They let you do it when you're a star.
Harvey Weinstein, Jeffrey Epstein - they let them do it when they're stars.
Mitch McConnell has perfected anti-democracy, in-yor-face impunity. He's been doing it for years.
So Trump is suddenly a surprise?
Until we have actual justice in this society, we'll continue to have all the trappings of a banana republic, heading for full distatorship.
Those are just the facts - the system is rigged. Some of our political leaders see this. They get painted as radicals.
Too bad it took so long for so many to wake up to these malefactors and their ways.
2
Mr. Leonhardt,
Unfortunately, an excellent and accurate description of a country with its Senate "trumped".
But, I believe the turnout is going to be huge in both parties but a greater majority will show for the Democrats. The only concern is that the Democrats have to exceed the GOP by about 5-6% just to overcome gerrymandering.
...and that should be the rallying cry! The GOP must not be in charge of redistricting.
Who would have imagined that the Senate republicans, except Romney, were all so foul that they don't even shrink at appearing on camera to say the most ignorant and immoral things? It's just hard to fathom how anyone would enter the spotlight and conduct themselves like fools. Court Jesters all.
Murkowski deserves a special dishonorable mention here, too, for that bizarre logic for the casting of her yay vote. I now realize that the great job she did to explain her nay vote in the Kavanaugh hearing was simply because she had to give a nod to all the women in her State who are subjected to domestic violence and she is, really, just as hypocritical as Susan Collins.
When the Democrats are elected, we should stand up and insist that they close all the holes for impeaching and convicting a president. That should be their #1 goal. Nothing should come before that.
...And I truly believe that the voters should have the final say because nothing can be worse than what we have been seeing with this system.
2
Spot on Mr. Leonhardt!
His supporters are the disease - he’s just the symptom.
2
All too true.
While the media focused on grabbing them by the genitalia, I always believed the worst thing Donald said on that tape was, "You can do anything.”
Such disregard for women -- for anybody -- is indicative of a cruel and nasty outlook that made Trump unfit for public office.
And yet, he filled the news with so many lies and juvenile name-calling that it all became background noise, indistinguishable from the barrage of media coverage.
The audience -- us! -- watched Donald like a character in a movie. He is entertaining. But his job -- his onerous office -- is very real. He is a careening school bus with no governor.
The Trump administration violated the law by withholding $391 million in military assistance to Ukraine, the US government's independent auditor has said.
Government Accountability Office general counsel Thomas Armstrong laid out the agency's conclusion that the president and his budget officials violated the law by withholding $391 million in security assistance to Ukraine in a decision memorandum released on Thursday, Jan 16, 2020.
"Faithful execution of the law does not permit the president to substitute his own policy priorities for those that Congress has enacted into law," Mr Armstrong wrote.
Specifically, Mr Armstrong concluded that top officials with White House Office of Management and Budget had violated a 1974 law prohibiting the executive branch from not spending money Congress had appropriated, because OMB officials had withheld the funds for an impermissible "policy reason".
That law, known the Impoundment Control Act, was enacted in response to then-president Richard Nixon's refusal to spend funds appropriated by the legislative branch. It allows the president to specifically request that Congress rescind a particular appropriation if he or she does not want to spend those funds, but it requires that the funds be spent as appropriated if Congress takes no action within 45 days.
From The Independent, 1/16/20....Andrew Feinberg & Clark Mindock
2
America has become a developed country with the lowest common denominator:24/7 TV, Twitter, Facebook, National, Enquirer, Fox Fake News...At the Army-McCarthy hearings on June 9, 1954, Joseph Welch, was defending a young lawyer named Fred Fisher. Fisher was being attacked by McCarthy as a Communist who worked in Welch's law office When McCarthy renewed his attack on Fisher, Welch responded to McCarthy with the immortal line: "Have you decency, sir?" Sitting at McCarthy's side was the vile lawyer Roy Cohen. Having coached McCarthy Cohen went on to school a real estate mogul named Donald Trump. And so the descent from McCarthy to Nixon to Trump began and pari passu decency has declined and shame has disppeared.
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@diderot “Have you no decency, sir?”
@Ichabod Aikem
Yes, I have decency but I sometimes forget to say "no".
This is an incredibly corrupt republican Senate. People like Mitch McConnell should spend the rest of his days behind bars, but so should all the other republican senators for blatantly disregarding the rule of law.
What was the Supreme Justice doing in the senate chamber! Throughout the impeachment trial he acted like a low level clerk, while the lawyers for the defense of Trump presented arguments that were at best idiotic. How could he allow this theater to unfold! Something needs to change.
This is just the beginning. They have just precipitated change. We just cannot allow the top 1% and the religious right dictate that corruption and injustice is ok.
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Mitch McConnell had given him a permanent get out of jail card.
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Donald the swindler does what he does, because he is a psychopath, he has no moral compass, he found out he can get away with almost anything, and when challenged, litigate, make the challenge expensive, it is easy to stiff people by making them pay and wait for a resolution. He has cowed the GOP by insulting is detractors in a manner that his followers like, it is their way too, rude, vulgar, uncouth, the manners of a lout, and they are cowardly, or have something to gain from it.
In any case you can make the judgement that anyone who believes his deluge of slander, fabrications, and prevarications, is just as dishonest as he is. If these people are your acquaintances beware of trusting them, considering them worthy of your time and consideration, or doing any business with them.
His business is based on racketeering, cheating employees, contractors, banks, investors. His bankruptcies were deliberate, he stole the funds from employees pension plans, is investors paid all the bills, yet people voted for him, what kind of people are they, what did they expect to gain by it?
I suggest they are just as dishonest as he is. Your neighbors, legislators, Republicans, they are the roots of fascism.
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Trump does what he does because in government as in business, there are no rules or laws not to be twisted or broken for him. His lawyers in business scrubbed his messes and the Senate does the same in Washington. He corrupts everything he touches. He is a fast growing cancer on this Nation.
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Leonhardt got it right. Yup, el presidente told us exactly what he thinks, how he feels, and what he intends to do. So did another autocrat in Mein Kampf--and he got away with the horror he planned. So did Stalin, whose cabinet trembled and licked his boots while nobody stopped his massacres.
So what do we do about Mr. Trump now? Defeating him would be the first step, but we'd still be stuck with Repubican obstructionists in Congress (McConnell, for one), who would keep Dems from meaningful, remedial action. Is another civil war on the horizon? If so, one side has most of the artillery, and I'm not talking about the Dems.
Seriously, even if a Dem unseats Trump, as things stand, we're still at an impasse. Our would-be leaders are busy trying to get elected now. How can any party govern responsibly in the face of a thoroughly corrupt, immoral, newly-empowered dictatorship?
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Trump is a bully and so is America, has been for its entire existence. Therefore Trump is not an adoration but a mirror.
An analogy.
I was raised a Catholic, and when the odd priest was identified as a thief or pedophile I considered it an anomaly. Only after the Boston scandals broke and we learned that it was not isolated incidents but a global epidemic with institutionalized excuse makers to maintain their power and influence.
I was also raised to be a proud American who was not blind to our many failings but had a pride in the aspirational aspect of our form of government. Now, like the Catholic Church, the truth has been exposed that those currently in power will cover up any abuse to maintain their position. Any whistle blowers will be harassed and punished.
The Church leaders made the excuse that they did not report and prosecute the criminals in their midst because it was not in the best interest of the Church. Trumps legal team has made the same argument of the abuse of power by the President.
We are lost.
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Because he can, and the democrats cannot accept the inevitableness of it, much less do anything about it.
Inside everyone who supports Trump there is a small homunculus-like Trump that simply lacks the necessary monetary supply to allow it to grow to full size.
Because we let him.
David Leonhardt's explanation is not insightful. For example, Trump was racist from day one of his campaign, then proclaimed his anti-Muslim bigotry with his Muslim ban. Hence, racists and bigots flocked to his campaign.
When he calls immigrants an invasion and now Democrats implicitly accept that view with their plans for "border security," this is due to a large group of voters who are anti-immigrant bigots. Unlike Archie Bunker who simply mouthed off, with Democracy and the Rule of Law, Trump is imposing his racism and bigotry.
While proponents of democracy would have us believe that the best would rise to the top, that's not always true. For instance, a slave-owning white supremacist was the first president. People such as Johnson and Nixon perpetrated a holocaust in Vietnam and Southeast Asia. This was popular until the draft and increasing American deaths turned public opinion.
Racist organizations are of course illegitimate. Hence the failure to impeach Trump, who has the support of nine out of ten Republicans, shows that Democracy produces racist government when you have a racist and bigoted electorate. The proponents of Democracy might want to examine reality before selling us their morally repugnant ideology.
Trump is nothing without FoxNews.
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The fact that Donald Trump is a serial sexual assaulter, not to mention an avowed racist is what his supporters love about him. They identify with because of those things, not in spite of them. Trump supporters are essentially no different than he is, minus the inheritance.
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"...although the United States is not an autocracy, our country is taking steps in that direction ..."
The real problem is that the Senators are merely complying with their perception of what the people want. And at least 35% approve of virtually anything Trump does.
The parallels to Hitler's Germany, Mussolini's Italy, Venezuela and other facist dictatorships is that they followed the path that Trump is taking with the approval of their legislatures and the people. Trump is talking -- jokingly, HA! -- about his third term.
Please read Madeline Albright's book, "Fascism, a warning", if you are in doubt of what the trend of fascist dictatorships have been in recent history.
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From the article:
"The Trumps also ... committed financial fraud, evading taxes ..."
This is pure speculation, and libelous. Neither Fred Trump nor Donald Trump was ever accused, much less convicted, of tax evasion by the IRS or any other taxing authority. The author of this article just made that up.
No conscience, no intellect, no curiosity, no taste.
A sharp slap in the face! And boy don't we need it.
To those that missed the "FRONTLINE" program on PBS about Trump should find a way to accesses it. I watched it twice. Absolutely the best expose' on Trump and his life and way he does business and his outlook on his miserable disgusting life.
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Wasn't the reason Trump used for excusing his own behavior in the Access Hollywood tape bragging about groping women was that his elevated status and celebrity gave him the power to do so?
Trump doesn't care. He hugs the flag only for transactional show. He doesn't care if he breaks checks and balances, the FBI, our foreign agreements, the judiciary, ..., simple moral rules about lying.
Mr. Trump has just taken the American (and possibly worldwide) attitude about celebrities and applied it more openly to politics. From Fatty Arbuckle through Roman Polankski to Bill Cosby; from Jerry Lee Lewis through Michael Jackson to R. Kelly; celebrates feel entitled to get whatever they want. As to politics, would either JFK or Bill Clinton had as many encounters had they been shoe salesmen from Indianapolis?
As long as a sizeable percentage of the American populace is willing to overlook major flaws in their heroes, this will continue. Mr. Trump is just the latest example.
"And although the United States is not an autocracy, our country is taking steps in that direction that I never imagined we would."
It's now a dictatorship.
"In order to form a more perfect Union..." What if we can't? What if this is it?
I continue to be horrified as the various checks and balances of our government are replaced by Trump surrogates. AG Barr (no impartial justice at Justice) and the latest additions to the Supreme Court, Pompeo at State, McConnell's fierce control since day 1 of Obama, etc. etc. Esper's embrace of land mines is another example of anti-progress in humanity. Hatred, violence, victim blaming, election cheating, profiteering, the path to survival is ever narrower.
Remember, nature and the planet don't care. we are digging ourselves a deep cold grave as we set up failure for earth's biggest predator. The planet is finite and our habit of exploitation and toxic waste are getting too big to ignore.
The few that remain - in the House of Representatives - are tarred as wholly partisan, but the opposite is true.
Vote, people, vote. We desperately need a Democratic Senate. The herd of cats that are Democrats may yet fail against Trump and his corrupt organization, but that can provide a backstop to the extinction of wisdom and compassion.
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If Trump is acquitted by republicans and he does something dangerous and catastrophic they will get the blame along with Trump. The democrats defended the Constitution against Trump. The republicans defended Trump against the Constitution. If the republicans acquit Trump they will be responsible for whatever he does after that. As a result of this lemmingism and minionism, demonstrated by the republicans; The Constitution and its credibility are in limbo; and endanger of being renounced and desecrated. The republicans renounced the Constitution in order to acquit Trump; that in itself is treason, against the Constitution.
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What's the common thread in his pre-presidential life?
That he marinated in the stem-to-stern bipartisan corruption of New York city and state politics. Grease the right palms and the state and city are your oyster.
They let you do it.
Indeed they do. "They" being everybody from Abe Beame to Andrew Cuomo.
As a soon to be 80 year old Canadian, I have heard Americans proclaim how mighty their Constitution is for many decades. Recent events have shown that it is not worth the paper it is written on. When specific black letter Constitutional articles can be broken without penalty, then what good is it to have a written Constitution? We don't have one although we do have laws. The difference is that yours cannot keep a tyrant from openly disobeying your Constitution but our laws suffice. Why? Because we would never tolerate a Trump in office or any Prime Minister flagrantly breaking criminal law. His/her own party would vote them out of the leadership. I think Americans have to look into their souls and decide if following the Constitution is a prerequisite for the Presidency. If not, please stop bragging about a worthless set of rules.
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Most people do not lie just because they can, or at least not as much as Trump. Similarly with attacking women. Onehas to have perverted impulses as well.
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"The Simple Reason Trump Does What He Does
Because he can."
I con not understand how anyone who claims to be religious, who goes to church on Sunday, who reads a bible or claims to adhere to the Ten Commandments can vote for and accept Trump as president.
Trump has committed a verified 16,000 plus lies in three years; The Ten Commandments.
Trump has committed many acts of adultery; The Ten Commandments.
Trump has committed "covet your neighbor's wife or other "nor anything that is your neighbor's.”; The Ten Commandments.
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What a fantastic analysis and summary of the lifelong criminal now living in the white house.
Vote him out and vote his enablers out. Vote to restore America.
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In the closing days of the 2016 election I was worried Trump could win as the polling tightened. He was an unknown quantity. His phony populist message resonated, regardless of his crass remarks. It was a fluke but he won, with support of some Obama voters and Independents.
Those days, and that support, are ancient history now. He bent over backwards to wear out his welcome. Only the most stubborn cultist says his re-election would be for the good of the country with a straight face. He's so deeply divisive, careless, and knee-jerk whiny, that it's sickening on a national level. He brings on controversy and transparently blames others, just as a matter of course. And now, thanks to his feckless (and I believe doomed) party, he's momentarily empowered to debase his office more than any previous moment in his presidency.
Before I write the next sentence, I'll qualify it with this: Vote. I think he'll destroy any chance he has, leading up to the election in November. It may be large or petty, but it will be the last straw. He's going down, with prejudice. He is beyond careless and widely despised now, but it's not enough for him, let's face it. As it stands in America in 2020 there is no ambivalence, no tacit acceptance surrounding Donald Trump. You're either a stubborn cultist or you understand, perhaps more than any time in history, this person must be a one-term president, period, end of embarrassing story. Surely he'll find the need to put a cherry on those feelings. VOTE.
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The press keeps telling us what is happening and what is happening is that the U.S. is turning into a dictatorship. I wonder how the press will handle the evaporation of a free press?
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Donald Trump has embodied the worst in every American, and now that we have created this monster that we cannot so easily get rid of, it might be a good idea at this point to pause and take note of what it is that we have in part helped to create. Having a person like this who augments his playbook with the ‘wisdom ‘ of Joseph Goebbels and Benito Mussolini, is horrifying to any American who understands history and how it is often repeated as a result of ignorance and arrogance .
But undoing a monster in our midst is a choice that we have to make. It is why we vote. And that is why we have to make sure that there is no foreign intervention this time courtesy of Vladimir Putin or any other fly-by-night intelligence officer turned autocrat .
And if Donald Trump is reelected he will have to endure the steady stream of truth unfolding as an antidote to all the lies that he has created to cover up his corruption. And that’s a lot of truth to swallow, in a stomach full of lies.
Lastly , it doesn’t matter what he thinks about whether this is corrupt or not. What matters is what WE think. That is the difference between a democracy and an autocracy.
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Democrats need to spend less time psychoanalyzing Trump and just beat him. Direct the same analytical resources to the mirror.
Trump is President for himself, period. Nothing will change that. He switched parties because he found he could resonate with the hatred, bigotry, fear, and resentment so prevalent in those describing themselves as "conservatives"; predominantly the GOP. Of course today's GOP was formed immediately after President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law; Dixiecrats (read: racist/segregationists) switched to the GOP. The "christian" supporters of the GOP find themselves having to explain their positions supporting right-to-life, contrasting with a POTUS who breaks every other commandment. Total hypocrisy.
The Democrats in the House need to subpoena Bolton, Mulvaney, Pompeo, and take it to the courts to re-establish the checks and balances, to rub Trump's corruption in his face, and keep his corruption in front of the voters all the way to November
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I assume the Republicans realize that with the demographic changes sweeping the country they will one day soon resemble the Republican Party in California -- a neutered organization that nobody pays any attention to. But by throwing gasoline on the polarization of our country they have insured that when Democrats take complete control of the government the payback will really hurt and for a long long time.
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The Republicans appear to have an amoral loose cannon heading their party. It seems he can be controlled, though, by McConnell et al. He cleaves to their party line very closely. Without them he is powerless.
We can only hope our country and its Constitution are strong enough to withstand him. And them, starts with McConnell. I hope everyone who votes will vote for Democrats for every single office right down to the city dogcatcher.
Vote with your dollars! Identify Senate races where there is a chance to unseat vulnerable Republicans, even if you are in a solid Blue state. Support candidates who oppose them with donations small and large. Ballotopedia has useful information for anyone who wants to do this.
Vote Blue No Matter Who! Support Blue Down Ticket, Too!
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It’s not only because he can- it’s because he can’t behave other than in his naked self interest given his narcissism and sociopathy. This is what happens when you take someone with a lifelong character disorder and put him in the most powerful position in the world. Trump will never have enough money, power, adulation or control to be satisfied— it’s a black hole of raw hunger that can’t be sated. I just had to laugh when Lamar Alexander said this weekend that Trump had learned his lesson from impeachment. Has he not been paying attention the last three years? Trump will compulsively transgress every boundary or constraint he perceives being placed on him because he can’t help himself and has done this since childhood. If he is re-elected, there will be no check or balance left that can hold back autocracy.
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Trump does what he does because he cannot stop himself, not because he can get away with it.
We have already gone past the halfway point of autocracy. Reelection of Trump would finish the job and he could sit on his throne as an equal to Putin and his other autocratic friends.
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Americans should never forget Trump would kneecap his political opponents and turn them over to a foreign country for for imprisonment to further his political career. Ukraine has struggled with corruption, and Trump has shown he could and probably would offer a cool $20,000 bribe to a Ukrainian judge struggling to make ends meet for a favorable outcome. He can't imprison his political opponents in America, but this drug deal shows he's willing to turn over American citizens to foreign countries as a favor.
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I wonder what those Electoral College voters are thinking now? If they had understood their function properly they could have prevented this horror we're enduring.
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Well, it took some 240 years to answer Benjamin Franklin's challenge: We can't.
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I have not read Professor Skocpol's book, but the argument that the Republican Party is changing because it's members want "shrinking government" and "authoritarianism" is internally inconsistent.
The Republican Party is changing for two reasons that are consistent with societal changes over centuries -- and one rule of physics. First, the party is bending to the will of an incredibly strong, though misguided, personality. Second, Republicans are appealing to working class, blue-color Americans, because the former core of the Democratic party became available when Democrats seemed to lose interest in their plight.
As for the rule of physics: like all gases, Trump filled a vacuum.
Although not uncovered for 50 years, another man who became President, Richard Nixon, successfully influenced the outcome of the 1968 election. Nixon enlisted the aid of Anna Chenault, wife of the American leader of the World War II Flying Tigers, to contact the leader of the South Vietnamese government, and urge him to undermine President Johnson’s Paris peace initiative. Another interesting fact is that Johnson knew of Nixon’s efforts (Johnson called it treason) just as President Obama was aware of Russia’s efforts (With the knowledge of the Trump campaign?) to back then candidate Trump. Neither Johnson nor Obama went public with those facts.
Time to cancel the reality series, The Trump Presidency. 4 years is 4 years too long of a run. What's amusing Reality TV behavior is not worth the damage to the nation and its people. Go into oblivion please.
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The problem with our federal government is the absence of term limits. The longer one remains in office, the more the position becomes their career and the larger the pot of gold that exists at the end of the careerist’s rainbow. So, once an election is won, the ultimate goal is to win the next, and the next, and the next, ad nauseum ........ and by whatever means necessary. If it means toadying to a White House bully, then so be it. How long has Mitch McConnell been in the Senate? If we want change, then we have to vote the dead wood out. Unless we are gerrymandered away from the ballot box. November is coming, and with it our best chance to restore order from egotistical chaos. The world is watching.
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This is the problem and the climate we face: Trump’s base wants to be like him; to be able to do the unethical and immoral things he does and gets away with. That a large segment of the electorate and the GOP admire this and want to emulate this behavior is the truly sad state of the country.
Leonhardt could not be more correct. For over 2 centuries we made slow albeit imperfect progress toward the 'more perfect' union sought by the Declaration of Independence. For a disparate set of reasons disgruntled citizens chose a leader who; does not believe in science so he allows pollution to poison the air our children breathe; permits sewage to run into our rivers; claims to know more than the generals, more than anyone about anything but he is pathetically uninformed about everything. How could we have come so far that even a world that is less safe is a fair trade off for foul language, embarrassing behavior as long as we get conservative judges, and a pretense he is a man of faith. Tell that to the children separated from their parents. We will pay a terrible long term price for believing Donald Trump.
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This should surprise no one. Fanny Trollope noted in the 1830's that the great forces in the American civilization were greed and religious fundamentalism, in that order. She was soundly despised for saying it, as it contradicted our aspirational mythologies, but she hit the nail on the head.
Trump's supporters will be loyal to the death, since he tells them that, with power, they can be as nasty and greedy as they want, and that the rules, the law, the Constitution, the basic tenets of Christianity, and even common decency don't count.
So the simple question seems to be " If Donald Trump did not have a penny to his name, would anyone have followed him anywhere, or listened to anything that he said"?
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Trump will continue on his lifelong path of unethical and/or criminal behavior until he is stopped.
Sadly, our government's institutions ( Senate, Intelligence agencies, DOJ, DOD, State) have decided not to act, thus becoming accomplices by default.
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There must be millions of people who relate to Trump's racism, sexism, hatred, rudeness, corruption and constant lies.
That is a sad statement on our nation.
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Thank you Mr. Leonhardt. You said all there needs to be said. It is now up to us "We The People" who seem not to be doing anything but complaining.
Trump's kind of behavior is only possible if he's surrounded by a sufficient number of people willing to cover for him repeatedly. That's the part that really confounds me. Why do people do it? Why are Senate Republicans doing it? You know they don't even like him. So why?
Donald Trump is merely a symptom taking advantage of the numerous flaws in the Constitution that allow demagogues - or at least this demagogue - to run roughshod over those famous checks and balances that have turned out to be ineffective against someone like Trump.
The truth, however, is that all governments, without exception, are dictatorial in nature. When a minority of the voters can install a president, the pretense of a democratic republic is revealed to be hoax.
The United States is not and never has been a democratic republic. This government was designed by oligarchs to be controlled by oligarchs. The sooner we accept this fact, the sooner we can begin to change it.
Being necessarily brief, this column is as good as it gets in identifying our government's 'slumlords' and the details of their subjugation of our withering democracy.
And yet it is frightening how much of the ignominious insults and disservice of our nations needs and ideals ... as rendered unto us by trump, the trump 'administration,' and congressional-republicans … is here 'remaindered.'
(We've had plenty of 'bad' politicians in our history, but never such a total piece of 'dirt' as president, nor such as senate majority leader, nor such as so many as most republican congressmen (mostly) and women, nor cabinet 'inhabitants,' nor presidential advisors ('blood-and-else related,' and not).
Only those identified or 'suggested' above will be shamed by history more than those of us who 'caused' their 'place' or suffered their authorities in silence.
I can't help but hope for some sort of reckoning for all this bad behavior on the part of Trump, the Republicans and those supporting them. It will come but may take us all down with it.
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I have come, very reluctantly, to an opinion I never would have thought I would have had 22 years ago: the Democrats should have convicted Clinton and removed him from office after he was impeached.
I know, it would have been sickening to give Ken Starr and Newt Gingrich a victory. I understand how ridiculous it seemed at the time to raise that kind of behavior to the level of high crimes and misdemeanors. But think about what excusing that behavior has led to. The whole tenor of the 2000 election would have changed and we might not have ended up with (what we can now call) the second-worst president in history, which in turn paved the way for the worst president. We would have shown that bad presidential misbehavior has consequences, and even more important, that bad male behavior has consequences. Think of all the horrible things that have happened in the last twenty years that might have been avoided had Bush not been president or had the culture shifted in such a way that would have put the Weinsteins and Epsteins of the world on notice.
One thing is for sure in this alternate timeline: it couldn’t possibly be any worse than the one we’re living in.
Yet the typical trump voter won't see this as a warning and better consider their political options. No, they'll see it as a continuation of a 'liberal media bias' and cheer the downfall of democracy because for once they're 'winning' against all those elites with educations, professional careers, and best of all something to lose.
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This column is kind of a nothing burger. Trump gets his way at some things, but not everything. Here we are in year 4 of the Trump presidency, and Obama's Affordable Health Act is still the law of the land. But more than that, Trump gets his way when he gets powerful interests to back him in return for favors he returns. The bulk of the corporate and personal super rich back Trump because he gave them a trillion dollar tax cut. The white evangelist leadership back Trump imprisoning immigrant children because he supports more tax cuts for their churches and more executive orders obliterating the separation of church and state. White nationalists support Trump because he's made it clear through policies and public statements that he believes whites are superior and should be given special privileges (largely through permitting "states rights" to institute massive voter disqualification and refusing to acknowledge hate crimes against minorities). In short Trump rules through a linked network of corruption while he sneers at democracy and threatens ruin for anyone who opposes him.
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"No American president before Trump would have dared to collaborate openly with foreign countries for partisan advantage."
This misstates what Trump did. He tried to use the power of the presidency to try to coerce the Ukraine....
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Pelosi caved into McConnell and he trashed the House of Representatives. She owes him one, and she should
"disinvite" Trump from delivering the SOTU in the House. It is her only option for payback, and the only way to teach the Republicans that dishonesty has its costs.
The simple reason that Trump does what he does is that he is mentally ill. After that, it gets complicated. Trump's grandiose descriptions of himself ("very stable genius,' etc) and his exaggerated way of describing everything he is connected with bears no relationship to ordinary human speech. What makes his brand of mental illness effective is that he is a pathological liar who shrouds his lies with (often fake) claims of success as a businessman and he looks and plays the part well. He has none of the concern or remorse about being wrong that constrains normal people. So people inclined to embrace his fantasy world, which is often nothing but a series of paranoid delusions about people trying to keep him honest, see him as a "leader" and "heroic." They embrace the Trump fantasy world the way they rush to movies about heroes with supernatural powers. He makes them feel good. And up to now they have not had to live with the consequences of the lies/delusions.
Most people who work at senior levels of government/journalism/academia/science, lines of work where being right actually counts for something, lines of work in which you will be fired if you lie or are consistently wrong, are of course appalled by the dishonesty.
Trump does what he does because he is mentally ill -- impulsive, narcissistic, delusional. But he has political support as a fantasy figure. Between that and money, he has an army of enablers who depend on his pathology for their own success.
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They not only say they are fine with Trump's corruption, they nominate him for president again.
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The Republican actions making Trump's presidency a virtual autocracy will come back to bite them hard when we have a President Sanders. hehehe
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He should have been stopped after the Hollywood Access tape. Many were horrified and stood in disbelief. Remember it's never too late to stop the menace . Vote him out in November!
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This is one of the few opinion pieces I have read recently that has dared to mention the unmentionable, the USA is on the path (if not already) to becoming an authoritarian dictatorship. It is frightening to watch what appeared to be an unassailable democracy fail so spectacularly.
The last three years have provided a fascinating, albeit, frustrating study of how ignorance, cognitive miserliness, racism, xenophobia, greed and self-interest have proved to be the ideal ingredients for a perfect recipe in ensuring the demise of America as the so called 'bastion of democracy'.
It is to be noted that over the years America has supported and propped up many authoritarian dictatorships around the world as long as they were anti-communist and latterly anti-Iranian.
To see so many Americans succumb to and embrace so willingly a creeping authoritarian dictatorship orchestrated via a velvet overthrow of the GOP; is akin to watching the fate of a frog placed in a pot of cold water which is slowly brought to the boil.
Unbridled and unchecked capitalism appears to have wrought this result. Big money (American and Foreign sourced) have destroyed any remaining vestige of real democracy.
Why was no heed taken of the impact that Gerrymandering and the creation of Super PACs would have? Not to mention the power of social media.
History has shown empires have a sunrise inevitably followed by a sunset. The length of that 'day' is all that separates one from another.
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My confidence in the upcoming election to unseat Trump is on shaky ground. Here, in today’s Times, we have articles on what a horrible person Trump is (nothing new here) and how the Democratic nominees—and the party itself—are in disarray. To me, Trump’s true character should bring voters out in droves—by the millions—for a landslide victory for ANY other person. Because I would think most Americans—regardless of party or worldview—would find a man like Trump simply unpalatable. Who could truly like a man like that? However, I’m skeptical that my hoped-for landslide will happen. Most likely it’ll end up being a close knit 50-50 race like everything else in this divided country. Independents, moderates, blacks, Latinos, women, and young folks need to show—big time.
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There’s a name for it- sociopath. This diagnosis renders him unfit for office. The longer he stays the more dangerous for everyone.
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But how do you explain - where are the interviews with - every Senator's silence? Some acknowledge president "did it" - that he beat up on the Ambassador - that he interrupted the process; but that's not enough to remove him. FINE! But how do you - where are the interviews - one by one - each justifying no witnesses and no new evidence? ......
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The other reason President Trump does what he does: it works.
Maybe that could have been added to the headline banner.
It works.
Why do the Democrats in the House keep voting to give this President more authority, money for his prosecution of bogus wars and approving his ridiculous trade deals? The corporate owned duopoly is enabling Trump, aided and abetted by their employees of both parties. Voting cannot change that, never has.
I’m not sure why Leonhardt backs away from the conclusion this essay leads us to. He says we are not yet an autocracy but that we are heading that way. I believe that this is self-deluding.
We have a president who could not care less what the law says. We have a servile, rubber-stamp Senate that is incapable of checking him and not remotely interested in doing so and a House that passes bills that have no chance of becoming law. And we have a judiciary increasingly dominated by judges appointed by the autocrat, who also benefits from a Scotus seat stolen from his predecessor. The courts increasingly accept policies that are in contravention of written law; an example is the blatantly illegal diversion of military funding to pay for a wall Congress repeatedly refused to fund.
So we have a lawless, deeply corrupt president, a servile Senate, an impotent House, and an enabling judiciary to step in on the rare occasions that congress does oppose a policy desired ny the WH. How is this not an autocracy?
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Trump does it, not only because he can, but also because his supporters (who have no principles) don’t care that he does but enjoy it when he does and upsets democrats.
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What many seem to ignore is that the Founding Fathers were unable to fully shake the weight of the King in late 18th C. . .. despite their words. They presented referential documents that allowed for a tyrannical individual with a compliant/sycophantic majority in Congress.. to become in essence a King, above the Law.
Let me tell you something and this is not a joke. If Trump loses the election no matter if by a small margin or not we will have a heck of a time getting him out of the White House. He will claim it was rigged, people voted twice, illegal immigrants voted, etc. And if you think the Republican party won't go along with it you are mistaken. You will see exactly what you saw in the impeachment trial. Republicans afraid of disagreeing with him to save their own skin. He will drag it out into the courts as long as he can and even if the Supreme Court rules against him I want to see how they are going to remove him. Mark my words.
Very, very sad to see what is happening. I was - pre-Trump - a lifelong Republican. Not all that political, but I moved quite a bit for my work and every election - if I didn't know much about the nominees in my new state - I voted straight Republican. How they came to lose their integrity, their honor, their truthfulness (the entire group promised under oath to do a fair trial - ha!), their respect for the citizens of our country and their wishes & the dignity to uphold our place in the world is a lesson for everyone, now & going forward. For the first time in 68 years I am afraid. Very afraid. The entire party should be wiped from the rolls. Send them to live with a petty, buffoon of a two-bit dictator - that is what they've made clear they want.
3
"No American president before Trump would have dared to collaborate openly with foreign countries for partisan advantage." Ha! Obama did it - and we have proof of it on an open microphone when he was talking with Russia's President Medvedev in 2012. Please.
1
And, it is going to get worse before it gets any better.
It would be a mistake to underestimate the audacity and arrogance of trump to ignore the results of the 2020 elections and simply decide to stay in power.
We are in a difficult position as a democracy.
The republicans prefer "ruling" over governance and he is there chosen leader.
The fact trump is an opportunistic Fascist doesn't bother the the new g.o.p., they have been waiting for him to surface since W.W.ll.
The Dems need to recognize the repubs are ruthless and determined and rise to the occasion.
There is more at stake here than most people are realizing at this point.
1
You've left out the major reason the populace and the Republicans support him; as awful as he is as a person, his actions as a President have been positive for the USA. He's
* Presided over the longest economic expansion and improved stock market in American history.
* Decreased taxes for the majority of Americans (not just the rich)
* Achieved the lowest unemployment numbers in decades for the general population, and the lowest ever for blacks and hispanics
* Steadfastly stands up for America and refuses any obsequious apologies
* Supported Israel more than any prior president
* Pulled away from the Iran deal and simultaneously exerted widespread economic pressure on them while conducting a concise elimination of a terrorist leader (without producing WW III as predicted by the left media. In fact, he called Iran's bluff magnificently)
* Negotiated a deal with China that finally addresses US concerns
* Opened dialogue and visited North Korea (Obama did neither)
* Createda better NAFTA
* Reduced US support to NATO
* Did not send American troops to any wars, nor started any wars
* Reduced illegal immigration
* Reduced needless restrictive regulations
* Appointed constructionist judges
* Called out leftist media hypocrisy
* Supported the pro-life movement
* And, in the opinion of many, Made America Great Again (anyone who doubts the prevalence of this opinion either lives amongst the coastal elites or spends all their time in their own echo chamber)
He’s presided over and exacerbated the worst surge of right-wing white supremacist violence in this country since the heyday of the Klan (which endorses him). He has the blood of countless Americans on his hands. But as far as Trump supporters are concerned, the people who have been slaughtered (Jews, Latinos, blacks) had it coming.
1
Every parent knows that if you let a child get away with bad behavior, the child keeps doing it, and more of it and worse. The child becomes a little tyrant, controlling and tormenting his parents, or what we all recognize as a "spoiled brat."
Why so many parents who would never tolerate bad behavior in their own children seem to not only accept but delight in the bad behavior of "our president" was, at first, a mystery to me. Now I understand that they delight in it because he torments the people they themselves despise and resent. Why they despise those other people is another question.
2
He does what he does because he can. He's been enabled all his life, and when finally held accountable, he holds allies hostage, via threats, fear, or some internal information he has on them.
Since Barr became his protector and partner in crime, Donald Trump has been on a spree of personal gain. If he spent half the time governing that he does on advancing himself politically, this country would be healhier and likely more prosperous.
Since his election, he's been on a mission to assume more power than the office allows, and nobody has checked him. Democrats tried, with the law on their side, but the laws don't matter to this administration, the Senate, and likely the judiciary as well.
He's crushed checks and balances, as well as separation of powers, and he's done so with impunity. My question now is, who is worse, Donald Trump himself, or DonaldTrump's enablers?
3
I am thankful for the NYT's coverage of Trump's obscene 'misbehavior' and that you have stood up to Trump's power grab in the face of his attacks for the past four years. Reading comments here, not only from your opinion writers, the board and strong commenters there would be little that could be done against the tyranny of FOX and Trump himself. Your coverage as painful as it is shines a light on these dark times.
1
Trump is running the US Executive Branch as a criminal enterprise. He is being abetted by the GOP members of Congress, and by the far right wing Justices of SCOTUS.
1
All this smoke and thunder about the upcoming presidential election when it's going to be very simple. Trump already cheated in 2016, gives every appearance of walking on his impeachment that was about this electoral impropriety, and will simply enlist Putin and his hackers again. I look to see him win a 110% plurality in the 2020 election, just as Stalin used to back in the day...
2
Frank Wilhoit: The Travesty of liberalism--"Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.”
1
Even with gerrymandering and the electoral college, we shouldn't have a Trump. Even with the way the system has been gamed by the Republicans, even with the lobbyists and the dark money and Citizen's United, and a business friendly SCOTUS, America should not have elected this ignorant, pathological reality TV demagogue. A DJT should be a non-starter at any level of public service.The very fact that the Democrats are "hoping" they could put up a candidate that could beat him is a testament to how far this nation has fallen. Trump does what he does because, evidently, he is a real reflection of enough of this nation to actually be a political force. He's not something that happened to America; he is America. Or at least a good portion of it.
While it is true that the Banana Republicans fell on their knees for "Benito" Trump this time, it could easily happen with a Democrat President.
It isn't the political parties one should be worrying about. It is the system itself, where "checks and balances" have turned out to be an illusion and where the President has enough power to indulge in corruption of power and wealth at the least...create a de facto dictatorship at worst.
Trump is a warning.
A movement to change the Constitution should be a priority, even to the extent of being very seriously debated in this election. If nothing changes, the two parties and the legal profession will rip the nation asunder in their amoral obsession with power and gamesmanship.
The policy 'whipsaw' that is a consequence of extreme politics will be increasingly dysfunctional to internal management, and a driver of external alienation. With China ascendant and the hurricane of global warming now just "off the coast", America is threatened like no other time in its history.
It needs to get its Houses in order. Quickly.
2
Trump doing whatever he wants and getting away with it is his appeal to his voter base so he has to keep doing it. Remember they wanted a maverick who would sweep them along and allow them to participate in his looting and plundering.
1
This octogenarian is appalled daily at the downward turn of our country since the last presidential election. Daily.
2
Frontal Temporal Disorder
I've done nothing wrong.
Perfect Call stems from his limited vocabulary. Searching through his impairment yielded it from as yet another perfect crime.
David is absolutely right. Further, the Democrats need to constantly remind voters - with video clips, speeches and press releases - of Trump's outrageous antics, statements and actions to date - which will certainly increase should he be reelected. Sexual assault, criticizing the physical appearance of women, spasmatically imitating a neurologically disabled reporter, diminishing a wounded, multi-decorated war hero and tortured POW'S, criticizing the Gold Star parents of a fallen service member, etc., etc., are but a few examples of why this unstable man/child should not be our President. Lest we forget.....
1
Democrats can't compete with Trump without a focus, a dream.
I suggest that Democrats work on a new democracy wave, now.
They might use the "Democracy" song of Leonard Cohen (1992).
"Democracy is coming to the USA"
MLK, Jr. had a dream. "If you don't have a dream.
how you gonna have a dream come true? (South Pacific)
Trump will keep winning, as he takes down democracy.
When will the Democrats focus on a new democracy wave?
"Democracy is coming to the USA"
1
The senators have acclaimed him dictator. Democracy here is over, as is any serious semblance of a republic for those wishing to be precious about the form of this nation. One must now hope that this Cesar ends more like Julius than Augustus, for he will bring no golden age but only continued hatred and suffering. Indeed, he is most akin to Nero.
And just as with the Access Hollywood tape, it's Trump's abettors who end up losing their jobs, in prison, degraded. But never Trump himself. No wonder Trump believes he's above all laws, including the divine.
All that Leonhardt describes is just business as usual, for both Dems and Repubs. The reason that Obama and Hillary do what he/she does is because they, like Trump, "can." Due to their celebrity. It's true, but just blaming it on Trump is very short-sighted.
The U.S. is an autocracy, if not a downright dictatorship.
Americans have been slow to believe what's been going on right under their noses for three plus years.
Part of it has been a simple incredulity that says, "The President and elected Republicans wouldn't violate the law and Constitution so blatantly, would they?"
No President has ever gone against law, tradition, civility, nor has been so completely self-serving as this one. It took many until 2018 to accept this surreal reality, but fortunately, enough were sufficiently concerned to flip the House.
Now, Americans must face the fall of government based on the Constitution. Elected Republicans have their dictator's back, at the national, state and local levels.
Their party commands the military. Their leader holds dim respect for human life, given his many attempts to extinguish it through environmental pollution, healthcare and social security cuts.
The 2020 vote is literally a vote for your life, and against those who will let you and the planet die, and pocket your money.
I do not blame this all on Trump. The Republican Party has been headed this direction for decades. They are fighting a war, not participating in a political system.
Trump has two outstanding skills: he’s a masterful bully and he has a keen understanding of the baser elements of human nature.
I think we will get quit of Trump, but the Republicans will just look for a smarter Fascist. When you’re trying to rule absolutely with a minority of the population, repression, intimidation and violence become unavoidable. We have to address the underlying foundation of propaganda, corruption and oligarchy that supports them. And rich wrongdoers have to start going to jail, period.
1
So what's the way out? We need to grab the non ethnonational sympathetics who, also, are absolutely correct in their indignation both toward the stagnation, and, honestly, toward the so-called Democratic party that has also betrayed them.
Trump's ticket to Big-Ride.
The earth is up for grabs.
Trump's signature is on killing it.
So how is this any ratification of capital?
To end democracy and the earth?
There is something gross about this domestic product.
To bring such ends as Trump.
And cheer it.
"It’s why Trump pressured Ukraine to conduct a smear campaign in the first place: Because he could."
It does not become a smear campaign because YOU say it is.
There is very likely something there because the $50,000 per month salary of Hunter looks very suspicious, and the Democrats have impeached Trump to prevent it being looked into.
Let me offer a similar slogan by the Democrats. "You can say anything you want because you can." The Democrats have become masters of illusion creation.
There ARE things wrong with Trump. His indifference to climate change is a biggie. His killing of Suleimani was very risky. But as far as the Bidens are concerned, Trump merely wanted an inquiry and the Democrats put up a road block.
And instead of showing the so-called president that he CAN'T the GOP serves as his enablers.
23 Republican Senators up in 2020.
1 Tyrant up in 2020.
"Somebody DO something.
1
Been saying it from the get go... and that is that right up to this very second that you are reading this... Trump has gotten away with everything he has ever done or said... And I knew when he won that he would be impeached before the end of his first term... I just never figured that the Republicans would completely go to the dark side...
"He can" because the Republicans have embraced corruption, betrayed their oaths. "He can" because he blackmails, lies, and bullies. "He can" because the people whose job it is to provide oversight and boundaries to the presidency have abandoned their posts.
2
When we went to war with Iraq I asked my 83 year old father “what makes us think we can preemptively invade a foreign country that has done nothing to us?” My war veteran father responded “because we can.” Those words have echoed in my head ever since. They define the Republican Party.
Blunt, powerful piece. Sadly true, and now he will be completely unfettered after his acquittal this week.
You ain't seen nothiin' yet. Get ready for the most corrupt election in US history, sponsored and supported by YOUR US Senate.
Why is the Senate so desperate to prevent Pence from becoming the President? If I were him, I would be extremely offended.
1
The U.S. is an autocracy, if not a downright dictatorship.
Americans have been slow to believe what's been going on right under their noses for three plus years.
Part of it has been a simple incredulity that says, "The President and elected Republicans wouldn't violate the law and Constitution so blatantly, would they?"
No President has ever gone against law, tradition, civility, nor has been so completely self-serving as this one. It took many until 2018 to accept this surreal reality, but fortunately, enough were sufficiently concerned to flip the House.
Now, Americans must face the fall of government based on the Constitution. Elected Republicans have their dictator's back, at the national, state and local levels.
Their party commands the military. Their leader holds dim respect for human life, given his many attempts to extinguish it through environmental pollution, healthcare and social security cuts.
The 2020 vote is literally a vote for your life, and against those who will let you and the planet die, and pocket your money.
"Why has the Republican Party changed?"
I think you omitted the most important reasons - changing demographics and and unwavering sense of their own righteousness.
Republicans realize they don't have the numbers to win anymore in national races.
They've also deluded themselves into thinking theirs is the only legitimate ideology and would sooner burn it all down rather than cede control to the infidels. This conviction gives them a license to cheat and demonize all opposition.
President Trump does what he does because he was elected President.
Elected. President.
“Elected” with three million fewer votes than the woman whom the country actually chose.
2
What is most shocking is the selfishness and cruelty. So what if children are separated from their parents? So what if children starve because food stamps are no longer available? So what if people get sick and die because of lack of health care? Yet they insist this is a Christian country.
2
Yes, but - and this is a big "but,"
Most people don't think like this. We wouldn't behave like Trump even if we could get away with it.
I wouldn't be caught dead acting like Trump.
I don't understand people who aren't nauseated by this behavior. I also don't understand why Trump isn't in jail.
1
This is not Harry Potter where it is forbidden to say the name Voldermot. We are an autocracy. Just say it, fascism is here staring at us. The sooner we recognize our predicament, the sooner we can make informed choices to protect ourselves.
trump is president because Americans can no longer tell fantasy from reality. trump isn't a billionaire, he just plays one on TV
4
The Republican excuses might be more understandable if they were dealing with a juvenile delinquent for whom there was some hope of redemption. They aren't and there isn't. They know that, and they all end up making fools out of themselves pretending otherwise. McConnell wants to get this out of way and move on as quickly as possible. That may be a good idea politically, but the problem is that Donald Trump will not change. As weak as it is, by admitting that Donald did something "inappropriate" this time, they only make it harder to continue making excuses in the future. They are seeking redemption for someone who can't even acknowledge the need for it. As Michael Cohen said, he considered himself a fool for ever getting involved with Trump. Republican Senators are all "fixers" now, and may they all come to understand how Michael Cohen felt.
1
When "being in power" means having to lick the boots of a strongman, it is no power at all.
1
You don't have to worry. It's okay. A Harvard professor said everything Trump does is in the public interest. That made me wonder two things. First, what is the "public interest" in the United States? Second, is Harvard still Harvard?
Mr. Leonhardt, you nailed it. Thanks.
A friend told me a couple of years go - just listen to the man speak and you know immediately that he is sick. That also nailed it for me.
I really listen when people speak, so as to understand what is going on inside their heads. Trump's rhetoric is decidedly sick. But, the fact that so many people in our nation find it to their liking is far more worrying to me than Trump himself.
NBC was aware of that tape for months but they waited until late October 2016 to deliver the ultimate “October surprise,” the coup de grace.
They failed.
1
Even if that little conspiracy theory is true, it doesn’t change the fact that your president brags about being a serial sexual assaulter. How does it feel to support someone like that—who also stands up for neo-Nazis? I’m honestly curious.
1
@Cousin Greg
Godwin’s Law. Never fails.
Accurate and very very sad.
Trump saved the republican party from extinction and they're going to do whatever it takes, legal or otherwise, to preserve their power. Ending Trump's reign of terror won't be enough unless we also send the entire republican party packing.
The few who has said no, get eaten up. So lets that make millions.
The clinical terms for a person who displays behavior that is "amoral, entitled and opportunistic" are narcissist and sociopath, and Trump certainly displays both personality disorders. Unfortunately, the narcissistic sociopath is an American archetype, and is responsible for the swagger, selfishness and brutality that much of the world sees as a big part of the United States' approach to both foreign policy and corporate governance. Think US policy toward Mexico since 1836, and the conduct of Wells Fargo bank executives. Sadly, many Americans voted for Trump because they would like to be him.
3
Our society is based on an Honor System in which persons restrain themselves from opportunistic, selfish and illegal behavior. Although technology has offered surveillance capability to monitor for offenses, the person who can quickly grab the asset will always have an an advantage.
We have moved to a place where those obeying the principles of honor, behaving unselfishly are regarded as suckers and those who lie, cheat and steal to gain advantage or to amass fortunes are regarded as shrewd
players of the game.
No one likes a squealer so witnesses to this behavior turn away and pretend it doesn't matter that much. But those present need to act with "great vengeance and furious anger" to protect honor system itself.
David, you touch, lightly, on a core of his support: “Concern over immigration...”
I don’t have the writerly or the intellectual chops to figure out how to say what, when said, is met with outrage and opprobrium, but I will give it a try: It seems more than likely that an America comprised, in the majority, of people from the “global south”, where there are no Norways, as far as I can tell, will be more like those folks’ countries of origin, culturally and otherwise, than the Western, European-infused and influenced place it has been since well before 1776.
Is it possible that the legal and cultural patrimony of our fractious, flawed, but structurally rather remarkable nation will exert such power over all newcomers and recent arrivals from the “global south” that they will, soon after arrival, become—from the standpoint of an orderly, relatively civil society—more like Norwegians than, say, Sudanese?
It’s possible—but unlikely.
That, to me, is the real, and not unreasonable fear propelling Mr. Trump’s base. It’s very clear—and it’s not racist or xenophobic to observe this fact—that in terms of civic order, quality of life, or other measures, Northern Europe and Scandinavia, and their offspring, Canada and Australia, perform best, while the global south fares worst. What mainstream newspaper or company will have the fortitude to not only note these facts, but look to why this is the case? This is not about skin colors—it’s about how people act.
1
Reading this article ruined my day because it made me feel a hurt and shame in every single cell in my body. 40+% of my fellow citizens and legislators of a political party that controls the Senate and the White House support and enable a president who constantly lies, insults, mucks, and violates our laws and moral tenets, cheated on his taxes and wives, and openly expresses his admiration for world's worst dictators. Yes, he does all these things because "he can" and enough of us do not care about his daily assaults on our so-called core values.
“Because he can.”
Simple. And misleading.
BECAUSE you, me and so many others let him, and
all of the other personally accountables.
Choosing to be complacent.
Choosing to be complicit.
Choosing to be willfully blind.
Choosing to be shortsighted.
Choosing not to attend to...
Choosing to be willfully deaf.
Choosing to be willfully indifferent.
Choosing to BE neglectful to...
Choosing to deny.
Choosing to “forget.”
Choosing to be ignorant.
Choosing, uncritically, promises of certainty amidst realities’ uncertainties.
Choosing to give in; to conform.
Choosing to (specify:__________)
“Because he can???”
Because each of US, given who, and what, we-are,
interacting with who, and what, we are not, and
may never BE, as well as may yet BEcome
continue to enable the influentials in our midst,
whatever their sources of power, to... With impunity.
Without immediate personal-painful-consequences
which set boundaries for implemented-boundless harms!
BEcause WE can. BEcause WE should.
BEcause we choose to BE accountable
in our words and deeds.
As a norm.
As a value.
As an ethic.
As a lifestyle.
I wrote an email to my relatives tonight, subject "Antidote to Trump."
A neighbor of mine backed into and damaged my car. He left a note on my windshield with full information, and said that he would make reparations.
How honest is that, when I did not even see it happen?
Can you imagine Trump doing that? Nope.
Do not vote for the status quo. There must be change and 180 degrees of it or we all will become an updated version of serfs. We have lost our representation already and will loose our status as a democracy next. You can see it in the news; the reports are about how much this new strain of virus will affect the global economy! It’s headed toward pandemic status and the important part is the ruling class loosing money! This could be a way to weed out an unnecessary overpopulated planet! Develop a vaccine that is too expensive for ordinary / low income people to afford and bam! The remaining will be glad they are and appreciatively subservient! Vote for the return of our country to its people. As a body we are way more able to make good judgements than a few who live in their own vision of grandeur.
“...they let you do it.”
This is the crux of the problem.
Trump is amoral, entitled and opportunistic. But he is a symptom of the real problem.
The real problem is “they.” The trifecta of toxicity in our society
“They” now consist of elected Republican officials whose first priority is to hold onto their own power for their own benefit. That these official are ruthless is beyond dispute for anybody with an iota of a moral compass.They are also “empowered conservative donors and activists who want to protect their fortunes by shrinking government.” And “they” are the others in the base who are “attracted to, or at least tolerating of, politics tinged with ethno-nationalism and authoritarianism” either because they are angry at economic stagnation, immigration and secularizaton or are simply so nihilistic that they enjoy the chaos.
The question is whether or not the “they” who support Trump for whatever reason are now the majority of American citizens.
We’ll find out in 2020.
"Staying in power trumps all." This is what you're left with when your party is overrun by zealots and ideologues. True Believers, doing what they do best.
For most of us we learn from the pain of loss, failure and consequences. For all his business disasters, Trump had wormed his way out of the pain of defeat. He constantly gets away with cheating any system so he never suffers the consequences of his actions. He knows nothing about being on the bottom.
He became really famous after his terrible TV show. His kind of charm and charisma draws a certain kind of people in by giving them the sense that proximity to him gives them status. He plays to that crowd by making them believe he cares. He does not.
His judgement is awful-- from his bad policy decisions to the cast of the criminal types he attacks, he makes one rotten decision after the next. His lies, wealth and enormous ego protects him.
He lacks the knowledge of anything beyond the world of real estate,golf, and influential power of his wealthy. To enter the world of politics he needed mentors and shills. He has no particularly complex understanding of anything so he relied on others. For all his bravado he lacks self-esteem. He needs to be surrounded by people who will stroke his ego, assure him he is right, feed him things to say. Putin knew that way back in the 80s. I bet he began grooming Trump back then. McConnell knows this now. Trump is the perfect patsy for those who know that power does not necessarily lie in those who sit on the throne but rather in those who whisper into the ears and pull the strings from the shadows.
.
1
Eddie B.,
Trump would not possibly be re-elected, or even elected in the first place if Democrats had their heads on straight; what choice do voters have when Democrats have gone to the other side of sanity.
I recently read in the WP that Catholics now prefer Republicans over Democrats, how did this happen, Catholics didn’t gangs, Democrats did; they became unbearable.
@JRS,
Typho, "catholics didn't change"
Anyone else have a problem with their iPhone changing your works to whatever it wants?
gota edit beter, I guess.
To answer the headline. Trump gets away with it because he is a stable genius. Now it's time to move on to grief stage 5... Acceptance
This is all true but you know - the opposition is controlling one house of Congress. They don’t have to pass his NAFTA-by-any-other-name. They don’t have to give him bigger and bigger defenders appropriations. And so forth. If “he can” it’s partly due to the fact that the folks we vote for let him. Why?
Mr. Leonhardt: Who told you the USA "isn't an autocracy? While Obama's years in office made most of us believe things were going back towards "normal", even President Obama overstepped his authority a few times (taking a page from the Bush/Cheney handbook). Ever since the Nixon years, we've been headed that way. Reagan didn't help matters. And Bush/Cheney - with their "you're either with us or against us"; "we make our own reality" proclamations, and the "Patriot Act", not to mention bending over backwards to help out uber rich and big corporations -- pretty much paved the way. Trump and McConnell and Graham are just setting up buildings and hotels in AutocratLand.
The desire for power of a certain group of people, be them white working class and the wealthy, or the evangelicals and the immigrant bashers, is foundational in Trump's ascent.
There are three foundational premises which give him cover to be as outrageous and classless as he is:
1) "He's not a politician." So if he's "off-the-cuff" that's a good thing: he gets a pass for his brashess. He also gets credit as being a "straight-shooter" and since you can feel or read his emotions (even when narcissistically-based) many of his supporters think he is the most honest politician ever.
2) "He's a disruptor." This gives him cover to violate the law, to ignore Congress, and to speak out in crude ways. He's gotten free reign as a "change agent," a wrecking ball, and a molotov cocktail thrown into the system. He's controverisal.
3) "He's our guy." Underpinning all this is the right's desire for power: the Supreme Court, the branches of government, a thumb-in-the-eye to the press, Hillary-hating and Obama-bashing, disdain of internationalism/post WW2 liberalism and immigrants, and a movement back to 1950s America.
He can do the stuff he does because he can, but let's not forget he thrives on being a "non-politician" who wrecks things and does it for the base and his massive ego.
i used to direct my anger at Trump, but three years in now, I realize that he will not ever change. His time in office has shown everyone that he is actually worse than we expected. When your own National Security Advisor, Chief of Staff, Defense Secretary, Secretary of State all quit and actually tell America that you’re a liar, I think we can be pretty sure who were dealing with.
My anger is at the voter base and the Republicans in government who understand exactly what Trump has done, but believe that sticking it to liberals is a goal far more important than preserving their integrity, the American Dream, or—as we saw last week—the Constitution.
Trump is addicted to power which he wields in a crude and irrational manner. Like all addicts, he needs enablers. He has tens of millions in his voter base and fifty-one in the Senate. I believe almost all of them understand what they’re doing, and they don’t care.
The only thing I know for sure now is that Trump will lie, cheat, and break the law daily to win the next election, and every single GOP person running for office supports that and will probably do the same because they don't think it's a serious issue. That is what I know.
I will vote against any GOP running in any race, regardless of who is running against them. The GOP has proven that they do not have the capability to represent honest, ethical people. They are only qualified to represent greedy and/or ignorant people who look at fake bravado and lies, and blatant election cheating and call that "good."
OMG, great reflective opinion that unfortunately is so true. I appreciate the tie into the Access Hollywood Tape. You have given all of us a great line to confront the trump cult.
These United States may not be a declared autocracy (a klepto-plutocracy really), as democracy sounds more palatable, but Trump's cruel misrule caused the public to lose a most precious asset, 'trust' in our democratic institutions. All this abuse of power, and corruption, has been Trump's hallmark all his life. And given that he lies whenever he opens his mouth, he may not be able to tell fact from fiction anymore... although the truth may be spelled as an 'honest mistake' sometimes (a rarity). As to why a self-declared racist, misogynist, and xenophobe (and full-time demagogue, and cruel to no measure), was elected president, shall remain a mystery...unless you entertain that the power-hungry 'McConnells' made it possible...so not to lose their miserable seats in government (in spite of them claiming to despise it). That republicans gave Trump a pass (again and again) in spite of his proven criminality, is nothing less than despicable. In sum, Trump's trampling on the rule of law, and the constitution, happens because he can. And he can because of the extraordinary support from his minions...with complete lack of moral courage.
My brothers are Trump supporters. One is well to do and all he seems to care about is money and business. He sees the economy as the marker for our country's well being. Everything starts there. I am guessing that other Trump supporters like him for other reasons: he's more like they are, he speaks like they do, his sense of humor is closer to theirs, he supports an issue that is important to them. I try to think what if our president supported an issue I deeply cared about but was a moronic rude corrupt person. Would I still support him or her. I don't know for sure. But I do know that having this type of person as the leader of our country is deeply troubling for me and I have a very hard time understanding how people can ignore his many shortcomings (which is a very understated word in this case.)
In 1983, my staunchly Catholic parents wouldn't let me play with a neighbor kid because (gasp!) his parents were divorced. He came from a "broken home," and thus, needed to be properly ostracized.
The same parents, who have spent their retirement years glued to Fox News, now support Donald Trump regardless of what he says and does. They don't forgive the behavior, because there's nothing to forgive.
They are single-issue Pro-Life voters. In that framework, I at least understand the mentality of voting Republican. But now that Trump has nominated two extremely conservative activist Supreme Court justices, what remains?
Justifying the boorish behavior, the legally questionable ethics, the racism, the lies, separating immigrant families, the budget deficit, alienating NATO allies, cozying up to Russian dictator Putin...I'm not capable of understanding it. There is literally nothing he could do that would turn them against him. In fact, if he came out as Pro-Choice, at this point I think they would still find a way to back him.
It's insane. Fox News is crack cocaine for old people.
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Although Trump is the most egregious example, he is not the only one. With enough wealth and/or power, there are no cultural penalties for treating citizens as serfs to be used.
Chris Christie's penalty for Bridgegate and his pompous use of public beaches for personal pleasure? A nice cushy gig on TV as a commentator, treated with all the respect he does not deserve.
Election day is Nov 3.
Inauguration day is Jan 20.
If Trump loses - he will still be president for 79 days after the election.
The most powerful man in the world.
A sociopathic-narcissist - devoid of any human values, integrity or decency.
Are we to believe he will benignly relinquish the most powerful position the world has ever known ?
Am I the only one who fears what destruction he might incite
People who abuse power do not willingly relinquish it.
Power without compassion is the worst kind of evil there is.
Correction David: As of the Senate vote regarding witnesses, we became an autocracy. That was the end point of a process that one might say started with the election of Reagan, but could be traced further back through Scaife and Mellon to Henry Regnery.
The real breakthrough was with Limbaugh, Gingrich and Ailes in the mid-90s. The train kept a rollin' with Dick Cheney and his ill-equipped boss - elected, let us not forget, based on some "equal protection" or "safe harbor" mumbo-jumbo. There were no major investigations of the Iraq march to war.
Obama became the anti-christ and the 2010 Tea Party revolution led to GOP gerrymandering of the highest order.
Throw in a Citizen's United and Shelby County vs Holder, Russian interference and social media cluelessness (complicity?), a populace dislocated from the global economy and what do we have: the full set-up for autocracy, as so skillfully engineered by our own John C Calhoun, Mitch McConnell.
In the streets, on the page, on the phone, registering, canvassing, protesting - we have to go all-in to bring back democracy. Autocracy is here.
This is the primary problem I have with trump supporters. They are either colossally poor judges of character or they just don't care. Either way they are complicit in the coarsening of our society and race to the bottom.
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Dems need to get out and VOTE to save our democracy, preferably for someone other than Bernie.
Trump goes by his nerve, A chutzpah. He has been beating law these years. He is 75 years old now. If he does not win next election, he will end up with his former attorney Michael Cohen. We all know where and what for in that place.
Trump is the best of the best in his category, there is no better - look at the entire GOP (other than Mitt Romney) that are lost from their own paralysis. He does what he does simply because of institutionalised corruption. Its amazing to see women screaming for Trump in his rallies - seems they all wanted to be within reach of his hands! So much for American hypocrisy and ignorance on the part of the ordinary and sinister intent of the influential power brokers.
The question we need to ask ourselves as a country is not why President Trump does what he does, but what’s motivating the voters who enable him? The Republican Senators live in fear of his tweets because of his sway over his base. Who are this “base”? They approve of children taken from parents at the border. What’s next? Immigrants living peacefully in our midst put in large holding camps? Orders to close down CNN and MSNBC? Requiring all Muslims to wear identity badges? I would not be surprised if his voters yell “lock them up” when he shouts out the names of his political rivals. We need to ask ourselves who are we? What does America stand for? I am not so sure anymore. And this is all happening in good economy with no real existential threats! Donald Trump is a symptom not the disease.
Because the GOP Congress, the GOP voters, do not believe in the Rule of Law.
This all makes sense, as trump is a clear psychopath, who is arrested at about the age of 15 in terms of his moral and emotional development. We know that the highest criminal propensity comes in the teen years, so what we are stuck with here is a perpetual delinquent. The question is, how many republicans also fit this description? Or perhaps they are more the overly permissive parents, letting junior get away with whatever he wants.
Spot on. As repellent as Trump is, the real destroyers of our democracy are the Republicans, led by McConnel, who have the power stop him.
Assuming we avoid becoming a dictatorship, history forever condemn them for their craven decisions.
Mr. Leonhardt hits this nail right on the head - a succinct and accurate summation.
It is the combination of a malignant, amoral, entitled President and a thoroughly corrupt anti-democracy Republican Party that makes the Trump phenomenon possible.
Neither alone could do such catastrophic damage to our government and country.
In November, 2020, enough outraged citizens of the United States must scream: "No, Donald. You can't."
Mr. Leanhardt:
Trump has been "winning" all his life by doing what he does.
At no time in Trump's life has any of the sleezy, illegal, nasty, underhanded, disgusting behavior openly displayed by him done anything but bring him rewards.
So, since the "system" rewarded him for his behavior, he increases and amplifies those behaviors with time.
Simple.
Same reason a mouse learns a maze.
Trump gets rewarded for some paths, and, not rewarded for others. Then, upon being rewarded, he re-uses those paths and gets rewarded again.
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Our revolution was fought to avoid this.
How far our nation has fallen.
Dear Republicans,
What kind of parents are you? How do you raise your children?
If your children behave badly, do you just sweep it under the rug, with no consequences or discipline? And excuse it as, Junior will be Junior. Because that's what it looks like you are doing with Mr. Trump.
So much for the "Party of Family Values." So much for the "Party of Personal Responsibility."
Your man-child, Mr. Trump, is now emboldened to escalate his bad behavior to even more ridiculous levels. He will claim "total exoneration." Look what he did on July 25, 2019, the day after Robert Mueller testified to Congress. He made the call to Zelensky, and upped the ante to the next level of corruption. After you vote to acquit him on impeachment, he will ramp it up to an even higher level.
I will repeat. How do you raise your children?
God help us all.
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It's the Democratic Party and the media who have changed. And not for the good.
The Democratic nominees or lead candidates are people who enriched their foundation or family with a billion dollars from foreigners. The DNC starts a two year long bogus probe of Trump by criminal means. And then they want to impeach Trump for defending himself. Democratic leaders feel entitles to spy on Trump, way worse than Nixon. When they happen to take the House, all they plot from day one is how to take down the President.
And all of these end up in face plants.
The media is totally biased, they get Pulitzers for great reports of the inexistent Trump collusion with Russia. And Trump nominates a new press secretary. Who gives no more press conferences.
Another face plant.
Looking forward to the next five years...
"(A)lthough the United States is not an autocracy...." Ha! Have courage here to speak the truth! The President behaves as described, money rules, votes are suppressed and gerrymandered, most of the nation opposes this terrible turn in our government: We ARE an autocracy, and need to fight back while we still can!
“He did nothing wrong” = "I didn't do it"
“There was no quid prod quo” = "Nobody saw me"
“There were no witnesses" = "You can't prove anything"
This is the Bart Simpson defense. In the end you arrive at, "I did it, everyone saw me, it has been proven, but it's OK if I do it."
This would be laughable if the Senate were not filled with Republican sycophants who continue to do ANYTHING to hold onto power as they lick the boots of the tyrant.
It's all grotesque. The only thing that could hold anything back is the fact that Trump did not rise to power through politics.
He has nobody loyal to him. The minute anyone gets what they want, they abandon him.
and write a book.
This is why we have courts, to defend ourselves against tyrants like Donald Trump.
Trump does what he wants because we Democrats let him get away with it. Trump has rarely been shamed publicly no matter what he does. When Trump was booed at the World Series last October, that was a bold demonstration of unity. Why doesn't that happen more? One of the ways you bring a bully down is to humiliate him publicly.
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He does what he does because he has no ethics or morals.
And the GOP has bought in to his corruption and madness.
Together they have sold our country down the river.
This just about sums it up. Get ready for that shooting victim on Fifth Avenue. Trump doesn’t need to care about the smoking gun.
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