By Donald A. Collins | 9 January 2021
Church and State
First let me say that a message needs strongly made about what happened on January 6th.
Secondly, while what happened was terrible, this historic occurrence was sadly required to bring more Americans to the realization of what Trump caused with his conduct.
Had Trump left before Wednesday’s example his call to Georgia’s Atty General demanding him to “find the votes” to overturn Biden’s November 3rd win might have been forgotten by too many and as was blatantly disregarded and used for political gain by Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley.
Please don’t give me that lame excuse that we are out of time for action now so why bother!!
If the GOP wants to go the way of the WHIGS in the 1850 lead up to the Civil War, let them resist Trump’s total censure!
The Washington Post lead editorial reflected my view of the events of Jan 6th but I went also to the Saturday January 9, 2021 Wall Street Journal op ed section and found its leading editorialist Peggy Noonan in agreement.
You can read the Post’s lead here.
Pence and the Cabinet must prepare themselves to act, if the president retreats from his latest promise to go quietly, the Editorial Board writes https://t.co/qNHWj4ukvu
— Washington Post Opinions (@PostOpinions) January 9, 2021
Noonan’s final paragraph:
Again, on the president: There have been leaders before who, facing imminent downfall, decide to tear everything down with them. They want to go out surrounded by flames. Hitler, at the end, wanted to blow up Germany, its buildings and bridges. His people had let him down. Now he hated them. They must suffer.
I have resisted Nazi comparisons for five years, for the most part easily. But that is like what is happening here, the same kind of spirit, as the president departs, as he angrily channel-surfs in his bunker.
He is a bad man and not a stable one and he is dangerous. America is not safe in his hands.
It is not too late. Removal of the president would be the prudent move, not the wild one. Get rid of him. Now.
You can read Noonan’s entire piece here.
THIS is a MUST READ!
Bring the Insurrectionists to Justice – WSJ https://t.co/VoCW3uqc7P— Michael Keaton (@MichaelKeaton) January 9, 2021
This vicious man’s dangerous tenure must not pass without strong action which the House’s expected impeachment of Trump next Wednesday the 13th would be.
That a senate conviction is not likely before Jan 20th need not keep conviction from not happening after he leaves office when control shifts to the Democrats.
One reason this might not happen is a huge and justifiable Republican fear of Trump’s causing the GOP such huge and permanent embarrassment which can’t be avoided anyway.
We must make a mark here for the future!
And also fix with future rules the outrageous pardons and the worst outcome which would be Trump’s likely pardoning of himself!
These few days and beyond offer urgent opportunities to make points for future improvements.
Biden will be wise to concentrate on setting up his administration and focusing on stemming the raging pandemic which Trump has ignored.
But the absence of an impeachment, as I suggested in an earlier op ed would underline Trump’s history over 4 years of his utter disrespect for our laws which finally culminated his continuous urging his fanatic followers to do a coup despite no proof of any fraud!
What happened last Wednesday made clear his attempt at a seditious coup.
This was a mob trying to take steps which were urged by the President of the United States amidst our worsening ongoing pandemic.
Trump stopped being President long ago and became like a would-be Mussolini or a mafia mob boss.
I listened with particular interest when General John Kelly, former Trump Chief of Staff, phoned Jake Tepper of CNN the day after the Capitol invasion on January 6th.
In a very enlightening interview, Kelly said Trump had become a laughingstock and that he is isolated probably without much power in The White House.
Trump's fmr. chief of staff John Kelly says he would vote to remove the President from office. He believes the Cabinet should meet to discuss invoking the 25th Amendment.
“What happened on Capitol Hill yesterday is a direct result of his poisoning the minds of people with" lies. pic.twitter.com/urvgArmniF
— CNN (@CNN) January 7, 2021
Afterwards that day calls for Trump’s ouster escalated as images of the invasion escalated.
Guess, whether ouster happens or not, who got really embarrassed? Everyone particularly Congress.
If the House of Representatives does impeach him, one motivating factor, likely very unstated, will be the institutional embarrassment.
A major motivator of everyone’s embarrassment has to be the reactions of the international community and the mass media here that finally piqued action not the high and mighty ethics that long since should have ousted this despicable demagogue.
Perhaps no Congressional action will be quick enough before Trump pardons himself!
The chances before to get rid of Trump were many but the big money got happy with his endless obeisance to their interests while he snookered the mostly white poor into believing he was their champion even claiming on January 6th he would March with them to the Capitol.
Then when great adverse reactions to the January 6th Capitol invasion became evident (after Trump saying he loved those he had exhorted to do the invasion), he flip flopped on his beloved invaders and issued a peaceful transfer of power statement claiming (an utter lie) that he had summoned the National Guard as the terrorists got into the Capitol!
Trump probably won’t be ousted but regardless there will be no small measure of embarrassment about the clear dereliction of duty on both sides of the aisle (although clearly much more Republican) that brought those thinly veiled hoots of derision from international observers.
Putin had the best laugh of all of course!
Yes, thank goodness our constitutional democracy prevails.
Let’s hope Trump will get his due stamp of disapproval but be sure to understand that for all the other reasons to ouster him there is yet one likely unspoken major reason—institutional embarrassment.
And that embarrassment came like a thunder clap when in one day evident that many nations of the world were laughing not only at Trump but at the Congress which had tolerated his outrageous behavior too long.
Can they act now???
Former US Navy officer, banker and venture capitalist, Donald A. Collins, a free lance writer living in Washington, DC., has spent over 40 years working for women’s reproductive health as a board member and/or officer of numerous family planning organizations including Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Guttmacher Institute, Family Health International and Ipas. Yale under graduate, NYU MBA. He is the author of From the Dissident Left: A Collection of Essays 2004-2013.
From the Dissident Left: A Collection of Essays 2004-2013
By Donald A. Collins
Publisher: Church and State Press (July 30, 2014)
ASIN: B00MA40TVE
Kindle Store
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