By Donald A. Collins | 18 June 2022
Church and State
The history of Watergate as related by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein in their famous books showed the GOP leadership had the spine and the morality to call Nixon to account. When conservative icon Senator Barry Goldwater told Nixon he would vote to indict him along with most of his GOP Senate colleagues, Nixon resigned the next day!
Remember those books, “All the President’s Men” and “The Final Days”? On CNN with Jake Tapper Friday June 17th, the two authors recalled their days at that time, particularly going at his invitation to Barry Goldwater’s apartment where over glasses of scotch, Goldwater showed them his diary and told them how he and a couple of colleagues had visited Nixon and given him the above news. The two now have a new anniversary book just out on Watergate.
Sadly, and sharply the present GOP has neither Goldwater’s spine, but more importantly their morality and the frightening vision of what Trump had cajoled too many of them to do: To bring to disgrace our fragile democracy by trying to prevent with a coup the transfer of the 2020 election to Biden.
Trump’s slogan “Stop The Steal” which we now know Trump knew was a lie, didn’t keep Trump and his aides from raising a quarter billion dollars from his hapless supporters.
Read about that here.
Trump’s Sleight of Hand: Shouting Fraud, Pocketing Donors’ Cash for Future https://t.co/8q0TCU0OEz
— Jill Wine-Banks (@JillWineBanks) February 2, 2021
Trump’s unique and felonious attack on our democracy has never occurred before in our history and its consequences need to be fixed with vigor and, yes, morality!
As recession seems certain with gas prices and inflation rising to historic levels, some of the public may think the non-governing, no vision GOP offers a respite or viable choice in the midterms.
In fact, some of the public now think the House January 6th Hearings are bogus despite the predominance of testimony in the first sessions coming from prominent Republicans such as Ben Ginsberg who handled George Bush case for President over Democrat Al Gore in 200.
Read Ginsberg’s bio here.
Republican lawyer Ben Ginsberg, on Judy Woodruff’s June 13 WETA evening news, expressed his concern that Trump’s pattern was a main way to dismantle our democracy.
Some voters don’t believe the House Committee’s findings; read here.
NEW: The Jan. 6 panel's hearings have not only failed to persuade these swing state Republicans, it has them moving in the opposite direction: hardening partisan views, spawning more conspiracies and deepening fealty toward Trump.
Me & @abedelman https://t.co/8yORmz6cMY
— Natasha Korecki (@natashakorecki) June 17, 2022
And Trump’s reaction calls the Committee’s presentations a hoax; read here.
Senior Reporter @stockard_sam reports in after former President Donald Trump tells a crowd at @GaylordOpryland during the @FaithandFreedom "Road to Majority: conference. Trump called the Jan, 6 hearings a "hoax."https://t.co/IA8emYfcnJ
— Tennessee Lookout (@TNLookout) June 17, 2022
In addition to Trump’s false characterizations, the above article articulates the kind of evidence that is too factual to be ignored:
The congressional panel obtained emails from John Eastman, an outside attorney for Trump who came up with a plan in which he wanted Pence to commit a “minor violation” and substitute fake electors who would back Trump for legitimate electors from the states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
The committee replayed comments Pence made to the Federalist Society in which he said, “President Trump is wrong” and that he had no right to overturn the election.
It is hard to come to any other conclusion after watching the first three sessions of the House January 6th hearings.
But after the third House January 6th hearings the evidence gets even more convincing. As Judge shaming Carter exclaimed “This was a coup in search of a legal theory” and Judge Luttig a noted conservative said he was more worried about the future that repetition of another coup in 2024 could well bring down our democracy.
You can read about these Federal judges, Carter a Democrat, Luttig a conservative Republican here and here:
Before this week, Judge David Carter was known as an unconventional, action-oriented federal judge and an advocate for California's homeless population — or for helming the Anna Nicole Smith lawsuit https://t.co/rb06tJjpJ4
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) March 29, 2022
Politicians are routinely targeted with all kinds of criticisms about their competence and integrity, but to say that a leader represents "a threat to democracy" is … different. https://t.co/VUyzljINwt
— Steve Benen (@stevebenen) June 17, 2022
Other attacks on our democracy include Trump’s characterization and action against our crucial institutions. This philandering racist non-believer who came out against abortion choice so with then Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell could block Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court.
This unethical act enabled Trump in his 4-year term to nominate 3 anti-choice Justices who likely will ignore their stated reverence for precedence (Stare decisis) expressed in their nomination hearings. In short, they took their cue from that serial master liar Trump. Being a confidence man takes talent:
Con artists are a special breed of predator.
Jan. 6 hearings reveal how easily millions of Christians were conned – and why they won’t stop believing in Trump https://t.co/qr1n1OF6w1 via @ChurchAndStateN— Church and State (@ChurchAndStateN) June 18, 2022
His 2 impeachment Presidency was confirmed his successful destruction of Congressional integrity as the Senate failed to convict him of high crimes and misdemeanors while both GOP Senators and his GOP doxies in the House continuously failed to call him out for his lying.
His GOP has embarked on a campaign to restrict voting rights and abortion choice in many states ahead of what almost assuredly will be the Supreme Court’s killing of Roe by upholding the Mississippi case limiting abortions after 15 weeks.
As Justice Sotomayor opined about the reputational damage the “stench” of such a decision would cause. I have compared it to earlier Supreme Court gaffes as the 1857 Dred Scott and the 1896 separate but equal decisions but neither of these meant putting women’s health and human rights in jeopardy.
The spineless people he elevated to electability while encouraging violence and hatred by claiming to make America great again! MAGA now can be seen as killing established institutions with false accusations that as Ben Ginsberg noted could bring down our republic.
Can the GOP wipe off its slime ball behavior as the 2022 midterms and the next Presidential election? Killing Mike Pence was not a joke: read here.
Analysis: Trump put Pence in more danger than we knew https://t.co/sskxyHGUDS
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) June 16, 2022
I seriously doubt it with people like Cruz, McCarthy, and McConnell in key leadership positions.
Will enough Americans dismiss the horror of Trump’s influence and the cooperative immortality of so many of his colleagues to give this felon more chances to destroy our democracy?
How about the GOP getting a ticket of honorable candidates such as Mitt Romney and Liz Chaney?? I could never vote for either of them but at least they believe in our Constitution.
Former US Navy officer, banker and venture capitalist, Donald A. Collins, a free lance writer living in Washington, DC, has spent over 50 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”, “Trump Becoming Macbeth: Will our democracy survive?”, “We Humans Overwhelm Our Earth: 11 or 2 Billion by 2100?”, “What Can Be Done Now to Save Habitable Life on Planet Earth?: Leaders Commit to Reduce Human Population” and “Vote”.“What Can Be Done Now to Save Habitable Life on Planet Earth?”: https://t.co/fHuh0CG6JD
“We Humans Overwhelm Our Earth: 11 or 2 Billion by 2100?”: https://t.co/TA4j7cp1tE
“From the Dissident Left: A Collection of Essays 2004-2013”: https://t.co/lkC2t3E1A9 pic.twitter.com/bQsL2mLBcO— Church and State (@ChurchAndStateN) November 1, 2021
Bernstein: Trump is ‘first seditious President of the United States’
Michael Cohen: ‘Trump Is The Greatest Grifter In The History Of The United States’
Ben Ginsberg: Trump’s Pressure On Pence More ‘Unprecedented’ Than ‘What We Saw In Watergate’
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