It is Wednesday, December 18, 2019 and the third President of the United States in the history of our Republic will be impeached by the House of Representatives by the end of the day. While it seems like a major event for many as the media has unending coverage and there were protests in the street, somehow it doesn't seem at all to be anything special in this Presidency. In fact it simply feels like the cliffhanger at the end of a season of a TV drama where the main character has acted badly throughout and the question is will this when he is held accountable. This is in part because it feels like every day for the past 3 years we have had to think about the President of the United States, and not in a good way. I get asked, often, "did the President do anything today?". A question of preparation for perhaps watching an evening news program. We have become programmed to wonder what the person in what is the most powerful seat in the world is doing and hoping that it is for the greater good and not otherwise. Because of this impeachment, a solemn and sober act to remove the leader of the country, is just another event in a string of events around this President.
Just think about this, last week or so the President of the United States was ordered to pay $2 million to charities because he defrauded them prior to his election, he wrote a 6 page rant to Speaker of the House Pelosi full of insults and lies (and spelling errors) on White House Letterhead that looks more like a chain email forwarded without comment, his personal lawyer went on television to tell the world that he in fact helped oust a career anti-corruption ambassador because she was in the way, and of course tweeted 100 times in a single day attacking everyone who cares to question his actions.
Our new normal is to assume the President of the United States will do something outside the bounds of typical behavior for a chief executive and well it is Trump being Trump. That is a problem. You may be happy that he is putting unqualified ideologues on the Federal bench to make it more conservative and less about law, with an economy that continued to grow during his Presidency, at least for many sectors and it may make you feel good that he expresses those dark thoughts you have out loud about minorities and immigrants. But the current environment is not healthy for America, and if you can't see that I understand. A fish does not know it is wet. But I hope people will seriously take a look at what is going on around us. The President has been moving more and more into the role of a tyrant where he no longer believes in the rule of law, the Constitution and the functional norms of our country. When Elizabeth Willing Powel asked Ben Franklin about our new Constitution he answered, "We have a Republic, if we can keep it." A President who doesn't care about American values and norms is a threat to keeping it. This may be a tyrant that you like, but all tyrants eventually find fault with everyone, and when they do I hope we are all here to stand against it.
Just think about this, last week or so the President of the United States was ordered to pay $2 million to charities because he defrauded them prior to his election, he wrote a 6 page rant to Speaker of the House Pelosi full of insults and lies (and spelling errors) on White House Letterhead that looks more like a chain email forwarded without comment, his personal lawyer went on television to tell the world that he in fact helped oust a career anti-corruption ambassador because she was in the way, and of course tweeted 100 times in a single day attacking everyone who cares to question his actions.
Our new normal is to assume the President of the United States will do something outside the bounds of typical behavior for a chief executive and well it is Trump being Trump. That is a problem. You may be happy that he is putting unqualified ideologues on the Federal bench to make it more conservative and less about law, with an economy that continued to grow during his Presidency, at least for many sectors and it may make you feel good that he expresses those dark thoughts you have out loud about minorities and immigrants. But the current environment is not healthy for America, and if you can't see that I understand. A fish does not know it is wet. But I hope people will seriously take a look at what is going on around us. The President has been moving more and more into the role of a tyrant where he no longer believes in the rule of law, the Constitution and the functional norms of our country. When Elizabeth Willing Powel asked Ben Franklin about our new Constitution he answered, "We have a Republic, if we can keep it." A President who doesn't care about American values and norms is a threat to keeping it. This may be a tyrant that you like, but all tyrants eventually find fault with everyone, and when they do I hope we are all here to stand against it.
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