The Only Way Back from Political Rock Bottom in Helsinki
Trump cannot be allowed to backtrack his statements. We must send the GOP a clear and unequivocal message that our country and laws transcend Party.
“We will take America without firing a shot. We do not have to invade the U.S. We will destroy you from within.” ~ Nikita Krushchev, Former Premier of the Soviet Union, 11/18/1956
What happened in Helsinki, Finland on Monday will go down in infamy. But it was hardly unexpected. And while political pundits across the aisle continue to lament and dissect the shock and horror of witnessing a sitting president of the United States betray his country on a world stage in spectacular fashion — seemingly fulfilling a prophesy purportedly made by Krushchev— we cannot afford the luxury of political paralysis.
If America is to rise from political rock bottom in Helsinki, we must act. Indeed, this is what must — must — prevail: Resistance. Nationwide. On such a seismic scale that it precipitates impeachment proceedings to remove the squatter now resident in the Oval Office. A traitor cannot legitimately remain president — and that is what Trump became on Monday.
GOP representatives in Congress are not subjects of Trump, the king. Therefore, we must send them a clear and unequivocal message that our country and laws transcend Party. Trump’s time is up — as is theirs — to do the right thing. We can no longer wait for November to change the “balance of power”. The power has always been ours. It is We, the People who have become lax.
That Donald Trump disgraced himself on Monday, disgraced the office of the POTUS, disgraced our free press, disgraced our national intelligence agencies and officers, disgraced his fellow countrymen, disgraced those who have served in the military to preserve our freedoms, and disgraced our allies to align himself with — and show clear allegiance to — a known enemy of the state is not surprising to anyone who heard his campaign messages before the 2016 presidential election.
Surely, not one tittle of his Helsinki pronouncements was news to anyone who had heard Trump publicly solicit Putin’s assistance to gain advantage over Hillary Clinton. It was not news to anyone who recognized from the get-go that his shocking, reprehensible — even criminal — personal and corporate behavior with clear conflicts of financial interest and ethics was against the best interests of America. It was not news to those who saw through the thinly-veiled veneer to his chock full of nutty, extreme beliefs and tactics to “divide and conquer” America. It was not news to those who have suffered bodily and emotional harm from cult-like zealots, riled up by his nationalistic, misogynistic, and xenophobic dog whistles to the underbelly of America. It was not news to those who may not have seen a fascist tyrant rise on American soil but who heard the voices of history, channeled enough to comprehend how fascist dictators abroad rose to wreak havoc and devastation and genocide across their lands.
More importantly, it was not news to the GOP. They have been repeatedly called out for their complicity in providing cover for Trump’s ineptitude and innumerable transgressions, even from within their own ranks. Unprecedented numbers of House Republicans are leaving Congress in droves. Yet, kangaroo court proceedings, far beneath the dignity of the United States Congress, have become the new normal under their leadership, as have the kinds of fascist behaviors seen, prior, only in the “banana republics” of distant lands. The GOP have become masters in distracting an ignorant public from the moral turpitude that enables the continued charade that they have anything resembling an appropriate leader at their helm.
Trump’s antics have long passed “high crimes and misdemeanors” for those who already know what they are looking at — a self-serving, sniveling, narcissistic miscreant who sold his soul to Russia a long time ago.
“Facts are stubborn things,” America’s Founding Father John Adams once said. “And whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”
Indeed, facts are why Trump cannot now be allowed to correct his latest “mistake.” What took place in Helsinki was no error in judgment. Trump did not misspeak, as he now claims. What he said there is consistent with what he has reiterated time and again since his election: Russia is innocent of meddling in our elections. There was no collusion between Russia and his campaign. The FBI and our national intelligence agencies cannot be trusted with such findings. And as he rattled off again in Helsinki, the Russian investigation being conducted by the FBI and national intelligence agencies — many of which are headed by his own appointees — is a witch hunt.
Trump is a proven pathological liar. If there is jurisdiction, Special Counsel Robert Mueller must go so far as to subpoena the interpreters who facilitated the private meeting between Trump and Putin held prior to Monday’s press conference — a meeting to which no other witnesses were allowed.
The powder keg that erupted in Helsinki was merely a manifestation of all that has gone before. It was the public airing of America’s dirty laundry by our highest official, arrogantly uninterested in accurately representing the United States of America. It was the public confirmation of a self-serving enemy within our highest office, one who chose to remain in the pocket of an enemy he may well need to secure his next election rather than distance him with steadfast words about the acts of war perpetrated against the country he leads.
“The definition of insanity,” Albert Einstein declared, “is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.” Therefore, the only thing left to determine is whether we are collectively insane. Are we going to allow ourselves to be played, yet again, by someone “untethered to truth” or his pied pipers of Babylon?
I say, no. We can no longer wait for November to oust this treachery from our midst.
Congress must begin impeachment proceedings, and begin them now. Otherwise, we must demonstrate resistance on a national level — clear and unambiguous and loud. Whatever happens is typically what we allow. Therefore, if the GOP cannot summon its own self respect, we must reflect our own — now.
FURTHER CALL TO ACTION: Please call the House Judiciary Committee 202–225–3951. They are the body that can start the impeachment process for this sham of a president. Press 2 to speak with a staff member. We must make our voices heard. Please do this every day until we are heard.
Original Article
© 2018 Donna Kassin. All rights reserved.
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