The United States is in crisis. Eugene Robinson writes in today's Washington Post:
The truth can no longer be ignored: Donald Trump is dangerously unfit to be president and could lead the nation to unthinkable disaster.
Retiring Senator Bob Corker says the White House is an "adult daycare centre" and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson says that Trump is a "moron." So what's to be done? Robinson writes:
This crisis isn’t about conservative governance vs. progressive governance. It’s about soundness of mind and judgment.
The Constitution does not offer much of a playbook for the situation we find ourselves in. Impeachment is reserved for “high crimes and misdemeanors” — a phrase that means anything Congress wants it to mean. Assume special counsel Robert S. Mueller III eventually concludes that Trump obstructed justice or even participated in a collusion scheme with the Russians. Would Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) and the Republican majority in the House actually move to impeach the president? Or would they be too fearful of the wrath of the GOP base? Unless the evidence were overwhelming, would there really be enough votes in the Senate to remove Trump from office?
That option doesn't look very likely. There is the 25th Amendment. But that solution was crafted to deal with a physical disability -- like Woodrow Wilson's stroke. There is nothing in the constitution dealing with the president's unsoundness of mind.
For the moment, we can only hope that the adults in the daycare centre can contain Trump. And that the Democrats win back one or both of the Houses of Congress in 2018.
Image: teejaw.com
11 comments:
I think the present situation lays bare the corrupted nature of American political representation, Owen. Political power or principle? I think we both know what will prevail.
And -- like the man himself -- it's insane, Lorne.
Well put, Lorne. That's the nub.
CD
.. some basic rules are reasonably understandable
and will faithfully hold true again, again & again.
In my view, a certain part of Trump ascendancy
is due to all voids tend to be filled..
There was a huge void in the GOP
ie a complete lack of credible candidates
(or said another way, a huge excess of losers)
On the Democratic side, Obama left a huge void
and the complex baggage of Hillary would not allow filling that void
So Donald Trump basically bought his way in
and as is his way sold out & trashed everyone on his way to 'winning'
Meanwhile.. Dems & the US of A are not filling the opposition leadership void
We saw part of this in the hapless & meandering CPC 'leadership' campaign
Thus they have ended up with Andrew Scheer (& somehow not with Michael Chong)
Despite Trump being a snivelling grifter habitual liar, compulsive fabricator
the USA could be stuck with him.. though I think he'll sellout & quit
There's not enough lipstick on the planet to cover him up
and with extreme civil unrest.. even his titter blathering will not be enough
Even if there's no credible replacement, the great faker Pence
will be seen as adequate by the rotted GOP higher ups..
It's interesting speculation to think that Trump could quit, salamander. I'm not sure. I don't know if he knows how to get out when the getting is good.
After reading this I had to pop over to YouTube for a look at Humphrey Bogart's performance as Captain Queeg in the Caine Mutiny. The strawberry scene where the officers are assembled in the wardroom at 1:30 in the morning and Queeg's meltdown at the court martial. Is Trump really that different?
The idea of impeachment or removal under Article 25 perhaps needs to be considered not in the context of political cowardice in the Republican ranks but as a national security crisis. The president has the nuclear launch codes. That arrangement was predicated on the assumption that the president would be mentally sound. It plainly did not contemplate a president with Trump's deficiencies.
As I've said so often, the officials of America's national security and intelligence agencies and its military are sworn to defend the U.S. against threats domestic and foreign. How else could a president Queeg be categorized other than as a domestic threat?
What is truly disturbing, Mound, is that there is no one with the constitutional authority to countermand a launch order from Trump. There's a lot more at stake than strawberries.
Diane Fienstien at age 84 thinks she is the best choice for democracy. Sad fact she will
probably be overwhelmingly re elected. Maybe I should have said orwellianly.
I have more faith in Fienstein, Steve, than I have in Trump.
There are no adults in the republican daycare centre.
There haven’t been any since Goldwater.
Unless the citizens of the U.S.A deal with that fundamental truth, amurka continues on it’s devolution to irrelevance.
We can only hope they devolve as quietly as Atwood’s dystopias have projected, without dragging normal humans with them.
ktron
We can hope that the devolution is relatively painless for the rest of us, ktron. But history has proven that Americans leave a lot of debris in their wake.
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