The picture that Michael Cohen painted of Donald Trump two days ago offered nothing new. Timothy Egan writes:
The character sketch of Donald Trump by the keeper of his secrets was no surprise to anyone who has given a passing glance at the hulk of malevolence in the Oval Office. He cheats. He defrauds. He lies by way of respiration.
He thinks his son is an idiot, and that only suckers served in Vietnam. He believes blacks are incapable of governing. He acts like a gangster. He stiffs contractors and pays off porn stars. We knew all of that. Getting it under oath from a man who was once executive vice president and special counsel to Trump just gave historians a formality for the obvious.
But as disturbing as that picture was, what was truly troubling was the picture of the Republican Party its representatives unashamedly displayed:
Did one Republican stand up and decry Cohen’s litany of presidential lies? They blasted Cohen the liar, but not the man he lied for. Did one Republican decry the $35,000 check — proof, as Cohen said, that “The president of the United States thus wrote a personal check for the payment of hush money as part of a criminal scheme to violate campaign finance laws”?
It’s been clear, ever since the last of the never-Trumpers were rooted out of the party, that the G.O.P. would be an extension of the grime and grift of Trump’s personal brand. But now the enablers are willing to do what Cohen said he once did for Trump — take a bullet for him.
Republicans who started down this road by making excuses for Trump’s most repulsive personal traits have moved on to bedrock principles. The party of deficit hawks didn’t blink at the billion-dollar hole in the budget that came with the tax cut, so long as it gave Trump a “win.” They were fine with a president who sided with Vladimir Putin in a traitorous exchange in Helsinki. And Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has fashioned himself as an institutional guardian of the Constitution, threw that document in a dumpster after he backed Trump’s brazen violation of the separation of powers.
The Party Of Lincoln is, like the man in the White House, a fraud. But it's more than that. It's a cesspool.
Image: Vox
6 comments:
.. cesspool .. its an apt analogy .. I use the similar 'septic tank' a lot.. its usually underground - buried but connected. What's stunning " shocking is how brazenly they now just shit in public and on the public, and its constant.. (apologies re the blunt language, but no time now for niceties)
As a Canadian, I explain I am also a North American. I now see.. no surprise, but still shocking.. that Donald Trump and his GOP ensblers are history's greatest enablers of pollution & the trashing of Environment, Species, Habitat. Stephen Harper and Justin Trudeau's corresponding Canadian outrageous activity pale before Trump et al. We may undo or somewhat remediate Canada in a generation or two. But Trump can ruin in just four years, what may take a century to recover from.. if at all.
The rest is covered elequently in your post thanks ..
Trump is a shocking example, sal, of just how much damage one man can do.
Some challenges encountered in mergers of organizations are unique to crime families. Dedication to the guiding ethos always survives despite those challenges and, because of them, is often enhanced.
Ronald Reagan’s personal and political sainthood will continue to be observed. We might even be ready now to add a Bush or two.
They know this game and they own the rules committee. None of these guys will die with their boots on.
Trump in 2040.
Your last sentence could be prescient, John. Cohen fears that Trump will not go away peacefully.
Trump is a shocking example, sal, of just how much damage one man can do.
Did you forget your own post so quickly? Trump is not doing this alone. If they wanted to, even the defection of just a few Republicans in the Senate would be enough to sink pretty much anything he tried to do. A few have spoken like they opposed him, and even voted that way once or twice over the last couple of years, but like the Cohen hearing showed, they are for the most part quite happy to go to bat for him. Think of it this way, in what substantive way would any other Republican president differ from Trump in regards to policy preferences? Would they be more protective of the environment? Less likely to push for tax cuts for the wealthiest? Best I can come up with is that they would probably be less fawning to foreign strongmen, and possibly less publicly racist, which isn’t nothing, I grant, but their domestic priorities would likely be the same. The party is the cesspool, Trump is just what floated to the top. Skimming him off the top doesn’t actually solve the problem (though I would still like to see it done).
An excellent point, B.J. Trump can only do what he's doing with the help of his enablers. He is, as you write, "what floats to the top."
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