The President You Deserve

It remains quite puzzling to me how in the space of over 40 years, the public has become so bloated with luxury and idleness as to shirk its own obligation and remain so thoroughly helpless in light of a clearly lawless and corrupt president.

At the outset, only 20 percent of the public supported impeaching Richard Nixon. In the course of hearings, that eventually rose to over 50 percent. Right now? While I make it a point not to even write this person’s accursed name, support for impeaching Trump is currently at 37 percent. Nearly twenty points above Nixon. But yet, there is no action whatsoever. We all know that the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, keeps throwing cold water on impeachment. Why? Who the hell really knows? Because Democrats are so routinely horrible about marketing, the message from her and Dems in the House is muddled and ineffectual. (In other words, it’s business as usual for the Democratic Party.)

So my question is: where are the Women’s March participants? Why has no one organized a massive protest on the National Mall? The goal isn’t necessarily to make the active shitter in the White House immediately resign, but to send the clearest of messages that the lawlessness, corruption and incompetence can no longer continue. Or, “be sustainable” if you prefer that nice phrase.

But the public, which has consistently disapproved of this lawless wretch, can’t get motivated enough to send a message to either party in the manner of something like Great Ape-Snake War. Oh sure, the public is fresh off patting itself on the back for participating in a climate “strike,” but what about the current, in-your-face crisis? Not a soul in sight.

The blue wave of 2018 was in large part a demand for accounting, but this has just remained a slogan and not a path of action. And while representatives like Adam Schiff or Jerry Nadler keep droning on about “we will conduct oversight, we will hold them accountable,” even I wouldn’t take that as a serious threat. After all, wasn’t corrupt Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin “threatened” with action for his refusal to carry out the law and hand over his master’s taxes? Is he languishing in a little jail cell in the House, penning his memoirs? Nope, he’s on the Sunday talk shows defending the Creep. He clearly isn’t frightened with whatever it is that Jerry Nadler keeps bleating on about. And neither is anyone else.

It’s really the public’s response that has been most alarming and depressing for me. No one can be bothered to step into the breach created by an out of control Executive Branch and the relative inaction of Congress. Democrats and Democratic supporters keep looking for a single person to do all the heavy lifting: first it was Robert Mueller, then it was supposed to be the 2018 elections, then Nancy Pelosi, and now it’s been pushed off to a 2020 blue wave. Some are of the opinion that impeachment in the House will mean certain acquittal in the Senate, so why bother? It’s football season. Apple has new products coming out. There are shows to binge watch on Netflix. We are a luxury-addled society, addicted to ease, comfort and outsourcing. A nation that routinely says, “don’t tread on me” is letting itself get tread upon by an individual who is an uncomfortable reflection of its own corruption and laziness. “Someone should really do something” is the public’s new mantra, as eyes drift back to phones, satisfied with the notion that social media postings are the equivalent of standing in front of a column of tanks in Tiananmen Square.

This president is the one this society deserves.