Do the Right Thing

Do the Right Thing
It has been 76 days since Nancy Pelosi announced the House of Representatives’ investigation into an impeachment inquiry. We have had 76 days of action that basically has taken the form of Democrats unearthing countless facts that support the claims that Trump abused his authority, that he coerced and bribed President Zelinsky of Ukraine, and that he has continuously obstructed Congress in its efforts to get to the bottom of what has gone on in the overall foreign affairs of the United States.
The issues are far more complex because of the abundant and random actions of this strange and unconventional Presidency. Everything about Trump has been about bucking convention. He pushes back on every norm that he encounters as president. He likes being a maverick and he seems to thrive on controversy. None of that is surprising for those of us who have observed the Trump antics over the years. There was some thought that he might finally be cowed by the gravitas of the office and might operate more conventionally, but that was either short-lived or simply not to be. It is more surprising the strength of his support in both his base and the Republican electorate altogether.
As of this morning, the Speaker of the House and the Committee Chairmen of all the major committees of the House have announced and declared their articles of impeachment (since voted to propose them to the full House). Not surprisingly, they are 1) abuse of power, and 2) obstruction of Congress. It is being decried as a sham and an abuse of Congressional authority by Democrats. This is a stunning split-screen that represents the divide in our nation. The vehemence and dug-in positions of both sides is stark and surrealistic. This is so very much for any of us to digest. The best idea I have heard yet is that there be a motion in the Senate to hold a blind ballot on impeachment. That would only take a simple majority, so a vote by fifty-one senators. With forty-seven Democrats, that would require at least three (the Vice President cannot break a tie on issues of impeachment) and preferably four Republicans to stand up and be counted as preferring a blind ballot that will leave legislators the freedom to vote their conscience rather than worry about the publicity with their electorate, the reprisal of reactionaries, and the direct and immediate rebuke by Donald Trump. This does not insure that sixty-seven senators would vote to impeach Trump, but there is at least a shot that in the heart of hearts of many of these educated men and women that they would see the national wisdom of being done with the Trump presidency. Who knows where this will get us, but at least it is a shot at some justice.
I think that the disbelief that Republicans can really think the way they do and not see the damage that Trump is doing to our country is what leads me to value this blind vote option. It certainly is possible that more people really do believe in Trump’s innocence or in the dastardliness of the Democrats, I would just like some clear evidence that is more reliable than what comes out of their mouths on TV and what gets publicly attributed to them. I feel that we are being held ransom by the basest part of our society and that everyone is running scared of them. If this is not the case and so many people really do feel that Trump is getting a raw deal, I need to reevaluate my thinking. I mentioned previously that I have a dear friend who I respect a great deal and she has come to the conclusion that while she dislikes Trump, he is getting railroaded. I shake my head at that, but I cannot ignore the possibility that I am looking at this the wrong way.
It may be time to wonder where the lines are in the continuum of right and wrong. This is a difficult ethical conundrum at best. If there is one thing we know about ethics, it is that it is both relative and situational. The clearest evidence that Trump is at least arbitrary in his standards of right and wrong are the way he has reacted to Climate Change and the way he has reacted to white supremacy. I do not believe there is much grey about either issue and yet he has come down in the opposite and in the ambivalent territory on these. What that says to me is that Trump is either prone to being in the wrong or, more likely, simply doesn’t care about right and wrong if it is inconvenient to his pursuit of the moment. Being a wrong-minded ideologue is scary, but being someone devoid of concern about righteousness is somehow scarier.
Let’s face it, doing the right thing is rarely easy. It usually requires some degree of sacrifice and effort. In fact, that may be a prerequisite of doing the right thing, but then again that may be too evangelical a stance. These days evangelicals are not the highest on my hit parade as everything they stand for seems negotiable in order to allow them to keep their support of Donald Trump on pseudo-righteous ground. I prefer a more fundamental definition of right versus wrong that is most easily displayed in the story of the Good Samaritan. I believe that and the Golden Rule are the standards I use to determine if I am on the right side of most issues. I wonder how Republicans deal with those standards. Probably by ignoring them, deflecting them or just factually misquoting them.
I just now received a call from Max Rose, my Congressman who straddles the line as a conservative Democrat that represents a decidedly purple area of Brooklyn and Staten Island. We spoke for a few minutes and it is clear that he represents a middle ground approach that neither favors Trump nor the far left. It is a pragmatic centrist approach that I am coming to prefer. I don’t prefer it because I am more ideologically wed to it than I am the more radical and progressive views of Warren and Sanders, I prefer it because I believe we need to heal our nation and that the trauma we have endured is simply too great and needs to become less inflamed. This sounds like a compromise to my otherwise ideological bent and it is. I am thinking that the greater good for this country can be best served by healing our divide than by letting the pendulum swing too far in either direction for a while.
Doing the right thing has many solutions attached to it. There is a broad range of ways to do the right thing. I don’t see too many of those coming at us from the Republican side of the aisle as they staunchly defend their man in the high castle. I don’t even see them trying to claim it is the right thing to do, and still they do it. It is pure partisan politics and it fall on the wrong side of the ledger in my view. President Trump admonished President Zelinsky to do the right thing, which is very ironic. It might show us that he really believes in his position, but then again it might just mean that right and wrong are just words to him. I think it’s the latter.