Hitting the Low Note

Hitting the Low Note

This morning, while watching the morning news on MSNBC, Gary and I spoke about the upcoming Second Impeachment trial of Donald Trump and what sort of vote we are likely to see. We have listened to many politicians and pundits alike saying that the outcome of the trial is a foregone conclusion and that Republicans show no ability to set aside partisan thinking and vote the facts and their conscience. People like Cory Booker continue to express optimism (probably wishful thinking) that rational people will consider the evidence and the emotion of the dissertation of events. Gary thinks we will likely see five Republican votes in favor of impeachment (from the usual suspects). I believe we are likely to get closer to ten Republican votes. But unless we had an anonymous vote (which is not procedurally possible) neither outlook would reach the necessary seventeen Republican votes needed for conviction. The reality that is on the table is that while we don’t hear a lot from the social media gagged Mr. Trump, we have heard that he has issued direct and unmistakable threats to any member of the Republican Party that has the audacity to vote against him. He is using the power of the Party and power of the purse to threaten and extort his fellow Republicans into towing the line. My reaction to that was that it was a despicable but not unexpected move by one of the worst human beings of prominence we have seen in modern history. Gary said it better when he said that Trump was yet again hitting the low note, indeed, an even lower note than he may have hit before. He has lost all need to hide his intentions and his unsavory actions. There are few dangers more serious than someone who simply doesn’t care anymore what the majority of people think.

It is amazing that Republicans cannot think past their noses and their next primary challenge and recognize the very bitter end that awaits their Party from this sort of exhortation. The smarter and perhaps less vulnerable Republicans are already positioning themselves for the Armageddon that awaits. The term Armageddon relates to the Book of Revelation, which is part (indeed, the last section) of the New Testament as part of the Book of John in the Bible. It is also called the Apocalypse of John and it is technically a location that is part of the prophecy of where there will be a gathering of armies for a great battle during the end of times. While it may have indicated a physical location (the Capitol?), it is also generally thought to be a representative or philosophical location (the political arena?). The important thing is that it is said to be the final battle. And even in the Islamic religion, Armageddon has its place as the great battle described by The Prophet in the Hadith. The big question is whether the greater battle will be the battle between conservative and progressive forces or the one shaping up within the right wing between the people who want to pursue conservative ideology and those that insist on bowing to the demands for fealty to Trump and the cult of personality he has nurtured. As shocking as I find the demand by Trump for absolute and blind loyalty and the invocation of his leadership place as the head of the Republican Party to wreck havoc on those who do not comply, it is hard not to see the inner strife of our generally reckless rivals as basically useful for the cause of weakening what I would consider the wrong-minder forces of evil. These are forces that repeatedly harm great swaths of the population and the overall economy for what amounts to nothing more than self-serving tax cuts and the dropping of our regulatory pants so that the commercial ruling class can have their way with the patrimony of the people.

As we prepare for the start of the Second Impeachment Trial of Donald Trump, we are being reminded of the events of January 6th and the shock and awe of what message that insurrection brought to us. The message was nothing more substantial than that there are people in our country who somehow feel that the status quo does not serve them and they want to overthrow our norms as a country in what can only be called a revolution. I was a dual major in college in Economics and Government and within Economics it was a sub-major of Development Economics and within Government it was a blend of Third World Government and Modern Revolutions. In fact, my Government Department Advisor wanted me to pursue graduate work in Modern Revolutions based on my work on the Cuban Revolution. Strangely enough, the very things that most revolutionaries despise are the very standards that Donald Trump and his policies put forth and support. The only common ground the revolutionaries and Trump seem to have is that they both see gain in destroying the status quo. The revolutionaries really want what all revolutionaries inevitably want, a structural adjustment to the current economic order that gives them a reset of their opportunities. Trump, however, wants nothing of the sort and only wants the removal of the status quo to give him the pure power to avoid responsibility for all past and future actions and the pure power to have the kleptocracy that he feels he deserves as he wishes it.

It is totally consistent that the revolutionaries felt their only path was insurrection. That’s what makes them revolutionaries. But Trump’s choice of paths is far less strategic, it is purely opportunistic. We all know that Trump has no ideology or any policy plan. Once he sees angry people (a.k.a. Revolutionaries), he finds ways for their anger to serve his purpose. And his purpose is basically anything that puts money, power or feel-good in his pocket. I do not believe it is any more complicated than that. His sponsorship of any of these angry people is a natural outgrowth of his narcissism. His playbook is in the moment and in the past, but distinctly not forward-thinking. The moment takes the form of simple encouragement and enabling anger. The past is even simpler. Anything that supports his cause is good, and anything or anyone that disagrees or is disloyal is to be crushed as soon as possible. Furthermore, even after the fact, Trump finds the need to eradicate any discovered or known enemies in a manner that would make a Mafia Don blush.

These tendencies are hard for fellow Republicans to ignore at some point. Everyone who has supplicated themselves to Donald Trump knows that as empowering as it may feel in the moment, it invariably ends badly with Trump turning against anyone who does not just not disagree with his latest actions (literally whatever they may be), but actually does not stand up and endorse them. That is a lifelong compact few acolytes seem to recognize in advance and even fewer can comply with over time. Trump expects his followers to put themselves in harms way for him. His inability to understand that selflessness in our soldiers (chumps and losers that he thinks they are), he absolutely expects in spades from all his followers. His expectations are too brash to be believable in fiction, but we are forced to accept them in reality at this critical juncture in the final battle. In music, the opposite of a crescendo is a diminuendo. We are on the cusp of watching the Republican Party go out with the whimper of a diminuendo as the sound of Trump hitting the low note reverberates through the Party.