O P I N I O N
The collective response to a certain former president—currently the front-runner for his party’s nomination—being indicted for 91 felonies has now become pedestrian, rote responses from both sides of the political spectrum.
On Monday, Aug. 14, Donald J. Trump was indicted on 13 more felony accounts by the state of Georgia relating to his attempt to overthrow the results of a fair election that he knew he lost. These charges, however, include reconteuring, which is new one for the orange menace.
With each new indictment, the American people engage in another grotesque dance.
Rational people, who accept objective reality and facts and truth, will sigh and shrug and shake their heads and hope that reasonable heads will eventually prevail, and this unhinged sociopath will be stopped at some point on his march to stomp out democracy.
Meanwhile, the high-ranking sycophants in the GOP shield their eyes, terrified of betraying a man who they know is a seditionist, and fall into lock-step behind him and the money. But his cult followers—so angered by “woke culture” and brainwashed by Fox News propaganda that they’re willing to believe his criminal lies—continue to raise their bigoted torches and blame an apocryphal Deep State, spewing Trump’s bile and bullshit without an ounce of evidence to support their claims.
Yet for those of us who believe in the Constitution penned by the Founding Fathers, and the beauty of that document, our only response can be incredulity and despair.
How is it possible that a man who was twice impeached as president, who is currently accused of felonies for inciting an insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, can still be eligible to run for the highest office in the land?
The short answer: James Madison, Thomas Jefferson and John Jay never anticipated that someone indicted on 91 felony charges could ever be considered a viable candidate for the president of our nation.
Certainly, GOP candidates such as Ron DeSantis, Chris Christie and Nikki Haley—among other Republicans—should be challenging President Joe Biden, who many Democrats wish would stand down. Biden is problematic, and voters should hear the GOP candidates’ ideas and plans, and vote accordingly.
But the fact that a man who was found guilty of sexual assault, who then denigrated his victim at a town hall in Manchester; a man who was recorded making obscene remarks about women (“grab them by the p—y”) and is still accused of assaulting scores of other females; a man who continues to flatly lie about an election that he knows he lost and tried muscle his way into changing the results; a man who baited white nationalists to do his biding when he realized that facts were against him; a man who is so sorely ignorant about the Constitution that he believed his vice-president could overturn a legitimate election and anoint him president, the fact that this goon is still a viable candidate speaks to an unprecedented level of ignorance, oblivion and stupidity in the very fiber of this nation.
Meanwhile, those on the right-wing are trying to argue that Hunter Biden’s case is evidence of bias in the Justice Department, which provides a perfect example of a logical fallacy.
Hunter Biden committed a crime that involved drugs and an illegal gun, and he should do jail time. I completely agree. But Donald Trump, who was the President of the United States, tried to overturn a fair election, and when that didn’t work, he coaxed his followers into attempting to violently overthrow the government while he sat back and watched.
It doesn’t take a philosophy major to see this is a false equivalency.
I’m truly astounded that—and I consider myself an independent—we’ve arrived at a place where Donald Trump is an acceptable candidate for anyone with any sense of decency, on any level. I’m truly astounded that people still believe his lies and can’t see through his Huey Long populist speil without knowing that their messiah is a just raving mad, Lear-like lunatic who doesn’t give a shit about any of them.
He wants their votes so he can stay out of jail. He doesn’t love America. He loves Donald Trump.
And I’m truly frightened—and I’m sure many of my journalist friends will agree with what I’m saying here—that if this criminal is re-elected and given another term, you might never be able to read this type of dissent again.
