By Tom Burke
Herald columnist
Chubby Checker asked, in his 1962 hit song “Limbo Rock,” “How looooww can you go?”
The answer, from the 2019 White House, is: “Lower and lower every day.” There seems to be no bottom.
How did we get to such a point?
It started in 2016 when 79,646 voters in three states let themselves be sold a lie — that Donald Trump was going to Make America Great Again — and swung the Electoral College vote his way. (Remember, he lost the popular vote by 3 million.)
And here, today, after those 79,646 MAGA-marks, buying a con man’s con, facilitated the on-going destruction of 243 years of representative democracy; made mockery of the sacrifice of 1.1 million American war dead; empowered an ignorant, self-centered, disturbed, habitual liar; and, so says Robert Mueller, gave Vladimir Putin a vote in the 2016 U.S. election, helping make Trump president.
There is no way to express my consummate disdain for Trump and what he has done to America and the rule of law so dearly bought by generations of sacrifice.
Because of him I have serious doubts how the Republic will stand up to his chaos or if it will succumb to his venality.
I didn’t like Hillary Clinton. I didn’t like her politics; her air of “I’m owed this,” her arrogance, or many of her positions. I didn’t trust her and I didn’t vote for her.
But I didn’t vote for Trump, either.
I saw him as a sham, a liar and a cheat. I saw him as ignorant, greedy, unprincipled and condoning, if not tacitly encouraging, racism. I saw him as uninterested in being “president of (all) the United States” and instead, taking the mantle of a cult-leader or mafia don, pandering to a small base of zealots. I saw him, back in 2016, as the disaster he’s turned out to be.
No, wait, I was wrong in 2016-17. He’s worse than the disaster I imagined. I never imagined he would tell, as president, more than 10,000 lies. Or his “best people” would be proven grifters, liars and thieves.
And last week’s events have only worsened my worst fears.
I did course work at Harvard’s Kennedy School, focusing on ethics and practical governing. I learned about the Constitution and how the delicate balance between the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches of government was designed.
I learned the Framers deliberately built in a tension, a competition if you will, between the branches, so that on one branch would not dominate the other two.
But the Framers assumed good will and honestly in our leaders. They assumed strongly held points of view, advocated by people dedicated to the betterment of the country; not opportunistic con men driven by ego, lust for power, ignorance, narcissism and personal greed.
They never assumed lawlessness would reign in the White House. That complete and utter contempt for long-cherished governmental norms would be embodied in a president, as it has in Trump and his new “stonewalling,” refusing to say anything about everything if simply lying about it doesn’t work.
Trump runs his White House like he ran his business, which is like a Mafia boss runs his crime family. And like a mafioso, he’ll do and say anything to stay in power.
Trump claimed the Mueller report exonerated him of all charges of obstruction of justice.
He lied.
Mueller, in fact, said just the opposite in his report, “If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. Based on the facts and applicable legal standards, we are unable to reach that judgment.”
The President. of the United States. Obstructed Justice. And Donald Trump (and William Barr) lied about it. To you. A bunch.
Now, with so much media attention on the Democratic presidential race it feels the 2020 election is just around the corner. It ain’t. There’s a lot of time for Trump to sink even lower and further split the country politically, socially, and economically.
So it remains to be seen how Congress will deal with a man completely lacking in morals and backed by a cult-like followings in the streets and in the Congress.
He may actually drive Congress to impeachment which, perversely, may be just what he wants, as he believes it will help motivate his base.
Which means he is willing to initiate a Constitutional crisis to save his butt.
It was so much easier back in the good old days, when all we had to deal with was Nixon’s, “I am not a crook;” or Clinton’s “I did not have sex with that woman.”
These days we are faced with a crook who did have sex with that woman (a.k.a. Stormy).
Tom Burke’s email address is t.burke.column@gmail.com.
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