The water in the pot is getting hotter, and, even though I realize mine is just one voice in a chorus of us here in this pot, I have to write this brief diary. I’ve dithered on impeachment because I was never sure whether it was the best strategic path to reversing all the damage the current regime has inflicted.
But the First Amendment is under attack from the President himself, and it is the only rational path at this point. Two events in the last few days have completely and utterly convinced me we cannot wait a day longer.
Here are two clear clarion signals that Trump is trying to eliminate the Bill of Rights and is fixated on razing our democracy. First, the Guardian reports on itself:
In a statement, the Guardian US editor, John Mulholland, said: “The president of the United States tonight applauded the assault on an American journalist who works for the Guardian. To celebrate an attack on a journalist who was simply doing his job is an attack on the first amendment by someone who has taken an oath to defend it.”
This is very clearly put: an attack on the first amendment by someone who has taken an oath to defend it.
Second, Digby reads Shane Harris’s Washington Post piece about how the White House is coordinating a story that will avoid implicating Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the cold-blooded murder of Jamal Khashoggi — and puts what is happening very clearly:
I assume that is based upon information from reliable sources. And what it says is truly shocking: the White House is conspiring with the Saudi Government to cover up a murder.
She says it: conspiring with the Saudi Government to cover up a murder.
This administration has now taken on all the undemocratic, sociopathic tendencies of its chief. Never mind the grammar school lessons that there are institutional protections against a unitary executive, never mind disingenuous promises there are “adults in the room,” never mind fables of a Marvel-like hero “Special Counselman” who might one day fly down to save the day, never mind the claims that the balm of a free press will heal us. This is just beyond the pale. Beyond the “high crimes and misdemeanors” pale — there is no higher crime than murder, and no treason greater than violating the most fundamental part of the presidential oath of office.
Suddenly I have no stomach for worrying about the ways in which Mike Pence might be worse, or more effective, than Trump. I have no stomach for worrying about activating GOP voters, or putting into peril a midterm wave. Don’t ask me why Kavanaugh didn’t push me over the edge, or two critical years of ignoring climate change — honestly, I think they got me most of the way here.
While it might seem precious to write a diary about just coming to a position a lot of others have held for a long time, I offer it in case a few people who, like me, were thinking that impeachment should be subject to political calculation, might find it resonates.
The way the temperature has risen this last week — it is obviously time to get out of this predicament.