Good morning.
I’ll admit it, I watched all of them, every bit of the impeachment hearings. I even left the sound on when the republicans “Spoke”, it’s that important. I watched the people in the gallery gasp as evidence of corruption and a flagrant abuse of power by our president and his henchmen came out. I shook my head as republicans stopped defending Trump and started attacking any and all comers if they carried the truth.
I took a sampling of the pundits both during and after those hearings and all that evidence being made public. I watched brows furrow and heard pronouncements of disgust and disbelief fall from concerned lips. It’s been a week now since the committee adjourned and there’s more coming, from what I understand. the Trump Crime Chasm is both wide and deep, I want them to keep investigating and making the case. But what I haven’t seen is anger from Americans.
I’ll admit it, I don’t understand. For me it’s as clear as good glass what’s at stake. Let me attempt to formulate it.
There is a man in power who is saying that he can do anything, to anyone, anything- and no one can do anything to stop him. He has a cabal of people who are pressing this point with him for reasons of their own. To be clear, his theory doesn’t stop at bribing another nation’s president to get dirt on an opponent. If you can do anything you want, you can’t be held accountable for defying election results. You can’t be held responsible if you decide to round up all of your enemies and have them imprisoned. Why, you can’t be held accountable if you decide to send whole ethnic groups to concentration camps to await extermination.
Does that sound preposterous to you? It should to me too but it doesn’t because a person with the power of the United States, foreign and domestic power- who believes he cannot be held to ANY accountability as long as he calls himself president is in office. That should be preposterous and, quite frankly, scary as hell to any thinking American or citizen of Terra, really. But it’s actually true.
Now we come to what I don’t understand. The apparent apathy. Trump’s criminality and his obvious lack of any respect for the rule of law or any person who isn’t one of his “Good people” (that’s code for people who genuflect to Trump no matter what) should have people demanding his ouster.
I do see that a majority wants him to be removed from office, so, at least the people who get polled or respond to polls are seeing what’s going on- but what about the populous in general? What does this guy have to do before you/we are outraged?
What has to happen before you realize that he can and will turn on you, on us, where is your sense of self preservation? I’m trying to avoid being snarky, but it feels like that old Roman maxim of bread and circuses is now more true than ever it was in Rome. We have actual, certifiable, concentration camps on American soil, but Black Friday dominates our attention.
Russia just told us to shut up and sit down, they were more than willing to put nuclear subs off of our coast if we didn’t behave. We have left our allies to die, turned our back on them and then insulted them in an effort to justify the unjustifiable. North Korea keeps slapping us in the face and we are actively working to dismantle NATO- But some mythical war on a holiday is supposed to be all our concern and tanning our rectums all the rage.
I don’t understand. Are we really ready to let this happen because life is just so- complicated? I see protesters in Lebanon on the streets demanding an end to corruption. Because corruption eventually touches everyone, it degrades everyone. I see people in Hong Kong fighting incredibly hard against a HUGE enemy, doggedly determined to keep democracy alive and I am so in awe of those people. Because Democracy and bravery touches everyone, it empowers everyone it touches. Except tyrants and oligarchs. Those people all over the world fighting for democracy and justice bring a tear to my eye as they fight- we were them, once.
I don’t understand and I fear- I fear there really is no bottom. I tell myself that no, that can’t be true. My people are better than that, we are not that vapid, we are not that shallow or cynical and I hope.
Gods I hope.
I hope we get it right.
Kell
This post wandered off from Kell's World...