Some George Stephanopoulos fans have accused me of attacking him without reason. Indulge me for a moment.
This week On This Week, George asked Barbara Comstock, a lawyer and former Republican Congresswoman about the feasibility of the approach the Democrats are taking in their pre-impeachment process by not seeking a resolution to impeach. Comstock began her statement with an accusation that Adam Schiff lied about the whistleblower but never spelled out what, if anything, Schiff lied about.
George, instead of immediately calling her on it just went ahead with his prepared list of questions. Stop George! Think about what’s being said on a program that bears your name. Don’t let those who are speaking just lie indiscriminately. Make them be specific.
In a subsequent interview George continually asked two questions of Chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, Hakim Jefferies. The first was; why hasn’t the House voted on a resolution to impeach? Jefferies told him that such a cosmetic resolution is not required so why bother. George went on to point out that it had been done in every other impeachment. “Every other?” We’re talking here about two! If George doesn’t understand that, he’s being paid way above his intelligence grade.
Then Jefferies pointed out that a publically revealed majority of the House had already made it clear that they favored impeachment and that this is simply a GOP smoke screen, being fanned by George himself because what’s at question here is not the Democrat’s impeachment methods but the Presidents highly impeachable actions as exemplified by his attempt to bribe or extort the President of a foreign nation to commit to a dubious action for his own political benefit.
Jefferies then went on to expressly specify the charges, leaving no room for doubt about what the criminal in the White House has done and what’s important. That should have ended it but George’s producer had allocated more time to Jefferies so George, bereft of any other possible questions, went back to, “So why not vote?” Asked and answered!
Finally George got to his second question; Why not release the House’s version of the transcript of the phone conversation between Trump and Zelensky? We’ll let’s see. Maybe because the White House was dumb enough to release a version of that conversation that all but convicted the President without any help. I mean, who looks a gift horse in the mouth? The White House version is so bad that no marginally functional human being could see it as anything but prima facie evidence of Trump’s guilt.
Of course after it was released someone showed it to a lawyer and the shit hit the fan. Now every Republican in Washington is trying to walk it back.
Just to help them along George had Jim Jordan as his next guest. This is a guy so dumb he almost killed the GOP position in his last interview but maybe George is destined to help him look almost intelligent on this one.
Jordan is a pervert’s friend who has already been involved in a huge scandal at Ohio State when he was a coach there. Papa Joe Paterno, the great sports icon, was ripped from his 50 year long position for doing pretty much what Jordan did; knowing about a pervert operating at a school and not reporting it. Paterno was run off in disgrace. Jordan was punished by electing him to the House.
So when George asks Jordan if he approves of Trump’s asking China to investigate Biden, Jordan goes off on a senseless riff about Trump not really believing what he said and that the whole thing was a joke. Really Jim? When, in anyone’s experience, has Donald Trump exhibited and kind of a sense of humor? This guy may think sobbing children are funny but only when it benefits him. Jordan is the one for whom the sobriquet, “dumb jock,” was coined.
I say that because he immediately goes on another riff about Biden’s son, while seeming to have no concept of the fact that everything of which he accuses Hunter Biden, is doubly true of Trump’s pair of worthless progeny, Eric and Don Jr. and that they have the added distinction of loving to kill endangered animals just for the fun of it. What kind of degenerate scum kills animals for fun? Oh, I know. The Trump kind!
But it’s unfortunately obvious that despite Jordan being a low-grade moron, George is just unable to corner him and either force him into answering a simple question or show that he is a liar.
Of course then Chuck Todd had to have GOP Senator Ron Johnson on Meet the Press just to prove he’s being fair. So he asks Johnson a simple question referring to a comment Johnson made about him wincing when the news of the whistleblower came out. Instead of answering the question Johnson goes on a blubbering rant about Trump being upset about an investigation that didn’t happen in 2016. That was three years ago. All Todd had to do was point out that Trump has been President for those three years and he had the power to start such an investigation if he really wanted the answer but he didn’t, because it would only stir up old crap about him getting elected because of the Russians and he hates that idea. It would have instantly shut Johnson up.
Then Johnson, like every brain dead Republican, brings Hillary Clinton into the discussion. Can’t these assholes process the fact that she isn’t running, hasn’t run for three years. Yes, they all hate Hillary because she actually got 3 million more votes than their unfairly elected clown but attacking her now is just not rational.
Johnson indisputably proves one thing. Neither he, nor any of his fellow travelers have anything even approaching a truthful defense of the criminal in the White House. They know he’s a crook and that he’s guilty of the current accusations but they have tied their political futures to him, not their constituents, and they are more than willing to sell out those that voted for them just to curry favor with the criminal they are lying for
All of the above being what it is, the big question about the impeachment comes down to; do you believe what you see with your own eyes and hear with your own ears or do you believe Donald Trump? Listening to those that back Trump one gets the sense that they don’t care what he has done. They have chosen him and they are going to go down with him. This, despite the reality that he has done absolutely nothing but support the super rich and big corporations during his three years in office.
The base voted for Trump because they felt that everyone who preceded him had stabbed them in the back. They voted for him, understanding that he was a racist, a bigot, a misogynist and probably a sociopath but they were desperate for anyone who said he would help them and Trump told them he would. He’s still, telling them that he is that man. What Trump hasn’t done is deliver. He has done nothing for them and he never will because the only one that Trump is trying to help is Donald Trump. He cares nothing for anyone else, even those that support him. He is proving it this week by trying to take the heat off himself by throwing everyone within reach under the bus. He made the phone call in question but this week he has accused Mike Pence, John Bolton, Mike Pompeo, Rudy Giuliani and even Rick Perry; everyone but the Pope, of being the ones who led him astray. Rick Perry? Trump wants us to believe that the dumbest guy ever elected governor of Texas (that’s on Texas) was able to lead him into this mess? Where does that leave Trump in the intelligence department?
But the base isn’t about to abandon him. He is their last chance after all the other guys they voted for did nothing for them. It’s like admitting that you are the dumbest one in the room. Somehow, you just can’t bring yourself to do it. So they will follow him over the cliff. Will this, as my wife fears, cause fighting in the streets. I hope not but who knows?
The answer is that Trump must be defeated in the next election, not impeached and kicked out in an impeachment trial. The impeachment is just to show that you can’t act like a criminal and get away with it even if you are President. The election is where the great reckoning occurs. And yes, I think that there are still enough intelligent people in this country to recognize what Trump has wrought and who want to rid the country of him.
That’s when the big job will occur. When Trump is gone, the Democrats will have to deliver. When the Democrats have power they will have to show the nation that they know how to exercise that power for the benefit of the people. Then and only then, will there be any movement away from the awful split that we now see in this nation.
Look, people will always disagree but they don’t have to disagree the way we do now. There doesn’t have to be the didactic division that keeps us from agreeing on anything, just because someone from the other side said it. We should disagree to create discussion because it’s through discussion that we work out the fine points of any program, but we don’t have to try to kill each other over every tiny disagreement the way we do now.
The Democrats have many egregious faults but it’s my belief that the GOP is responsible for the major rift in this country because at some point in the last 40 or so years they decided that their salaries were more important than their mission and that it was okay to lie to the people and sell them out if it helped them keep their jobs.
I think that once Trump is out of office and the Republican congressmen no longer have him to lean on him for support, the party will either coalesce or come apart completely. That doesn’t mean that we will be left with only one party. I think we need two parties and maybe more but t does mean that it will fall to the Democrats to fix this nation and show that there is a group of politicians who understand that their job is to provide a good life for those who have voted for them and even for those who didn’t.
The Republican base will not change itself any more than the Democratic base will change itself. Trump’s base must be shown that there is a better way, using people of integrity, who have the good of the masses as their goal. If the Democrats can achieve the improvement of all the people’s lives, they will break the division that now exists and we will have a chance to move forward as one country. Sure we will always have disagreements but then, even at the heart of those disagreements we will understand that we are all Americans and that we are trying to get to the same place from different directions. That is not what is happening now.