“There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success. . . .
In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.”John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath, 1939
John Steinbeck was writing about crushing dismay at watching food be destroyed in the midst of hungry people. The offense that something good, the product of America' fertile land, was being destroyed when it was needed. The crime beyond denunciation was cruelty of loss to so many for the benefit of so few. For Steinbeck, it was food in front of hungry people. For us it is the lingering memory of a great country based on the rule of law, one fought and died for, one that aspired to be an uncorrupted, democratic city on the hill and an example to the world, now openly, shockingly corrupted by a president.
Donald Trump has finally, finally, gone too far.
There is a context, of course. Gasoline prices, the war with Iran, midnight posts, the conflicts of interest with his family businesses, the crypto sales, the tariffs, the prosecutions of political opponents, the purges within the GOP. Those all add up, but they were not the final straw of total capitulation to corruption. There is a one-two punch, coming together.
The ballroom is the physical manifestation of the craziness, the golden palace, Nero fiddling while Rome burned. It triggers every image of "let them eat cake" cluelessness of the wealthy and powerful, of grandiloquent third-world dictatorships with phony medals of grandeur, of French kings, Scrooge McDuck, the Simpsons' Montgomery Burns, of Captain Queeg, of Captain Ahab, of mad kings.
The final straw though is the utter corruption of the Justice Department enabling a theft of public money for a secret slush fund that allows Trump to pay off his friends and allies in whatever way he wants. And, more amazing yet, a statement from the Justice Department and IRS never to question, investigate, or audit Trump, the Trump family, or Trump's political friends. What a deal.
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| Even the Wall Street Journal admits that it stinks of corruption. |
By today readers would have learned the mechanism for this open theft. Trump makes a ridiculous legal claim against the Internal Revenue Service for an action an employee took while Trump himself was president. Trump-the-person sues Trump's own government. Trump's own compliant Attorney General makes a settlement with Trump for $1.776 billion dollars, for use any way Trump's appointees, serving at Trump's pleasure, wants, specifically including rewards and payoffs to people who participated in Trump's attempted coup. Trump's commission can pay people who give him campaign contributions. It can pay people to "find" 11,000 votes or to refuse to certify elections that a Democrat wins.
Even Republicans who live in fear of Trump endorsing a primary opponent see the corruption here. By corrupting the Justice Department -- bad enough on its own -- Trump gets to help himself to free money from the Treasury, and he does it openly. He can, so he does.
This is what the Republican party officeholders and candidates have to swallow and defend. Candidates face a dilemma. Defend it and admit total capitulation to corruption or oppose it and face the wrath of Trump and his MAGA base.
Chris Beck, who handily won the Democratic primary election for Oregon's 2nd congressional district has been offered an enormous gift. Republican incumbent Cliff Bentz mumbles in inobtrusive but consistent support of Trump. He does as Trump directs. Will he oppose Trump's open theft of $1.776 billion? Is there any act of corruption that would cause Bentz to speak up?
Republican members of Congress exist in relative obscurity and get re-elected in red districts by inertia of party loyalty. But sometimes an issue breaks through. Fifty-two years ago Watergate created a blue wave. Thirty-two years ago Hillary Clinton's health proposal, along with the House Bank overdrafts, created a red wave. This is bigger, far worse, and visible. Trump is stealing from us. And it comes on top of the shiny gold ballroom.
This could be a wave year when Democrats get elected in red districts.
[Note: I make a request of Republican readers. Write a guest post defending Trump's deal with his Justice Department. Explain why is is good, reasonable, and not corrupt. I may well publish it.]
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4 comments:
Can Trump really go too far for Republicans? He decided that he could help himself to almost $2 billion taxpayer dollars and we haven’t heard much in the way of protest from Republicans, except perhaps for a few leaving Congress. With a psychopath as its Supreme Leader, the GOP has become just like him.
I don’t think republicans care, they have already sold their soul. It’s up to the rest of us to save the day as republicans are beyond redemption.
Corruption vs woke. A very bad choice. As Henry Kissinger once said about the Iran/Iraq war, “it’s a shame they can’t both lose.”
This may be one of those rare times in American history when the two party system dissolves and reconfigures into one or two different parties. There might even be a new party that I would resonate with. 🤞
"For us it is the lingering memory of a great country...."
Hopefully our ever-patriotic Democrats will win the opportunity to make America great again.
But seriously, Trump as an Idi Amin is pretty funny. Both are would-be kings of Scotland, too.
Let's pray he doesn''t revert into the Billy Mumy character in the old Twilight Zone episode.
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