PAY ATTENTION.

(Not gonna be my most clever or eloquent, but feels urgent to post something. I woke up like this.)

Pay attention today to what happens in the Senate today.  I believe the actions taken today—the decision whether to allow witnesses in this impeachment trial—has the potential to decide the fate of this Republic.  (I really do hate sounding so dramatic but I don’t know how else to put it.)  I’m sick of the “history will judge this GOP harshly” cluck-clucking.  History is now.  We have to judge them harshly NOW.  We are running out of chances to preserve the republic.

If the Senate will not call witnesses, if the Senate will not conduct a fair impeachment trial, it waives—it denudes itself of—its most critical oversight power: the check on a lawless president.  When Congress has no power—the people have no power.  You and I have no power.  Congress is our voice.  If Congress cannot perform its checks on the executive branch...we no longer have a president as the Constitution defines it.  We have a man above law.  I wouldn’t expect Donald Trump to know Louis XIV’s “l’etat c’est moi”, but he understands and craves the meaning of that sentiment.

A sham trial “exonerating” the president will only embolden him to continue usurping power.  (How is this not crystal clear—I want to bang my head against the wall.)  

Possible implication: Imagine the President loses the electoral college in 2020, but he and his lackeys cry voter fraud.  He refuses the results and will not give up the White House.  Can we rely on Congress to enforce the results of the election?  Would they remove him?  Could they?  It profoundly saddens me that I don’t have that faith.  

[“Claire, you’re crazy, that’s not gonna happen.” Before the 2016 election, he said: “I’ll accept the results—if I win.”  He tells us who he is all the time.  We have to believe him.  If he was willing to challenge election results WITHOUT the power of incumbency, do we really think he wouldn’t do it with his fat ass comfortably on the White House toilet?  Particularly if leaving office surrenders his protection from indictment?]

I don’t understand GOP senators—isn’t this one of those great opportunities of history to do what’s right?  Why is it so hard? I will never understand the individual cowardice.  Why—WHY—would you rather go down in history as a servile imp to team cruel-ignorant-despot-wannabe-and-gobbly-turtle-man than as a LEGITIMATE AMERICAN HERO??

I can understand the collective cowardice however.  I always think back to that GOP post-mortem report after losing to Obama a second time.  They understood that demographics were scheduled to doom the Republican Party as it currently operated, but rather than adapt itself to our norms and institutions, they decided to keep power by burning the whole thing down.

I remember a conversation I had with someone who couldn’t stomach Hillary, who knows deep down that Trump is trash, but is too stubborn to give any ground.  I listed how I saw Trump as a real threat to the Constitution—our very system of government.  He scoffed at me.  “The Republic will survive,” he said.  “Why risk it?” I answered.  

Evil knows it will lose to good in a fair fight, so it works to gain any edge it can through deceit and trickery BEFORE the fight begins in earnest.  It stacks its deck by taking advantage of good’s faith that everything will be alright, of good’s complacency, of good’s fear that maybe it’s too late.  

We must care.  We must pay attention.

This has been your occasionally scheduled freak-out over the decline of our democracy.  Have a nice rest of your day.