The older I get, the more the signs of aging reveal themselves.
Not a huge surprise or revelation, I know.
In this case, however, I am talking about politics. Or not just politics, because in this case, I feel that some of this has actually nothing to do with my political leanings. It has more to do with recognizing political realities in this country at the moment.
This was the second time that I ran into an article by Jason Miciak (I'm not actively seeking them out, I swear!). And while he and I certainly seem to have some similarities in our political leanings, at least in terms of opposing Trump, it feels nevertheless that we have entirely different understandings of political realities in this country. Miciak seems absolutely sure that Trump is finally going to pay for his blatant corruption and evils. Meanwhile, I am just as convinced that Trump has and will continue to get away with it all. Yes, with everything. He will get away with his role with the Epstein Files, with broken campaign promises, with war crimes, with blatant corruption.
All of it.
I mean, man, I wish that I could share in the enthusiasm and surety which many people have that Donald Trump does not represent the United States. Not really, that he is some sort of aberration. If that argument could ever be made, it certainly can no longer be considered that after he was elected to be the face and the voice of the country twice. It was hard to take seriously all of the people who were absolutely sure that Trump would never be elected in the first place, and hard to take them seriously when they were sure that he would be removed from office well before serving the entire term. It was hard to take them seriously after they assured everyone that he would spend the duration of his days in prison, and impossible to take them seriously when they suggested that January 6th and his 2022 Truth Social post suggesting that parts of the Constitution might need to be suspended would disqualify him. It becomes almost sad to watch them being certain that he will surely lose the 2024 election, and even sadder when they still are certain, despite past history and all of the evidence pointing to the contrary, that Trump is about to be removed from office. Any day now.
Another disturbing fantasy - perhaps because so many people actually believe it - is that Trump is so sick that he has one foot on the death bed. That his decline is obvious to everyone, and maybe Republicans will finally get on board recognizing that reality. Or that they won't have to, because Trump is surely about to expire. Again, he is in the White House, and has a team of medical experts at his beck and call. If anything goes wrong, he has the best possible medical team at his immediate disposal. So even while some friends who I respect engage in this fantasy (let's recognize it for what it is), it feels like another version of what other people are saying. That surely some kind of normality will be restored soon. Surely Trump won't win the presidency. Surely, Trump will be removed from office. Surely, Trump will spend the rest of his days in jail. Surely, Trump's recent medical concerns (he is almost 80, and has bruises on his hands and huge cankles and walks weird and stands funny and has some weird growth on the back of his neck and his mouth appears to be drooping and on and on).
Yeah, sometimes I wish that I could still actually believe all of that, because in some strange way, all of that remains hopeful that the damage that this man is doing to the country with his ridiculous farce of a presidency) will be undone. That the good things which he destroyed will soon be restored back to normal. But I suspect that what we took for granted as normal is now history. It's over.
It makes me feel frankly cynical (and even old) to dismiss all of that hopeful stuff, because it just does not feel real. But I also feel that we need to recognize the reality of the situation. He is the President of the United States.
And I am suspect that anyone else will be occupying his present position anytime soon.
Anyway, I wrote all of this after seeing yet another hopeful article about how Trump's time is finally coming to an end.
Take a look and see if you agree or disagree:
After all of these years of Trump's dominance of the American political scene - there still somehow are the occasional articles from professional news organizations and publications which seem to hint that the old realities that applied before Trump still apply today. The levels of naivete for such nonsense are off the charts. It's difficult to know whether to laugh or to cry. Personally, when I run into articles which seem to promise that the ridiculous - and seemingly endless - levels of immunity to the blatant corruption and scandals which President Trump routinely and, frankly, systematically - gets away with, I tend to roll my eyes and sigh.
By now, we should all know better. It reminds me of all of those people who were absolutely convinced that Trump was most assuredly heading to prison and would spend the rest of his days behind bars. There are still people who believe this.
Most of us, however, can now see more clearly. Seeing him get away with ridiculous scandals and, frankly, outright criminal behavior for years and years - both before and since his political rise - have grown so used to his immunity that we now know that this man will never spend a single minute behind bars. To think otherwise is to indulge in a guilty pleasure. It is to believe that this man has not proven, time and time again, that he is indeed above the law. That he can literally get away with anything, which is why he keeps pushing the envelope.
Because nobody knows that he can get away with anything better than Donald Trump himself. And I would put forward the idea that it is, frankly, both incredibly naive and even dangerous to think this late in the game that Trump will ever be held to account for anything. He most assuredly will not. No accountability for war crimes. No accountability for the Epstein Files. No accountability for the blatant and outrageous examples of blatant corruption which he and his family have clearly been guilty of, and no longer even bother pretending to hide it anymore.
Why bother when you have demonstrated - time and time again - that you are indeed above the law?
Yet, here we go again. Another article determine to show us that Trump's immunity is running out. That accountability and serious ramifications for his abusive actions are coming.
In this recent MSN article by Jason Miciak, he points out all of the apparently dire signs that the Trump presidency is going very badly - gee, you think? - and explains a bit, going into some details:
Only one out of every three Americans approves of Donald Trump's performance, according the latest AP polling — which is relatively meaningless until noting that the same poll last month had him at a 38% approval rating. If you challenged a president to purposefully drop approval by five percentage points, that'd be quite the task — but this administration seems uniquely qualified.
Not going to disagree with any of the points made there. Yes, Trump is hugely unpopular at the moment. And Miciak goes into more specifics as to why, particularly regarding the situation in Iran:
Of course, starting a war for reasons that pass understanding of even Trump's biggest supporters, leading to exploding gas prices and a possible ceasefire that looks like an own goal, goes a long way alone — ironic, since Trump alone started it.
Again, no arguments with anything that he is saying up to this point. Yes, Trump's poll numbers are down. And yes, the Iran war is a huge part of the reason for that. And also, yes, Trump and his administration are the only ones responsible for that, since they neither made the case for war with the American people or foreign allies, nor sought approval from Congress. No grounds to disagree with any of that.
Where I begin to disagree, however, is when he seems to suggest that all of this will seriously matter to Trump and his presidency. That, as the title of the article suggests, the sands of Trump's "scandal immunity" has indeed run out.
What proof is there that this is the case?
Miciak explains his rationale:
But it's all different now. No one is happy, none more upset than the ketchup thrower himself, and that's bad because we've seen what happens when he's furious, and we still had gatekeepers at that point. We have Stephen Miller now as the gate attendant.
Again, no arguments there. Trump clearly is not happy about how unpopular he has become, and how the finger of blame increasingly is directed right at him. However, nobody is suggesting that Trump is happy, or has been happy. In fact, by now we have all seen plenty enough evidence of Trump's rants and childish tantrums to understand that this kind of behavior is not indicative that we are dealing with a man content and at peace with himself or the world. For that matter, it is clear that we are not dealing with a well individual, frankly.
Still, that does not mean that Trump will actually be held to account for any of this. Miciak points out that Trump will finally pay with the upcoming midterms:
A president's party historically gets raked in the midterms. A president who polls in the low 30s gets fertilizer, and not the pellet kind. Trump doesn't like losing elections and has shown a willingness to toss them aside altogether. Our disapproval meets his disapproval. But he has an army.
Exactly, He does have an army. A literal one, of course. Also, he has his secret police. But he also has an "army" of loyal supporters numbering in the tens of millions. Something like seventy million loyal and unquestioning MAGA cult members, to be sure. Plus, he has both chambers of Congress as well as the Supreme Court on his side. And they just won a major decision that will help them do what the Republican party has been doing for decades now: gerrymandering and rigging elections to assure that they continue to "win" regardless of what the polls show, or how unpopular they are.
In short, it is questionable, at best, to think that Trump will actually be held accountable or made to pay for all that he has done. In fact, it is not a sure thing by any stretch that the Republicans will lose the upcoming midterms, or at least lose very badly in a blue tsunami.
And even if they do lose, even if it is lopsided, will it be so lopsided that Democrats, once they would actually get into power, will have enough of a majority to actually remove Trump from office?
Let me give you the short answer: no. No, they will not.
Maybe, at best, they get to impeach Trump again. Like they did already twice during his first term. A term which Trump served from beginning to end, by the way, regardless of his being impeached twice.
In other words, even if the Democrats manage to sweep into power after Republicans have rigged the rules against them, and even if the Democrats manage to impeach Trump, they still very likely will fall short - way short, frankly - of actually removing Trump from office. Which is what should have happened a long, long time ago, frankly. That is what accountability is supposed to be about, and that is how it is supposed to work.
But it is not how it works in this country. It has not worked that way, really, since Watergate. It seems that the scandal which rocked and defined the Nixon presidency also marked the exact point when Americans lost their appetite for holding their leaders accountable. Think about it: since then, Reagan came to be known as the "Teflon President." Then Clinton came to be known as "the real Teflon President." Then George W. Bush had even more scandals, and people felt that he was, in fact, the "real Teflon President."
Yet, they are all lightweights compared with Trump. This president has gotten away with far more than any of those past presidents, and it's not even close. In fact, Trump has gotten away with far more scandals - and far more serious scandals - than any and all of those past presidents combined.
That's the reality which we are facing. That is why I say with full confidence that indeed Trump is above the law.
Don't get me wrong: I'm not happy about it. Far from it. To me, he's destroying the country. Destroying what's left of the good things that we used to have and represent. By all rights, he should have not only been held accountable, but removed from office permanently.
Yet, still he sits in the Oval Office.
And that's the clear and indisputable fact that proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that Trump is indeed above the law, to the detriment of our country and our traditional democratic institutions.
Trump's scandal immunity finally ran out | Opinion Opinion by Jason Miciak • 1d • 4 min read
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-s-scandal-immunity-finally-ran-out-opinion/ar-AA21xiW6?ocid=entnewsntp&pc=U531&cvid=69eb067d14854ce0b2c5026534e4014c&ei=12
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