We lost control years ago, when we treated Donald J. Trump as a novelty; a form of entertainment. We gave him a television show rather than a New York State jail cell. We treated him as a legitimate president, when in fact he couldn’t hold any regular job and was clearly failing in his elected office. And now we have passed a terrible tipping point into fascism, and there’s probably no coming back.
This is madness. Has a president ever defended an individual charged with murder before?
I was expecting to write a post about how this was the new worst Trump August. And it objectively was. It began with his empty threat to sue Nevada from going forward with mail-in ballots. It continued with his open extortion attempt from Microsoft, should they purchase TikTok (they probably won’t). It continued with his dangerous description of the massive ammonium nitrate explosion, which virtually destroyed Beirut as an intentional “attack.” He said it at least twice. And we’ve already forgotten how he acted while his last surviving brother, Robert Trump, died at Cornell Medical Center. His surviving sisters, Maryanne (age 83) and Elizabeth (age 78) got a preview of how Donald will treat their deaths. Trump waited until a Friday evening to visit his dying brother, some 20-24 hours before he expired, and told the press simply, “He’s having a hard time.” While his brother expired, he played golf. This man is a sociopath.
The middle of August was comparatively calm and normal for a month under Trump - until he incited right wing violence both before and during the RNC, resulting in two men being murdered by a 17 year-old right wing gang member. And the month ended, at long last, with his unhinged presser and a badly edited interview with Laura Ingram, who tried to rescue him several times in an interview that would probably cost any non-elected official his job.
We have lost control. We can’t remove this man from office, even though it would save lives and stop our Republic from bleeding profusely. Removing Trump from office now is a logical action to take. Waiting for an election, watching him narrowly lose, and then waiting for him to leave the White House is not going to work. He will declare victory as the polls close on November 3. He will refuse to accept the results. And he will refuse to leave, which will trigger more violence in our streets.
We should be treating Trump as a clear and present danger, to be removed today. Respecting the democratic process is noble, sure. But this is no time for normality. We have lost control. And we are still losing over 1,000 Americans every day to COVID-19. This period in our history is dire. And it might be the end of this Republic.