By Oscar H. Blayton
No person in his or her right mind will deny that America is a thicket of racism, misogyny, entitlement for the wealthy, dishonesty, and a fictitious veneer of meritocracy.
So, it is befitting that we have an occupant in the White House who exemplifies all these things.
Donald Trump clearly displayed his many loathsome traits before being elected to the highest office in the land. He also proved that he had neither the knowledge nor the understanding necessary to competently lead a nuclear power.
The only believable aptitude that his campaign presented to the American electorate was his abiding belief in white supremacy. And he rode that one trick pony all the way to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
After occupying the Oval Office for more than two years, Trump has had his corrupt and illegal practices laid out in more than 400 pages of a government report produced by a team of investigators and lawyers led by Special Counsel, Robert Mueller.
Political pundits have expressed their shock and surprise at the depth of Trump’s immorality. The legion of lies, his schemes to overthrow the rule of law and his constant efforts to obstruct justice were revealed in page after page of Mueller’s report.
But the most surprising thing about this episode of America’s history is not Trump’s immortality, but the sense of surprise – real or pretended – expressed by members of the major media outlets.
When you climb into a pigpen to kiss a hog, you should not be surprised by what winds up on your lips. And many Americans have been French kissing this swine for more than two years.
The question now should not be “How did things come to this?” The answer is clear. We elected a villain to the White House. The question we must now answer is: “How do we rid the American body politic of this cancer?”
Some Democratic leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives are counseling against impeaching Trump. Instead, they call for the American voters to turn him out of office in 2020. Fearful of losing their seats by angering conservatives, these shameful Congress members are asking voters to do the job they were elected to do. Cowering before small but vocal segments of their constituencies, these self-serving politicians are willing, for the sake of their own re-elections, to surrender the public good to the worst elements of our society.
When these politicians make their next predictable pilgrimages to Black churches and neighborhoods seeking what they believe are “guaranteed” Democratic votes, they should be pressed on why they did not see fit to protect the American people and move to impeach No. 45. Every day Trump remains in office is a threat to the well-being of people of color. His policies diminish our quality of life and the tone he sets in the White House gives license to those in America whose hateful, racist inner demons have waited decades for a chance to wreak havoc on their victims.
For months, Robert Mueller was hailed as the hero who had ridden in on his white horse to make everything right in Washington. But his report disappoints by failing to call out Trump’s illegal actions for what they are. Anecdotes in the Mueller Report confirming already well-founded suspicions and widely known violations of law that had been reported in the media for months did little to further inform the public of Trump’s wrongdoings. And in its present form, the report is subject to manipulation by Trump allies to normalize his behavior and anesthetize the American people to the abuse heaped upon us daily by this administration.
Anyone who cannot see an attempted conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russian government is simply choosing not to look. Anyone who is not convinced that Trump clearly obstructed – and attempted to obstruct – justice is choosing to abandon the rule of law.
Trump committed his many crimes in full view of the American public, so the facts laid out in the Mueller report should come as no surprise.
Right-thinking Americans should not allow politicians to be surprised at the contents of the Mueller report. Any politician who expresses such surprise is either too dishonest or too stupid to be returned to office.
Right-thinking Americans should not allow politicians to shirk from legitimate efforts to impeach Donald Trump. If they are too cowardly to weather the turmoil of an impeachment process, they should pack their bags, leave Washington and look for another line of work.
Oscar H. Blayton is a former Marine Corps combat pilot and human rights activist who practices law in Virginia.
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