The GOP Says Quid Pro Quo Isn’t Impeachable

It wasn’t that bad.

Image by Pascvii from Pixabay

For the third time in my lifetime, a President of the United States is being impeached. The first I remember was Nixon, for abuse of power, and obstruction of justice in covering up a crime. The second was Clinton, basically for getting a blowjob and lying about it. Now it’s Donald Trump’s turn, for obstruction of justice and abuse of power, and by the time this is over possibly one hell of a lot more.

With seemingly a mountain of irrefutable evidence against Trump, the Republicans have been unable to produce a reasonable defense of Trump, instead, they have attacked procedural issues. They have prevented some witnesses from testifying and threatened the whistleblower while attacking those witnesses who have testified. Trump followers and lowlifes at Fox News have even attacked an immigrant war hero Purple Heart holder, who gave testimony against Trump, by calling him a traitor and a spy.

As the Republicans have been unable to find any solid ground upon which they can defend Trump they are now saying Trump’s actions, soliciting help from Ukraine to find dirt on his political opponents is not an impeachable offense and are not that bad. They accuse the Democrats of trying to nullify the votes of the American people who elected this poor excuse of a human being.

First of all, Trump lost the popular vote “bigly”. Clinton won the popular vote. Trump was elected by the electoral college, not by a majority of Americans! As far as their view of this unconstitutional act being “not that bad” this is heading down a deep, dangerous and slippery slope. If Trump is not held accountable for these egregious actions and escapes being impeached we, as a democratic society, are doomed.

If this action is not “that bad” then we have a whole new set of standards and values. It won’t be that bad to publically mock handicapped people. It won’t be that bad to vilify people who are immigrants or people of a different races or different religions. It won’t be that bad to physically attack members of the LGBTQ community, solely because they are different. It won’t be that bad to incite violence against any member of our society who we perceive as being different. It’s now not that bad to cage little children because their skin is brown and their parents wanted a better life for them. What’s next?

Trump has been accused of sexually assaulting at least 25 women, including raping an underage teenager, but nothing has been done. Apparently, to the GOP and Trump supporters, this is “not that bad”. Will this type of behavior become commonplace? It seems so, at least for old white men. Trump is strongly supported by the religious right for his stance on abortion, even as they overlook his three wives and many admitted affairs with hookers. Does anyone want to venture a guess as to how many abortions he’s paid for? But I guess that wouldn’t be that bad. It would be bad for you and me, but not that bad for Trump. This does not bode well for women and the progress they have made in securing women’s rights.

The next time any of us receive a subpoena to appear in court we can simply ignore it. Right? The members of Trump’s administration do it, so it can’t be that bad. With Twitter and cable news our children can learn the new American values, as defined by Donald Trump. You can lie about anything and not be held accountable. You can bully anyone who happens to be different from you. You can laugh at and make fun of those who are less fortunate than you. You can blame others for your mistakes and take credit for what others have done. You don’t have to keep your promises and you don’t owe loyalty to your friends, even though they must remain loyal to you.

I do not have much confidence in the Republicans in Congress to do the right thing and keep their oath to uphold and defend the Constitution. They value loyalty to Trump, power, money, and white privilege over preserving our Democracy. They have no balls and are scared shitless that Trump will tweet something mean about them if they dare show an ounce of integrity. I also have lost confidence in my fellow countrymen to vote this psychopath out of office in 2020, thinking he’s “not that bad”. That WILL be bad.

Originally published in Medium