Trump and his followers giving middle finger to the nation

Is dereliction of duty by a president an impeachable offense? Wouldn’t any one of us be fired if his job performance were sub-standard? When a person swears a solemn oath to "preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States," is that small talk or does it legally compel him to act in certain ways? With the possible exception of North Korea, America’s greatest threat is the Russian interference in our presidential elections. Donald Trump’s highest duty is to make sure that such acts of aggression are never repeated. But rather than issuing denunciations and warnings and ordering studies and investigations, Trump has ignored or brushed aside the certainty of all 17 intelligence agencies in favor of Putin’s denials. Apparently the U.S. House of Representatives agrees, as shown by their 419 to 3 vote to tighten the Russian sanctions and deny Trump the ability to ease them.

Trump’s unwavering affection for a nation that despises us is off the scale. His respect for Putin, by all accounts a serial killer, is so strong he shares classified information with Russians in the oval office. Is there possibly a scent of self-interest – stronger by far than his concern for the nation’s safety – that could help explain such perversity? “Follow the money” is a good guide to answering that question. And that’s what Robert Mueller is doing.

America is founded on a single dominant principle: laws are more important than any individual. Trump has shown little respect for that principle. An American nuclear attack, something Trump’s actions towards North Korea and Iran indicates he favors, would be devastating. Abandoning the rule of law, however, would be fatal. Having shown almost no regard for people not named Trump, his only display of diligence has been in his repeated efforts at discrediting courts and undermining Congress, the free press, vital federal agencies like the State Department and the EPA, and all people in a lower economic status than his own. Without a fully functioning government and the institutions charged with keeping it that way, democracy will founder. Is that what our president wants? Is that what his ill-informed base wants?

Because they are otherwise unable to express themselves, by now the middle fingers of his followers must be paralyzed from repetitive motion. The man who conned them into thinking he might do something to ease their plight has shown his inability and unwillingness to do so. And so, for the obscenely wealthy, let the party begin. Trump’s new tax “reform” bill will take more money out of the pockets of his base while falsely claiming that it will adversely affect those in the economic stratosphere. If they forced themselves to read, they could learn in minutes that that is not the case. It was never intended to be the case. Winning, in his mind, means denying health care to tens of millions of Americans, some number of whom will die prematurely from his actions. Our only small consolation is that he and his criminal empire are going with us. Let the impeachment begin.

This story was originally published October 1, 2017 at 4:33 PM with the headline "Trump and his followers giving middle finger to the nation."