The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
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    Wherein I'm forced To Admit Only The GOP Can Save Us

    By Ramona on Mon, 02/20/2017 - 11:05am | Politics

     

    So here we are, a month into Donald Trump's wacky version of an American presidency and every day it's something new and nutty. If the actor in this saga weren't actually the president of the United States, this whole thing would be highly entertaining.  A daily heart-pounding serial, picking up where the cliff-hanger from the day before left off--confusing, terrifying, laugh-out-loud--what's going to happen next?

    The hapless Democrats, bless their pure hearts--relatively speaking--can only wring their hands and beg the people with the power to look behind a curtain so obviously transparent it's a mystery why we're the only ones able to see through it.

    Trump ran on a campaign of shaking things up and now he's delivering in the only way he knows how--by remaining on the campaign trail promising to shake things up.  He loves the crowds that love him back. He pouts, he flounces, he sneers, he snarls, he laughs derisively at anyone who casts doubt. He threatens the people of the world. He cares not a whit about diplomacy or protocol. It's not in him to care. He's here to shake things up.

    So last week he tweeted (Note to future historians: when you talk about our first tweeting president, don't hold back), calling certain members of the American press "the enemy of the people".
     

    Well!  Let me tell you! That stirred the dust!  Even more than those times he tweeted about the various intelligence communities' failure to kowtow:
     

     Every day we have to remind ourselves that the tweeter calling himself  @realDonaldTrump isn't a fake, he's actually the guy who won that crazy election and is now the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.  The president of the United States is a plain-out ignorant doofus.

    So now what? Well, now we admit to our own limitations and look to the Republican leaders to get us out of this. At this point they and only they can do it.  But will they?  We're seeing faint signs of insurrection among the GOP elite, but mostly they're all still of a mind to circle the wagons and pretend (a) this isn't happening, (b) their dignity is intact, and (c) their power is absolutely, wonderfully, absolute.

    But, come on, they know better.  Here's the problem: Trump has opened the doors to the candy store and they're the kids rushing inside, grabbing, chewing, swallowing whole before the doors swing shut again.  Too, too delicious.

    With the rise of Trump comes such enormous power for the GOP it would take bigger men than they are to look beyond the goodies to see the horrors ahead.  Only Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham are saying out loud what many of them are thinking: This could go bad.  Real bad.  Don't shut out the messengers. Don't turn off the normal people.  There will come a day when we'll need them.

    The rest of us won't sit back and watch this debacle without a fight, but it'll be a long battle unless the GOP gives up some ground, unless they see what the rest of us so clearly see.  Donald Trump may deliver the goods for them but at what price?  When it's all over, where will the country be?  Will those pounds of flesh, the selling of souls, have been worth it?

    We know the answers. Now we have to convince the impenetrable Republicans that an unwitting "enemy of the people" sits in the ultimate catbird seat and it's up to them to do something about it. 

    I'm wishing us good luck with that.  And Godspeed.

     

    (Cross-posted at Ramona's Voices)

    Topics: 
    Politics

    Comments

    They will not save us, impeachment hearings won't begin until January of 2019.  John McCain, Lindsey Graham, not saviors. They have voted with Trump so far what is it 100%, and only 94% for McCain.  The work is just beginning. It is going to take work to make sure 2018 will be positive for Democrats at all levels of government. Join your local indivisible group to resist. 


    by tmccarthy0 on Mon, 02/20/2017 - 11:33am

    Yes, there is much we can do to show the size and scope of our resistance. Meanwhile, the Republicans can either make sure we get nowhere--which they can do readily--or they can see the handwriting on the wall and work to save the country from every wacky thing Trump comes up with. In the end no matter what WE do, the fall of Trump is up to them.


    by Ramona on Mon, 02/20/2017 - 11:49am

    Our winter began November 18th.

    This week we hit the 40's & even 50.

    The roads are clear and most alleys passable although paths are still icy.

    It will rain today.

    Later this week we will be back in the low 20's.

    I had the flu since Wednesday. Sicker than a dog. Stayed in bed.

    Sunday I woke up a little dizzy but then as the day progressed I felt all this energy.

    One cannot appreciate Spring without a terrible winter.

    One cannot appreciate health without some illness.

    One cannot really appreciate a feast without some previous fasting.

    One cannot appreciate relative peace without some war.

    One cannot appreciate a bit of progress without experiencing some recession.

    One cannot appreciate a fine orator and a fine thinker and a fine gentleman at the helm of our great country without experiencing a buffoon at that same helm.

    The dems will survive and then revive.

    There certainly were voters in four or five key states who were not pleased with the progress seen under the Obama Administration.

    Critics from the Left did abound.

    Maybe millions of dems will finally see how good things actually were; especially taking into consideration the actions of the repubs in Congress and elsewhere.

    Maybe the voters will wake up in two years? Maybe they will vote the repub bastards out of Congress and state legislatures.

    Maybe we will experience 2006 all over again.

    Who knows?


    by Richard Day on Mon, 02/20/2017 - 1:01pm

    Frederick Douglass knew that his battle was not the end of the war

    Booker T Washington knew there were more battles to fight

    W.E.B. DuBois knew there were ongoing battles

    Martin Luther King Jr. knew more trials would come

    Obama had to show his full form birth certificate 

    The Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act

    Republicans cheered when Obama was humiliated and voting suppression became law. They are not coming to help us. As Trump notes, we are the enemy. Conservatives/ Evangelicals like Michael Medved and Hugh Hewitt warned about the danger of Trump before the election. Now both men talk about Trump as the only hope to save the country from the Liberals. Both men demonize Liberals. The Conservatives are not going to break from Trump if it means e mpowering Liberals.


    by rmrd0000 on Mon, 02/20/2017 - 1:49pm

    Sorry, but republicans in Congress are hedging their bets by using blind eyes and deaf ears when it comes to what Trump does because they see him as the kingpin letting them create legislation to undo all democrat legislation and the social safety net since FDR and the New Deal.

     

    Our only hope is for the shadow elite/deep state to flex their muscle and puts Trump in his place. They're nothing more than federal workers of all ethnic class and political ideologies who work for specific government functions  dasey-chained to one another to provide a smooth transition for the government to function.

     

    Another way of saying it is the shadow elite/deep state is form of an unelected democracy and hold some specific traditions and values that represents the face of the nation and they have subtle power to flex and tweak policy that is more inline with the model of government everyone expects.

     

    They're our only hope to keep Trump at bay until Congress wakes up and start to exercise their constitutional duties and check Trump's excesses.


    by Beetlejuice on Mon, 02/20/2017 - 1:40pm

    Well, I never said they would. I only said they could.


    by Ramona on Mon, 02/20/2017 - 4:06pm

    the word " could " is like the word  " compromise " ...neither can be found in the official republican dictionary.


    by Beetlejuice on Mon, 02/20/2017 - 5:33pm

    Trump is a puppet. Bannon or Kushner, Trump's masters, shove paper in front of him, and he signs it when Bannon or Kushner tell Trump to scratch it. There's a mutual deal between GOPe and Bannon and Kushner: "You take your take; we take our take." Eventually both partner groups will have stolen enough. Their laziness will meet the law of diminishing returns, and then they'll dump Trump like a spent voodoo doll.

    by harsh reality (not verified) on Sat, 02/25/2017 - 3:43am

    The relationship between the repubs and donald is part simbiotic, part parasitic, and it will continue as is for as long as it works for them. If this Russia thing ever gets to the point where they just CAN'T ignore it anymore, maybe things will change. 

    The resistance seems to be having some small victories. We need to keep up the pressure, even as we collapse from the mental exhaustion.

    I don't remember a time in my life when I wake up every. single. morning. wondering what our asshole leader has done to mess up the world. I feel like I'm going to barf 24/7.


    by stillidealistic on Sun, 03/05/2017 - 12:14am