I needed a reality
check, last night, so I tried it out at dinner last night on Mr. Fernández:
“General Flynn called up the Russian ambassador and told him
not to worry about the sanctions: Trump would take care of them. But Trump
didn’t know a thing about the call, much less approve of it.”
Mr. Fernández just gave me a look.
I told you I needed a reality check, and that’s part of the
story. But it’s more than that. I needed the answer to the question: why did we
cede our government so easily, and so quickly?
Trump did what Trump does: he got the deal done. He’s been
doing it ever since he first moved into Manhattan. Then, decades ago, the city
was crumbling, the infrastructure was destroyed, crime was rampant, and the tax
base eroded. So when Trump wanted to buy the Commodore Hotel, the city was more
than happy.
I read about it in the book Trump Revealed; the details
of the scheme escape me, but the essence is this. Trump had little money,
and no history of doing a deal of that scope. Nonetheless, he was able to trick
the city of New York into thinking he had financing (he sent them some papers,
but they were unsigned), and also into giving him a 40-year tax break. Trump
claimed that nobody else would have done the deal; in fact, several other
developers did similar projects, without the gravy thrown in.
Trump, in short, is the grown if not matured version of the
bully / show-off that you hated in junior high school. I get that, though I
don’t like it.
What don’t I get?
I don’t get why everybody went along with it.
I tried to believe that the Republicans didn’t go along with
it. In a sane world, having virtually every ex-president say that Trump was
going to be a complete disaster….well, shouldn’t that carry some weight? And
then came one outrage after another. Trump wouldn’t release his tax returns? We
had just started to get upset, when he told us: not paying taxes meant he was
smart.
It went on and on. He admitted he groped women, and then
threatened to sue The New York Times. Finally, somebody acted like a grownup,
and put him in his spot: the Times wasn’t defaming him, it was confirming his
statements.
So then Trump sewed up the nomination, but surely the men
(sorry, but there it is…men) in charge would prevent so disastrous a
candidate from being chosen, right?
In fact, the convention was deeply disturbing. People who
know Hillary are said to like her very much. But even if you don’t know her or
don’t like her, can anything excuse the vitriol against her in the convention?
Lock her up????
Where was the convention held—Caracas? (Apologies to my
Venezuelan friends….)
Nothing had been normal for a long time. Did it start when
Obama was first elected, and then refused to enact his program? Remember all
that time ago? Remember him trying to be the great conciliator, bring everybody
to the table? Getting everybody who could be gotten onto the same page?
Remember what a bust that was?
They vilified the man, and would he respond? No—he kept on
being calm and reasonable, and that drove them more nuts. So he produced his
birth certificate and went on doing his best. Which wasn’t bad: the BBC reported
that two polls had found that 60% of the public approved of Obama by the end of
his term.
But the Republicans had the taste of blood in their mouth,
and nowhere was it more evident than in their declaration that they would not
replace the seat that Justice Scalia left vacant.
This was unprecedented. And did it matter how much the left
howled? No, because who cared? The base of the Republican Party no longer
responded to what The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN was saying. And
worse, the Supreme Court itself did absolutely nothing. Did any of them speak
out, to defend their institution? No, they were as mute as mules, with the one
exception of….
Yup—Thomas got it.
So the Supreme Court snoozed away while its integrity got
torn to shreds. Which meant and means that now we have no Supreme Court,
because anything less than a unanimous decision is going to be suspect. And
what, by the way, will happen if Trump decides to challenge the Ninth Circuit
of Appeals’ decision on the illegality of Trump’s immigration ban? How will the
Republicans react to a 4-4 decision, should it come to that? Then, the appeals
court will be upheld—and how is that going to play? A constitutional crisis?
So the last six months have been a long, drawn-out and
endless replay of that moment when, sitting frozen behind the steering wheel,
you see the semi jump lanes and bear down on you.
It was unreal: the CIA, the FBI and everybody else and his
brother said it. The Russians had interfered with the elections. And did
anything Trump do or say indicate that they had not? Could anything be more
blatant than Trump’s statements and actions? Or did we need to hear, “steal our
vote!” shouted repeatedly at the convention, the way we heard, “lock her up!”?
So now it was that some sore losers—in fact the majority of
voters—couldn’t get over the fact that the opponent won. And nobody said the
obvious: this was a tainted election. The Russians screwed around with the most
element of our democracy. We have to investigate, correct the situation, and do
the election over. And right, this time.
This is what happens in junior high school, right?
But wait—it wasn’t just that Trump may or may not have been
elected legitimately! In fact, Trump was conducting business before he
had been sworn in! And so I sat around, one morning, and wondered: how could a
president-elect summon every last ambassador home? Oh, and did any one of them
say, “hey, you’re not my boss yet?” And where, dammit, was the boss?
Because it’s time, Obama, to shoot a little of the spleen over at you.
It was, in fact, perhaps the most appalling sight of the
whole election: Obama receiving Trump in the White House, Michelle serving tea
(or whatever) to Melania. And what, by the way, was most shameful? This week,
The New York Times had to chastise a female reporter who said, privately at a
dinner, that Melania was a “hooker.”
Remember that old adage? If the question, “is she a lady”
has to be asked, then you already have the answer? Sorry, but after you pose
nude and handcuffed in a private jet for GQ
magazine…well, the question of whether you’re a hooker or not becomes
almost moot.
In short—absolutely everybody stood by and watched a sick
fraud assume the presidency of the country through a fraudulent election.
So here we are. We are busy trying to wonder, as Bernie
Sanders said on Facebook this morning, what the president knew, and when.
Know what?
I don’t give a flying eff what the “president” knew or when.
I do give that eff about the fact that for the first time in my life, I had to
watch somebody steal the election. And I had to watch us all watch him, while
we did nothing.
It’s a little hard to imagine where this is going, but does
anybody imagine that it’s good? And the Republicans—what are they going to do
about this train wreck? Paul Ryan, of Janesville, Wisconsin? Saying that he
“supported” Trump, late in the campaign, but that he would no longer “defend”
him?
Hunh?
Well, it’s time to do what we have to do.
We have to get our ex-presidents together, from Jimmy Carter
through Barack Obama.
All of them.
And then they have to go to the Organization of American
States.
Remember them? The OAS?
Well, I looked them up, and they can help! Here’s the
description, from their website:
The right to universal suffrage by secret ballot is a
cornerstone of the democratic system. It is imperative that citizens of every
county be able to rely on electoral processes that are free, peaceful and
transparent. The independent, impartial observation of elections lends
transparency and confidence to the electoral process and is one of the basic
tools the OAS has to help strengthen democracy in the region. The Organization
also provides support in the aftermath of elections, helping countries in their
own efforts to strengthen the electoral system and make it more transparent.
Wow—nice to know!
I’m kidding, of course.
Wait—am I?
Who knows? But why do I feel that, like asking whether a
woman is a lady, asking whether an election is fraudulent is…
…exactly the same thing?
