Senate Trump Committee
If ever there was a time for a Senate, and a House, Investigative Committee on anything, it’s now. The Nation needs, the world is waiting, history is begging, for such. This Nation, the world, wants and needs to know, to understand, what happened, how did it happen, and what should be done to prevent its happening ever again? What in the hell is going on in America?
Oh ‘it would be nice to find another Senator Sam Ervin, a Lowell Weicker, … before beginning the hearings. Nice, but it’s not at all necessary. Senators Whitehouse, Durbin, Klobuchar, Blumenthal, et al will do nicely, and, anyway, the both, Ervin and Weicker, will be there in spirit; wouldn’t miss it for anything. As for the House Committee, who can ever forget Barbara Jordan? Peter Rodino? For sure, no one who ever heard and saw them. The likes of those two will be difficult, maybe impossible to find in the House in this year of our world. But, the both, too, for sure, will be there in spirit.
Recall the drama of it all. Snatching a glimpse of the headlines, catching a bit of news at work, hurrying home to check the evening news, … . Now, of course, we’ll be checking our phones, …, checking our phones. A much-needed catharsis for the Nation. Be unifying? You betcha. Educational? History and government teachers’ dream. Heck, who knows, might even provide, at least help identify, this they call unity? Sure to help take our minds off the pandemic. What’s more, what’s more important, it is something that really, really needs to be done.
This time, we would get to hear, under oath, from Fox News, Mitch McConnell, Donald J. Trump, The Family, Steve Bannon, Robert and Rebekah Mercer, Mark Zuckerberg, Jerry Falwell, Jr., QAnon, … ; from former staff members, from deep within the religious right. By this summer, maybe fall, Vladimir Vladimirovich himself might well be available, and willing. Imagine waking up every morning and checking your phone for any breaking news. Grabbing a cup, then checking your computer.
Those days, the House and Senate Watergate Committees hearings provided high drama; were entertaining. But, their seriousness was lost on no one. Not even on the public. Least of all, on the committee members. The people had the right, a need, to know. Back then, Congress stepped up. Will it this time?
Now, as then, nothing is more important than for the Nation to get a handle on what happened, on what almost happened, on what is going on in America? How did we come this close to losing our democracy? This time we came too close to becoming an Autocracy ran by Donald J Trump & Co. A fate too awful to countenance. If we don’t find out the causes, what needs to be done to prevent something like this reoccurring, it will reoccur. There mustn’t be a next time. Congress! You’re on.
Senate Watergate Committee, February 7, 1973 to June 27, 1974.
The Congress is radically different today than it was in the early 70s. This trial will change absolutely no one’s mind as to what happened on 1/6.
It needs to be done, but in the end trump will walk.
Agree about the Trial. That’s why I proposed the committee. Excepting the wishy-washy Five, the rest of the amoral, spineless, gutless, lying Republican Senators are unfit for public office.
Ken,
“…This time we came too close to becoming an Autocracy ran by Donald J Trump…”
[That is what Trump may have thought was on the table. My guess is that we were flirting with civil war. Now the white supremacists wanted it to be just a race war, but I don’t think they would have gotten what they want either. I just cannot imagine that the majority of people with guns like myself would not know who to shoot. One thing for sure though is that if votes stop counting then lead can still get the job done.]
Ron:
How did we get here?
Ken,
Lots of things came together over time. The Klan did not end after the lynchings were stopped. Then there was John Birch. The Orange Idiot POTUS emboldened them, but they were always here. The middle class American dream unraveled into opioid addiction. Then social networking made it easier for good people to become more remote while bad people found it easier to connect.
Civil war has been here before, not just the big one but a few little ones along the way such as the Second Pennamite War, Shay’s Rebellion, The Whiskey Rebellion, The Missouri Mormon War, The Dorr Rebellion, The Milwaukee Bridge War, The Kansas Border War, The Utah War, The Colfax County War, The Battle of Liberty Place, The Great Railroad Strike of 1877, The Lincoln County War, The Colorado Range War, the Gunfight at OK Corral, the Pleasant Valley War, the Rock Springs Massacre, and the list goes on. I will just post a link.
In our time we had the Oklahoma City bombing, Ruby Ridge and a few others. Domestic conflict is a numbers racket and not many people are good at counting.
Ken,Lots of things came together over time. The Klan did not end after the lynchings were stopped. Then there was John Birch. The Orange Idiot POTUS emboldened them, but they were always here. The middle class American dream unraveled into opioid addiction. Then social networking made it easier for good people to become more remote while bad people found it easier to connect. Our relative domestic tranquility since WWII is an anomaly that seems bent on coming to and end.
Ken,
[Our long arc of history really sucks.]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_conflicts_in_the_United_States
Ken,
I had hoped that our Middle East wars had produced a crop of veterans like those we got from WWII that helped balance out domestic extremism. My recent reading on this indicates the opposite. Unlike my Vietnam service where so many of my fellow draftees were blacks and peaceniks, the selection bias of a volunteer army during a time of conflict is not helping us at all with the veteran situation. Those of good conscience are more prone to substance abuse while the unabashed borderline sociopaths are finding themselves welcomed home by domestic terrorists. The FBI is quite concerned about this. Actually 1/6/2021 along with a justice department that is really seeking justice is allowing the FBI to do their jobs once again. Trump did not like the FBI.
Ron:
Interesting takes, all. Thanks.
Ken,
My first crack at “How did we get here” was snarfed up by the comments eating dog, but subsequently one of our moderators gave that pooch the Heimlich maneuver.
Ken, You ask, “How did we get here?”
I’m pretty sure our current political era began in the 90’s with hatred for the Clintons and Democrats inspired by Newt Gingrich in Congress and amplified by Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity and Fox News. In the summer back then Limbaugh, Hannity and others literally echoed through neighborhoods across the country from the radios of construction workers.
Over the years the constant drumbeat of misinformation, lies and conspiracies, mixed with half truths and played in the ears of many Americans for 6 to 9 hours per day. Further sparked by 24/7 competing liberal v. conservative news channels; organizations like the National Rifle Association (NRA), new, highly effective social media communication platforms; blogs and alternative publications — the snowballs of competing information were rolling. The political divisions flourished with gridlock, dysfunction, vitriol, hate and disrespect for fellow man became commonplace.
The divisions sharpened with the contested election of George W. Bush (aka Dick Cheney) over Al Gore, followed by eight years of America’s first black president and the Tea Party movement. All the while bigotry brewed in the underbelly of the country. With political volatility at a fever pitch, in 2016, one of the most qualified presidential candidates in history was rejected after receiving 3 million more popular votes than Donald Trump.
In this atmosphere of political turmoil, the Pied Piper of Divisiveness managed to bully his way to the presidency and came armed with a tanker full of gasoline to spread on the political fires burning across the planet. Despite the fact that the Trump presidential approval averaged in the low 40s and never reached 50%, his corrupt, despotic style morphed a large majority of the Republican Party and many Independents into a new political entity with a radically distorted vision of American democracy and the Constitution.
Now 4 years later seventy percent (70%) of House Republicans and twenty percent (20%) of Senate Republicans have voted to overthrow the results of the U.S. free and fair presidential election. Subsequent efforts to impeach Donald Trump for the second time and hold him accountable and provide consequences for such seditious presidential actions were rejected by ninety-five percent (95%) of House Republicans. Preliminary actions in the U.S. Senate trial on the impeachment have already revealed that ninety percent (90%) of Senate Republicans are opposed to the impeachment trial.
Through their recorded votes to overthrow a legitimate U.S. election and their recorded votes to reject holding Donald Trump accountable for his seditious involvement in the presidential election and the Capitol insurrection, the Republican Party has overwhelmingly demonstrated that it holds a perverse, perverted and far from traditional view of American democracy and the U.S. Constitution. Now, several weeks beyond the egregious insurrection and the inauguration of a new President, Donald Trump continues his contentions and conspiracy theories of a fraudulent and stolen election. Likewise Republicans in Congress and their leadership continue to confer with Trump on the Party’s direction, resist imposing any punishment or consequences for his actions and some still believe the election was stolen.
Considering the current state of the Republican Party, talks of bipartisan resolution of problems and issues facing the country is impractical and quixotic. While it may be possible to find an exceedingly small percentage of Republican legislators to align with Democrats to address issues and solve problems, the barometer of good governance should be consistency with widespread public opinion — not the level of bipartisanship. I just did a posting, “Bipartisanship On Hold”.
https://tinyurl.com/y3eo2aa5
Hear! Hear!