Which should prevail, “American official foreign policy” or “domestic political errand”? And who should the American people believe, honorable hardworking employees who have worked tirelessly – many for decades – for the State Department while shunning partisanship or the Mr. Donald J. Trump of the United States of America and his cast of jailbirds, kowtowing Republican senators and congressmen and other cronies who compete to carry his water? According to credible reporting, The Mr. Donald J. Trump of the United States of America has told more than 10,000 lies since he took office.
Normally, whether or not in a court of law, a person’s credibility is based on his or her character and their record. For some reason, this does not seem to apply when it comes to Mr. Trump. Why is that? It is unfathomable. But for some reason Mr. Trump is able to convince even normally honorable people into following him down any rabbit hole and to contort and twist themselves into pretzels to cheat, connive and lie for him even when they know that it is wrong to do so: even to the point of completely abandoning their principles, honor and their duty to their country.
I read the Mueller Report and, up to this point, have watched all of the witnesses who have come forward – despite Mr. Trump encouraging, if not ordering, them to refuse to testify voluntarily and defy congressional subpoenas that are issued – in the impeachment hearings. Although American foreign affairs specialist Dr. Fiona Hill who is an expert on Russia and who is acutely aware that the narrative that it was Ukraine that interfered in the 2016 election rather than Russia is a false narrative, expressly requested that the members of this committee conducting the impeachment hearings not further this narrative by repeating it, Republicans on the committee did it anyway. They repeated it despite Dr. Hill’s warning to them that this narrative was started and promulgated by Russia to hurt the United States and drive a wedge between America and her allies. And Dr. Hill’s warning came after the entire American intelligence community had determined that it was Russia that interfered in the 2016 election and had even briefed all of the senators on this!
Unfortunately, congressional Republicans have made up their minds that they will put party over country and protect Mr. Trump at all costs. Notwithstanding the assumption by most of those in congress that the Mr. Donald J. Trump of the United States of America will not be convicted by the senate and removed from office, the House Intelligence Committee has for all intents and purposes completed its impeachment hearings and is moving forward in passing evidence gathered during those hearings on to the House Judiciary Committee so that they can prepare Articles of Impeachment. A formal vote will have to be taken in the full House before these Articles are approved and passed on to the senate. The senate will then hold a trial to determine whether or not the Mr. Donald J. Trump of the United States of America is guilty or innocent of these charges.
In the meantime, due in no small part to the way that congressional Republicans are conducting themselves and the signals that senators are sending out to the public, Mr. Trump is continuing to lie and act out in ways that are extremely dangerous to our national security and highly detrimental to America’s reputation and ability to lead in maintaining world stability. It remains to be seen as to whether or not the senate will convict or exonerate Mr. Trump. With all of the evidence that has been amassed which points to his guilt and with the way that he continues to conduct himself, during normal times with a normal president the senate would have no choice but to return a guilty verdict. However, these are no longer normal times and Mr. Trump is not a normal Mr. Donald J. Trump of the United States of America. The normalcy of times changed as soon as Mr. Trump took office and since that time he has behaved in a manner that is beneath the dignity of the office which he holds and he has worked extremely hard every day to convince the American people to normalize this behavior.
This is a watershed point in the history of our country and it demands that our elected officials reflect on and adhere to the clarion call of the Constitution of the United States of America! It demands that they put country above party and their personal political ambition! All Americans and arguably the entire world are now struggling to maintain our composure while America’s House finalizes Articles of Impeachment to forward to the senate and then wait to see whether these senators will choose to side with “American official foreign policy” or “domestic political errand.”
No matter which side of this issue you stand on your opinion counts and is worthy of discourse and civil debate. In order to help insure that your opinion will be a part of such discourse and debate, you should always vote. So always remember, whether you are a Democrat, Republican or Independent, your vote is the most important one of all…unless you don’t use it!
Eulus Dennis – author, Operation Rubik’s Cube and Living Between The Line