Impeachment, Part Two

Published 02-11-21

Congress’s second quest to finally slay their great orange whale opens this week after a late deal was reached by Senators Schumer and McConnell on the framework and rules of the Senate Impeachment hearing against President Trump.

While I’d like to think that there aren’t 17 Republican senators willing to anger their base voters in this way, well, stranger things have happened, and the well of hatred towards all things Trump has yet to reach its final depths.

From a practical standpoint, getting 17 Senate Republicans to agree on anything beyond corporate tax cuts is a reach. But the symbolism of wasting legislative time in the middle of a pandemic to to make sure “Trump is barred from office for all time” is beyond pointless. It’s a luxury that every day working Americans don’t have time for.

I usually don’t spend much time making political predictions, but in this case I feel pretty safe. Trump isn’t running again. The impeachment is a moot point, and doesn’t change the facts on the ground.

Besides the impossibilities in coming back after an electoral loss (imagine Hillary entering the 2020 cycle) - trying to rebuild voter coalitions is the least of his problems. That’s a big enough problem on it’s own, and one political operatives lose sleep over. Trump’s most effective forms of direct communication, namely social media, has been completely curtailed with his banning off most digital platforms, including Shopify.

That one still kind of makes me chuckle.

The laughter stops when one stops to realize that most of this action, while about Donald Trump, isn’t really directed at him but at the American public.

This isn’t about Trump selling handmade crafts on Etsy. He doesn’t. It’s about suppressing those that support him into silence.

Who could have guessed MAGA knitting patterns were a threat to the republic?

It’s no surprise that there is concerted efforts to turn opposing political opinion into unlawful hate speech, and to brand those with views outside the “established norms” of leftist politics as terrorists.

There aren’t going to be nearly enough “Unity” commercials during sporting events to stop the down order consequences that will result from continuing down this particular path of retribution and vengeance against fellow countrymen.

In this same line of thought, the announcement Monday that the ACLU will abandon it’s chartered mission - defense of the First Amendment and free speech to concentrate on “racial justice” and holding the Biden administration accountable for their campaign promises in this regard - isn’t a surprise if you’ve paid attention to the ACLU in modern American politics. But it is just another way those in power close the door once they think they have consolidated enough power to hold it for the foreseeable future.

No longer is free speech important. Silencing dissent is of more use from a political and moralistic perspective. Yes, even the ACLU will be co-opted in the long march to destabilize America.

Every institution will be co-opted and converted. These those don’t, or won’t, will be isolated and harassed until they can no longer serve their purpose.

This too didn’t start with President Trump. Like the America First movement, The Tea Party and True the Vote were two grassroots groups who gained the attention of the Swamp after successful activism on a national level.

Both organizations were tarred with accusations of racism and xenophobia the moment they became effective. The left returns to the playbook precisely because it is effective.

But that doesn’t end the movement, or the rationale behind those who organize and speak out against these “established norms” which to many people seem anything but normal.

Those sentiments don’t go away because the elites got rid of Trump. Impeached or not.

And that’s something we should all consider when we think about what comes next.

•••••••••

More on my radar than the impeachment of the century is the quickly encroaching cold front that has travelled due south from Canada and looks to cause all sorts of trouble over the next week or so throughout the Midwest and South.

I knew Canadians were generous, but sharing a frigid arctic front is more than a little overboard.

Not even an above 50% chance of snow for four out of the next seven days is enough to make a forecasted low of 7 degrees over the weekend (we might make zero with the wind chill) seem ok.

The pantry is stocked because I’m not leaving the house after Wednesday until the front has retreated and temperatures are at least in the mid double digits again.

Forty seems like a reasonable minimum threshold.

Maybe someone could go knock on Puxatawney Phil’s door and ask him to reconsider the extra six weeks of winter.

Although, now that I’m thinking about it... frozen ground gives me an excuse to not clean out the flower beds quite yet... we could let him snooze.