Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
We’ve had the attempted insurrection of Jan. 6. Washington now hosts more U.S. troops than global hot spots to defend against threats related to President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration. And now, only now, the time has come to pile on the president.
Suddenly, Congress and the media cannot find enough ways to mount retribution against President Donald Trump. Neither, so it seems, can corporate America.
I don’t feel sorry for the president. I have been wanting him relieved of office since it became plain that with arguably less knowledge of the job than any of his predecessors, he failed to demonstrate the awe and humility that confronts all who have been new to the office.
Trump’s chaotic regime, and it’s fair to call it a regime since administrations are group efforts, has been a dangerous testament to ignorance that will not be taught.
That is why I do not pity the president, but I shake my head when I watch the PGA remove its 2022 tournament from the Trump National Golf Club in New Jersey. Trump loves golf so much he has bestowed the Presidential Medal of Freedom on three golf pros.
I wonder “Why only now?” as banks suddenly cut off Trump loans and companies that include Goldman Sachs, Coca-Cola, Ford and Comcast suspend political donations to Trump. The payments firm Stripe won’t even process Trump campaign donations.
Trump’s home town, New York City, which has had the audacity to be predominantly Democratic, is only now cutting off business ties to the Trump Organization.
“This is spreading like wildfire,” said Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a management professor at Yale, speaking to USA Today. “The U.S. business community has interests fully in alignment with the American public and not with Trump’s autocratic, bigoted wing of the GOP.”
My question is why the pile-on is only occurring now after four years of atrocities — chronic lying, a pointless border wall, separating kids from parents at the border, praising domestic racists and foreign oppressors like Kim Jong-un and Vladimir Putin, and completely fumbling the nation’s COVID-19 response.
Even the triumph of Operation Warp Speed in accelerating development of vaccines is crumbling due to the absence of national coordination to get the vaccines into bodies.
Why did it take a completely predictable attempt to commit mayhem on the floors of Congress to bring on the outrage? That’s my main question. Why did they wait after so many years and so many atrocities?
Many, I submit, have been looking for an excuse to disenfranchise Trump for a long time. It took an outrage as grievous as a coup attempt to overwhelm their fear of Trump’s base.
Trump’s base, I also submit, is still mighty enough to prevent a conviction in Trump’s second impeachment trial, even though the Trump-inspired riot endangered the lives of GOP senators on Jan. 6.
I think GOP senators still fearfully loyal to Trump will prevent the two-thirds majority needed to convict, despite key defections, even knowing Trump could rise again from the ashes of his self-immolation.
Steve Hansen writes for Clovis Media Inc. Contact him at: