Ever the optimist, I suggest that we are watching the Democratic leadership of the House and Senate slam the door on the GOP — not just in November, but forever. Here is the sugar I’m using to turn today’s lemon juice into tomorrow’s lemonade.
We have known since at least the beginning of the Mueller investigation that the impeachment and removal of Donald Trump isn’t enough to solve the problem. This is because we know that the rot and corruption goes far beyond just Donald Trump. Replacing Donald Trump with Mike Pence on the 2020 GOP ticket not only doesn’t solve the problem, but might even worsen it — Mike Pence running as an incumbent president is arguably a more formidable opponent than Donald Trump, and Mr. Pence is just as compromised.
The Democratic House and Senate leadership offered their GOP colleagues an opportunity to accept a conviction on a lesser crime with lighter sentence and preserve a shred of decency and self-respect. The entire GOP squandered that opportunity. In so doing, the Democratic House and Senate leadership is in the process of forcing the entire GOP to go on the record betraying everything America has ever stood for. When the Senate votes to acquit Donald Trump before the Super Bowl, each and every vote for acquittal is a rock-solid on-the-record betrayal of America and everything America believes in.
Starting as early as next week — days after the acquittal — the American public will see wave after wave of ugly, repulsive, and incontrovertible evidence of explicit corruption, conspiracy, and intentional collusion with Vladimir Putin and Russia. These videotapes, audiotapes, and electronic records will make the 2016 “bus tape” look like light comedy by comparison.
I think Adam Schiff was doing more than merely speculating last night when he spoke of “hypothetical” conversations between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. Mr. Schiff chairs the House Intelligence Committee. He is surely in frequent contact with sources throughout the US intelligence community. I think Mr. Schiff was putting his GOP colleagues on notice. I strongly suspect that Mr. Schiff has already seen and heard those recordings between Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin, because I think they’ve already happened. We are already seeing additional tapes from Mr. Frumin and Mr. Parnas, and the attorney for Mr. Parnas promises more.
I think he and the Democratic leadership have similarly already seen and heard compelling evidence that explicitly implicates Mike Pence, Mike Pompeo, William Barr, Mike Espy, Rick Perry, Lindsay Graham, Mitch McConnell, Devin Nunes, and more. We all got just a taste of that when Mr. Schiff published call records showing how deeply Devin Nunes was enmeshed in the very conspiracy he was supposed to be investigating.
There are few organizations in the world as deadly when provoked as the NSA and CIA (Mossad is another). Donald Trump has been publicly and privately insulting and shaming the entire US intelligence community since before his campaign began. Mr. Trump desecrated the CIA Memorial Wall the day after he was inaugurated. He, his family, and his co-conspirators will pay a steep price for that desecration.
I think that even Red State voters will be revolted by videotapes showing Mike Pence being explicitly instructed about his role in the Russian-led plan to betray Ukraine. I think even Red State voters will be appalled at seeing and hearing GOP officials explicitly and knowingly accept millions of dollars in illegal campaign contributions flowing from Russian organized crime into their campaigns. I think even Red State voters will be nauseated when they hear elected GOP leaders explicitly agreeing to vote as directed by thugs like Rudy Giuliani, Lev Parnas, Igor Frumin, and Dmitri Firtash.
I think an electoral tsunami will bring all three branches of government to Democratic Party control in November with a clear and undeniable mandate. I think a new Attorney General and new DoJ will begin issuing indictments in January of 2021.
I think that by this time next year, the GOP will be absolutely DEAD as a political entity. I think incumbent GOP members of the House and Senate will plead ignorance while falling over themselves in a headlong rush to leave the moribund party. I think America of the 21st century and beyond will remember the GOP in the same way that Germany today remembers the Nazi party. I think there may well be violence in the streets, instigated by heavily-armed extremist right-wing militants carrying Russian-made weapons and ammunition provided courtesy of the NRA. I think that violence will be summarily put down.
I think we are watching Adam Schiff, Jerry Nadler, and Nancy Pelosi convict and destroy the GOP.
This strikes me as the same kind of wishful thinking that had some believing that Mueller was going to announce outright treason charges against Trump.
It’s too bad he didn’t.
Nice to see that you see the glass half full this time!
It’s pretty to think so.