Accounting, Part II

 WITHOUT ACCOUNTABILITY, there are no consequences for bad behavior, and the bad behavior continues with impunity, by the original miscreant and by others who imitate it.The argument, somewhat prevalent, that holding Trump accountable by imposing negative consequences on him is undesirable because doing so would further divide the nation and hinder bipartisan healing is, in a word,fatuous, in another word, irrational. The people making this specious argument, and calling for national healing are Trump supporters, the selfsame people who unhesitatingly divided the nation for years by embracing extremist ideologies and policies, embracing and perpetuating blatant lies by Trump, and by supporting a blatantly immoral president, immoral in his words and actions both. Now, suddenly, their leader in disgrace, they seek reconciliation in ignoring his criminal behavior. Proper healing would place Trump in front of a firing squad for trying to overthrow the government violently. There will be on compromise and reconciliation between efforts to reverse climate change and climate change deniers. The deniers require reforming. There will be no compromise nor healing between extreme right wing white supremacy and racial equality, the white supremacists will have to be defeated. There will be no reconciliation between the Trump movement and the mainstream political spectrum; the Trump movement will have to be destroyed. Either this will be a white supremacist country which embraces nationalism, xenophobia, isolationism, and white evangelical theocratic Trumpism, or it will be a country of racial diversity, harmony,and equality. The Trump agenda and ideology will either prevail, or fail. That is why it matter what happens to Donald Trump after he leaves office, whether he is prosecuted or pardoned, whether he is allowed to run for the presidency again, and whether his cult following strengthens or diminishes and goes extinct. High sounding talk of national healing, of bringing a divided nation together, given the nature of the division, is sheer fantasy. One side or the other will have to be defeated. America has always been great in many ways, and in many ways has never been. Whether it can be made truly great in an original way depends entirely on the outcome of the forthcoming struggle.