Feigning Outrage

IN RETROSPECT, Trump's reaction to his impending impeachment was predictable, and, predictably, his hardening core of devout followers will follow suit. On the innocuous, tame end of the spectrum, are the ones asserting simply that presidential solicitation of foreign campaign assistance is not an impeachable offense, offense though it may or may not be. Among this particular group of apologists are some who will insist that the president was not only committing no offense, but that he was serving God and humanity by seeking out and fighting corruption, on an international scale, on the phone with the president of Ukraine. The fact, however, that the president of the United States asked for help getting reelected from a foreign country is indisputable. This means that unless Trump is impeached, or a law is passed prohibiting it, every future American president will have the opportunity to seek personal political assistance from any other country in the world. Can you even remotely imagine how conservative republican christian types would have reacted if, during the 2016 campaign, Hillary Clinton had been caught asking a forcing leader for dirt on Donald Trump? Or if, for that matter, president Obama had been whistle blown for asking for dirt on republican leaders and politicians on the phone with some foreign head of state? What you can imagine, accurately, is that the Obama-Clinton haters would have been positively apoplectic, and beyond. We would have subjected to a never ending outpouring of righteous patriotic anti-corruption family values Christian pro transparent government honesty. As usual, more deeply disappointing than this president's behavior is the continued support of his supporters. We have known since teh Access Hollywood affair that donald Trump is a sexual predator, and proud of it, and hsi financial and other forms of personal corruption are well known. someone who once supported and for for Trump, but has since realized their mistake, is to be admired for "coming clean." The only remaining question is; how long wil it take for the rest of them to do likeeise, to correct their error of supporting a criminal president.