The Frog And The Shit-Gibbon

With the daily onslaught of lies, corruption and abuse of power from the Trump Administration, it is not possible to maintain a meaningful perspective on the scope and magnitude of its horror.  The latest outrage is dutifully reported while the traditional media and the political establishment mostly give a collective shrug because it simply confirms the already baked-in view that the president is a lying, corrupt scoundrel.  And we move on to the next outrage the following day, one that would be a massive scandal in any other Administration.  There is no sense of urgency from Democratic leadership -- no sense that we are in a true national emergency -- no sense that without immediate, drastic action, the Administration will: (1) stall, obstruct and distract to avoid accountability for this term, and (2) use corrupt means (e.g., doubling down on voter suppression and foreign interference while investigating its political opponents) to remain in office for another term.

But never mind.  After all, it's Infrastructure Week (again).  So the Democratic leadership dutifully meets with Trump with a plan for a compromise infrastructure bill in its never-ending quest to appear reasonable and responsible in the face of insanity.  Couldn't they have slipped him a subpoena while they were there?  Sure, Nancy Pelosi, the House Majority Leader, says Trump's conduct is "worse than Nixon's," but she and her fellow Democrats don't act as if he is anything like Nixon.  They continue to argue about whether opening an impeachment inquiry would be politically prudent while dithering over requests for testimony and documents from Trump officials.  'OK,' they say, 'this is your last chance to appear voluntarily and if you don't, we will ... mock you by eating buckets of fried chicken.'  Maybe next week they will issue subpoenas or contempt citations.  Or maybe the week after that -- and if that doesn't work, maybe then they might revisit the impeachment question, but only after checking the polls.  Or, they'll just wait to see what happens in November 2020, as if that won't embolden Trump to turn up the malfeasance meter to 11.

Meanwhile, Trump dangerously promotes an egregious lie about Democrats relishing the execution of newborns, proposes new rules to create even greater hardship for political asylum seekers, and provides cover to racists by re-framing Charlottesville as nothing more than a good-faith dispute over a Civil War statue.  Trump's 10,000th lie milestone was greeted mostly with jokes from late night comedians rather than any kind of shock or outrage.  Indeed, the numbers no longer mean anything.  Neither it seems do facts.  He lies so often and so brazenly that he has successfully created an alternative universe for his base that cannot be penetrated by reason or logic.

And speaking of his base, Trump continues to encourage white nationalist-inspired violence -- not only in his speeches and rhetoric that give legitimacy and comfort to white supremacists and anti-semites, but in defunding and disbanding the Dept. of Homeland Security's branch that had previously focused on domestic terrorism.  Imagine the scandal that would have ensued if there had been spike in domestic terrorism during the Obama Administration after funding for domestic terrorism had been cut to assuage Obama's constituency.  For Trump, in the wake of more shootings by white supremacists, it is barely a one-day news story.

How about this frightening statistic:  the Senate has just confirmed Trump's 100th nominee to the federal bench, virtually all of whom are extremely young and extremely conservative, having been incubated in Federalist Society dogma.  These are lifetime appointments, jammed through the Judiciary Committee without meaningful hearings.  Along with stealing a Supreme Court majority, the Republicans are successfully skewing the entire federal judiciary for a generation or more.  The consequences are dire.  But the lack of any urgency to win back the Senate is demonstrated by the number of potentially formidable Democratic senatorial candidates deciding they are better off running for president.  This is madness.

Not surprisingly, the Mueller Report, augmented by AG Barr's creative interpretation of it, failed to fulfill the always unrealistic hope that our thoughts and prayers would be answered -- that there would finally be a definitive determination of Trump's perfidy that would inexorably lead to his removal.  Although the report itself provides incriminating bombshells and a tantalizing roadmap for further investigation -- indeed, impeachment -- by Congress, Barr did what he was undoubtedly appointed to do.  He provided -- and continues to provide -- the necessary sound bites and obfuscation for Trump to claim vindication.  It is plain, after Barr's remarkably disingenuous testimony, that Trump will not only use Barr and the DOJ as a shield to avoid any Congressional oversight, but -- like any good dictator -- as a sword to go after the investigators and Trump's political opponents.  Get ready for bogus but overly-reported "scandals" involving whichever Democratic presidential hopeful appears to be gaining traction.  First up: Joe Biden and the Ukraine.

This is all like the fable about the slow boiling of a frog -- where we, as the frog, fail to notice our doom because of the gradual heat being brought to bear.  The daily lies and reports of corruption and abuse of power slowly add up.  The drip, drip, drip of disclosures about Russia simply don't have the dramatic impact of having learned about all of it at once.  Had we been dropped in boiling water -- confronted with the sum total of Trump's malevolence  -- we surely would have collectively jumped.  That's where impeachment hearings would come in handy -- putting it all in one scalding pot.

There's another frog story -- the one about the frog and the scorpion, where the scorpion, after promising not to sting the frog if it carries the scorpion across the water, does so anyway, even though it meant that both the frog and scorpion would drown.  When the frog protests, the scorpion helplessly replies, "I can't help it, it's in my nature."

It is in Trump's nature to be willfully ignorant, to be cruel and to degrade and corrupt everything he touches. It is in his nature to not just lie but to make the truth meaningless.  It is in his nature to use threats, lawsuits and the levels of power at his disposal to avoid accountability.  And it is in his nature to to be an authoritarian bully.  The key is that we recognize the danger, amplify it and fight against it -- and to do so expeditiously -- and not allow ourselves to go down with him.