It's Shameful

I was a high school junior when President John F. Kennedy was shot on November 22, 1963. I heard the announcement during my US History class near the end of the day. All after-school and weekend activities were cancelled. Students and teachers were openly crying in the halls. People wept all weekend.

Later, I heard stories about people in parts of the country that had not supported Kennedy – Texas comes to mind – who cheered when they heard about his death. I thought that was abhorrent. What civilized person does this?

I’m thinking about this today because some less savory social media sites are speculating about why the current Republican president hasn’t been seen in public for a day or so, and why his schedule shows no activity. They are raising questions about his health, even speculating that he is dying or even dead. Most of the comments are celebratory.

This is as shameful as it was in 1963. But I understand it better now.

At the Constitutional Convention, Benjamin Franklin supported the impeachment clause as “an alternative to assassination.” Without the power of impeachment, there would be no way for the government to rid itself of an executive who did not possess the type of public virtue that was thought necessary for people who held positions of political leadership – virtue that was even more essential for the person who would hold the nation’s chief executive office. No one was worried about the virtue of the person who was expected to be elected to serve as the nation’s first President – George Washington was beyond reproach. But they knew that there was a chance that someone with less virtue – what we might call character or integrity – might someday be elected to the office. There had to be a way to get rid of him before he damaged the political system beyond repair.

The Republicans in the Senate failed to convict Trump when he was impeached – twice – at the end of his first term in office. The things he is doing during his second term are wildly improper and illegal, and the Republicans in the House are not only dodging the accountability offered by the Constitution – they adjourned rather than face a vote on the Epstein files and are dodging their constituents while they are on recess. One wonders what, exactly, they think they were elected to do.

I think several things are true:

• The longer Trump is president, the worse it will be for the country and the harder it will be to repair the damage

• The only two Constitutional mechanisms for removing him from office are impeachment and the 25^th Amendment. The first requires Republicans in the House and Senate to turn against him. Yeah, right. The second requires the Vice President and the majority of the Cabinet to declare in writing that the president is unable to discharge the duties of office – at which point the Vice President immediately becomes acting president. Yeah, right. Did you all see the collective ass-kissing that passed for a Cabinet meeting this week?

• The only other way for him to be removed from the Presidency is for him to step down, like Nixon did in 1974. The man’s ego won’t let this happen.

So we’re stuck with him, unless he dies.

I don’t really want him to die – I couldn’t give a flying flip what he does once he’s no longer President. It don’t make me no never mind. I just want him to no longer be President. It’s hard to overstate the damage he’ll do to the country the longer he remains in office, and the only thing that will stop him is his death. The only reason some folks online are rooting for his death is because they can’t envision any other way to make him go away.