There are two races of men in this world but only these two: the race of the decent man and the race of the indecent man
Victor Frankl
Dear Friends,
There isn’t any organization in the land — academic, charitable, clerical, corporate, educational, institutional, labor, media, medical, scientific — that would allow its chief executive officer or any of its official representatives to remain in office for five minutes after uttering a comment like the one Donald J. Trump offered yesterday in the White House.
Not one.
But there he sits. There he tweets. There he holds forth while not one of his cabinet officers, key staff members, or any member of his so-called political party in Congress have disowned him, much less suggested that he apologize — here at home and in trips abroad to Africa and Haiti — for a display of rhetorical intemperance and emotional vacuity that has no parallel in the America presidency.
None.
Vice President Pence, House Speaker Paul Ryan, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell are the personification of hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil. And standing in line right behind them are hundreds of men and women who have sworn on a Bible (note that the guy who swears on the Koran wouldn’t abide Trump’s incivility and impertinence for a moment,) to ‘bear true faith and allegiance to the same [Constitution)
I, (name), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.
In the absence of evidence to the contrary, I will submit that this is an act of such unimaginable indecency that it constructs a bridge between the 25th Amendment and the process of impeachment. Either is appropriate and warranted. Censure is a slap on the wrist that won’t be heard or felt beyond the Potomac or the Beltway.
We’re beyond Robert Mueller and possibly collusion and conspiracy with the Russians, critical though those questions are to the electoral process going forward.
This is a ‘high crime’ of a different magnitude, a felonious assault on America’s uncompromising principles.
This is both misprision of office and a sure sign of some psychological or neurodegenerative disorder that disqualifies Donald Trump from continuing to serve as President of the United States. With the possible exception of people like David Duke and those fellow travelers who gave us Charlottesville, there is no American citizen for whom Donald Trump’s gutter utterance isn’t beyond the pale.
It’s time for him to go.
He is tossing around the principal elements of American soft power and its centuries-long-established good will just like the towels he threw at Puerto Ricans after the devastation of Hurricane Maria — and with the same droit de signeur he displays at Mar-a-Lago and his other gilt palaces of overabundance and lavishness.
This is yet another moment when there is the impulse to recite Joseph Welch’s comment sixty-four years ago to Sen. Joseph McCarthy:
“You've done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?”
But the question —rhetorical, of course — has no relevance for Donald Trump. Decency is not in his DNA. It is not in his performance artistry. And it is as foreign a concept to him as truth-telling.
It’s time for him to go.
Who will be the first to take the initial steps toward removing Donald Trump from an office for which he is wholly incapable of holding? Who will speak truth to power? And who will put patriotism before party and partisan advantage? The world is watching.
It has happened before. It can happen again. Or can it?
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