As sad as it is to say, it must now be said: The President of the United States is a traitor.
Full Stop.
Treason is defined as “the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance.” Now, ask yourself is there a branch of our government Donald Trump hasn’t attacked?
After swearing allegiance to the Constitution in front of the entire world, this president has despoiled the State Department., FBI, CIA, the Pentagon, the CDC, the FDA and a host of other alphabet-soup government agencies.
But his attack on our system of elections is beyond the pale. It is a blatant repudiation of democracy in favor of autocracy and dictatorship.
The fact that Texas and 17 states, plus 106 Republican lawmakers have signed on this blatant power grab is testament to the depth of our constitutional crisis. It’s fascism writ large based on white supremacy and racism.
Has there ever been an individual in American history more deserving of the word traitor?
Even Benedict Arnold was a devout patriot and loyal soldier most of his life, fighting for the cause of liberty in the American Revolution for the better part of his military service before turning against his country.
Not so Donald Trump.
As a young man, he lied his way out of the draft, never serving a day. As a businessman, he spent decades defrauding the government on his taxes.
Ultimately, as president, he swore an oath to protect and defend the American People, then tried to minimize and cover up a deadly pathogen that will wipe out what will no doubt be half a million citizens.
It isn’t even debatable; had we had even a semi-competent president, our industry, scientific experts and resources would’ve beaten this thing by last summer.
At the very least we’d be nowhere near where we are now. Which is basically a 9/11 every day.
He may not have pulled the trigger, but he never lifted a finger to stop the bullets. Global pandemic aside, this isn’t even factoring the myriad crimes against the Constitution that his administration has perpetrated.
How is swearing an oath of allegiance to your country, then spending every waking minute betraying that oath, not treason? Is there something I’m missing here?
Even now, weeks into a democracy-destroying tantrum whose main goal is to eviscerate faith in our electoral process, not a single pundit – not Nicolle Wallace, Rachel Maddow, Chris Hayes, Joy Reid or Lawrence O’Donnell –has called the president out for what he is– a traitor.
In the month since the election, I’ve spent hundreds of hours watching the above mentioned hosts, as well as their expert panelists lament the damage the president and his cronies are doing, pushing the nation toward a constitutional crisis, ye no one has stopped and called the president out for treason.
Why? What are they afraid of?
Only Steve Schmidt, a Republican, no less, and founding member of the anti-Trump Lincoln Project, has called this farce for what it is. His words are searing and ominous.
“You saw it coming this summer… the astounding moment when the Republican platform became nothing more than a loyalty oath to Donald Trump… and oath of compete obedience,” he said last night on MSNBC.
“Today was a before-and-after moment in the history of the nation. One hundred and six members of Congress broke faith with American democracy. They did something the Fascists, the Nazis, the Confederate army was unable to do… they broke faith with the idea that the people are sovereign.
“Democracy requires, definitionally, that one side be willing to lose an election. The competition in American politics is now between a Democratic party, meaning a party that believes in Democracy, versus an autocratic party.”
Trump’s embrace of Putin, N. Korea, Syria, Turkey and Khashoggi, and his ad hominin attacks on Col. Vindman, Chris Krebs, Inspectors General and a dozen other whistleblowers pales compared with the the latest, a months-long assault on the cornerstone of our Democracy. Our presidential election.
Does Trump really need to start shooting people on Fifth Ave for some to call him what he is? Would it even matter?
Why does there seem to be such fear on behalf of the cable outlets to use the word treason? Not like he’s going to be punished for it. Soon as he pardons himself, it’ll open up a decade-long fight, one that might never be resolved while he’s still alive.
Meantime, as we watch him go about chiseling away at the foundations of our Republic, helpless to do anything, one thing’s for certain: He’s not alone.
The decision by over one hundred House Republicans to throw our democratic system of voting under the bus in favor of appeasing an infantile tyrant should give anyone with a conscience and a shred of patriotism night sweats.
For, it’s now abundantly clear, Republicans hate Truth more than they love their country.
Even after he’s gone, we face the daunting prospect of the puppet master of 70-million sadly misguided citizens continuing to influence policy from the sidelines–possibly for years. Possibly for another run at office.
Should he win again, it would certainly mean the end of our democratic experiment. Unless, the New York prosecutors do what no one in power seems to be willing/able to do. #LockHimUp