by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls
What’s going on right now, I’m afraid, is what you might call the “spaghetti strategy” of defense on the part of Trump and Giuliani. They are no longer basing anything they do or say on the facts, but rather using their own form of “truthiness” whereby they throw different idea against the wall until something sticks.
Therefore, they honestly don’t care what we think. If you are bound by the rules of logic and evidence and happen not to support their basic concept that nothing Trump did was wrong and Mueller’s investigation is a “witch hunt,” they honestly don’t care what you think. Their entire goal is to divide the country and muddle the issues to such an extent that Trump can’t be pinned down.
In a sense, they’re trying to wait out the clock. They are waiting until the base is prepped to accept Trump firing Mueller or whatever, knowing that in real terms as long as Trump has a Republican majority in Congress he is, in fact, above the law. I don’t even think this strategy is all that risky. Unless something dramatically unexpected happens, I suspect they’re going to pull it off.
What they want, and what I think they’ll get, is an extreme version of the Iran-contra endgame whereby everyone knew Reagan engaged in extra-Constitutional shenanigans, but nothing happen to Reagan for various reasons. So, too, I think Trump will get what he wants — which is stay in power for 8 years — and much like the lack of WMDs in Iraq, this whole thing will be one of those issues where Trump supporters just blink silently whenever you bring it up, never addressing the facts.
That’s our fate, I’m afraid. Our fate is about half the population will know the facts — that Trump not only colluded with a hostile foreign power, but obstructed justice as well, while the other half the population will shrug and enjoy the “humming” economy while the Trump Administration guts the social safety net, tears immigrant families apart and generally ushers in an extremely dark period in our nations history.
Trump’s too smooth to do what Nixon did with the Saturday Night Massacre. Trump will probably do a gradual one whereby he pushes people out or something equally nefarious. A lot of people compare Trump to Reagan and, in some respects, the comparison is apt. Reagan ushered in a new era of political thought that never was reversed once he left office. I mean, the only way Bill Clinton even got elected was by professing his belief in a “Third Way.” So, too, I suspect Trump’s successors of both the Right and the Left will have to work within a new world of Trump’s creation.
Interestingly, this was pretty much inevitable. Baby Boomers are an enormous segment of the electorate and as they grow old and conservative, they force the country towards the Right with them. But, thankfully, they aren’t going to live forever and at some point enough of them will mosey on to the big Grateful Dead concert in the sky that younger, more liberal and diverse voters will finally get a chance for their views to be heard.
Too bad I’ll be an extremely old man by the point. But it’s my only hope at this point. We’re in for a bumpy ride the next few years and I’ll take anything I can that gives me some reason to keep hope alive.
Shelton Bumgarner is a writer and photographer living in Richmond, Va. He may be reached at migukin (at) gmail (dot) com.
