A writer must “know and have an ever-present consciousness that this world is a world of fools and rogues… tormented with envy, consumed with vanity; selfish, false, cruel, cursed with illusions… He should free himself of all doctrines, theories, etiquettes, politics…” —Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?). “The nobility of the writer's occupation lies in resisting oppression, thus in accepting isolation” —Albert Camus (1913-1960). “What are you gonna do” —Bertha Brown (1895-1987).
His autocratic abuse of presidential power, his constitutional ignorance, his obstruction of justice and concealment, his lawless demagoguery, his pathological narcissism, his grandiose delusions, his anti-social personality disorder, his malignant arrogance, his moral relativism, his white nationalism, his perfidious nationalism, his hateful racism, his infectious nihilism, his outrageous iconoclasm, his ruthless competition, his puerile dereliction, his embarrassing idiocy, his provocative transgressions, his mocking disrespect, his impetuous vulgarity, his sexual predation; his belligerent intimidation, his incessant lying, his conspiratorial gaslighting, his obsessive vindictiveness, his hypocritical cowardice, his compulsive xenophobia, his callous misogyny, his insufferable bigotry, his disgusting buffoonery, his histrionic rallying, his dangerous idiocy, his sociopathic bullying, his seditious behavior…
"Texas Congressman Joaquin Castro, a graduate of Harvard Law School, asked his colleagues: 'If inciting a deadly insurrection is not enough to get a president impeached, then what is?' Ten Republicans voted for Impeachment, but 197 House Republicans disagreed. Trump incited the crowd in person on the Mall. He lied to his supporters saying, 'I’ll be with you' on the march to the Capitol. Trump then refused to call the crowd back when it turned into a mob that violently stormed into the Capitol. Trump scurried back to the White House to gleefully watch on TV his 'special people' rampage through the Congress with destructive intent.
"Why should the GOP obeisance to Trump, the Mobster in Chief, this recidivist criminal, a violator of many provisions of the Constitution, obstructer of justice 'as a daily way of life' according to his former national security advisor John Bolton, and hourly lying sociopath, surprise anyone?
"Congressional Republicans have aided and abetted, for four years, Trump’s assertion that 'With Article II, I can do whatever I want as president.' Dangerous Donald did just that. He finally incited a massive, homicidal street crime against the very Congress that let him get away with everything, day after day, as if there were no laws and no Constitution to be observed whatsoever.
"The GOP speakers who defended Trump in the House Impeachment debate will go down in history as unsurpassed political cowards and lying bloviators, led by Trump clone, belligerent Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio. Trump’s Congressional protectors, however, failed. The House of Representatives voted for Articles of Impeachment that are on their way to the Senate for a certain trial. The Senate should convict treacherous unrepentant Trump and ban him from ever seeking federal office again..." (Common Dreams).
“…If Republicans had uniformly and overwhelmingly supported the impeachment of the president for his treasonous actions, this public rejection would have been an important first step toward removing the stink of Trump from the Republican Party.
“Mind you, I’m not saying this would make up for what the Republicans have done over these past four years in appeasing and aiding and abetting Trump, nor would it erase the fact that Mitch McConnell turned his party into one of obstruction before Trump came on the scene. All I’m saying is that Republicans had an opportunity to reject Trump and move beyond him, and they rejected it.
“Oh yes! This was the most bipartisan impeachment in history! This is true as far as it goes. But only 4% of Republicans in the House voted to impeach the president for his actions. 96% of Republicans voted no.
“This was a choice.
“Given the chance to reject the violence and corruption of Trumpism, Republicans instead chose to roll around in the mire, smearing themselves in Trump’s excrement. That the violence at the capitol last week failed to loosen Trump’s hold on the Republican Party—when he is an outgoing, disgraced president, de-platformed and out of his mind—is and should be horrifying…” (Libby Anne, Patheos).
“…Donald Trump has long exulted in superlatives. The first. The best. The most. The greatest. ‘No president has ever done what I’ve done,’ he boasts. ‘No president has ever even come close,’ he says. But as his four years in office draw to an end, there’s only one title to which he can lay claim: Donald Trump is the worst president America has ever had.
“In December 2019, he became the third president to be impeached. Last week, Trump entered a category all his own, becoming the first president to be impeached twice. But impeachment, which depends in part on the makeup of Congress, is not the most objective standard. What does being the worst president actually mean? And is there even any value, at the bitter end of a bad presidency, in spending energy on judging a pageant of failed presidencies?
“It is helpful to think of the responsibilities of a president in terms of the two elements of the oath of office set forth in the Constitution. In the first part, presidents swear to ‘faithfully execute the Office of the President of the United States.’ This is a pledge to properly perform the three jobs the presidency combines into one: head of state, head of government, and commander in chief. In the second part, they promise to ‘preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.’
“Trump was a serial violator of his oath—as evidenced by his continual use of his office for personal financial gain—but focusing on three crucial ways in which he betrayed it helps clarify his singular historical status. First, he failed to put the national-security interests of the United States ahead of his own political needs. Second, in the face of a devastating pandemic, he was grossly derelict, unable or unwilling to marshal the requisite resources to save lives while actively encouraging public behavior that spread the disease. And third, held to account by voters for his failures, he refused to concede defeat and instead instigated an insurrection, stirring a mob that stormed the Capitol.
“Many chief executives have failed, in one way or another, to live up to the demands of the job, or to competently discharge them. But historians now tend to agree that our worst presidents are those who fall short in the second part of their pledge, in some way endangering the Constitution. And if you want to understand why these three failures make Trump the worst of all our presidents, the place to begin is in the basement of the presidential rankings, where dwell his rivals for that singular dishonor…” (Tim Naftali, The Atlantic).
Why Is Trump the Worst President in U.S. History?
ReplyDeleteHis autocratic abuse of presidential power, his constitutional ignorance, his obstruction of justice and concealment, his lawless demagoguery, his pathological narcissism, his grandiose delusions, his anti-social personality disorder, his malignant arrogance, his moral relativism, his white nationalism, his perfidious nationalism, his hateful racism, his infectious nihilism, his outrageous iconoclasm, his ruthless competition, his puerile dereliction, his embarrassing idiocy, his provocative transgressions, his mocking disrespect, his impetuous vulgarity, his sexual predation; his belligerent intimidation, his incessant lying, his conspiratorial gaslighting, his obsessive vindictiveness, his hypocritical cowardice, his compulsive xenophobia, his callous misogyny, his insufferable bigotry, his disgusting buffoonery, his histrionic rallying, his dangerous idiocy, his sociopathic bullying, his seditious behavior…
"Texas Congressman Joaquin Castro, a graduate of Harvard Law School, asked his colleagues: 'If inciting a deadly insurrection is not enough to get a president impeached, then what is?' Ten Republicans voted for Impeachment, but 197 House Republicans disagreed. Trump incited the crowd in person on the Mall. He lied to his supporters saying, 'I’ll be with you' on the march to the Capitol. Trump then refused to call the crowd back when it turned into a mob that violently stormed into the Capitol. Trump scurried back to the White House to gleefully watch on TV his 'special people' rampage through the Congress with destructive intent.
ReplyDelete"Why should the GOP obeisance to Trump, the Mobster in Chief, this recidivist criminal, a violator of many provisions of the Constitution, obstructer of justice 'as a daily way of life' according to his former national security advisor John Bolton, and hourly lying sociopath, surprise anyone?
"Congressional Republicans have aided and abetted, for four years, Trump’s assertion that 'With Article II, I can do whatever I want as president.' Dangerous Donald did just that. He finally incited a massive, homicidal street crime against the very Congress that let him get away with everything, day after day, as if there were no laws and no Constitution to be observed whatsoever.
"The GOP speakers who defended Trump in the House Impeachment debate will go down in history as unsurpassed political cowards and lying bloviators, led by Trump clone, belligerent Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio. Trump’s Congressional protectors, however, failed. The House of Representatives voted for Articles of Impeachment that are on their way to the Senate for a certain trial. The Senate should convict treacherous unrepentant Trump and ban him from ever seeking federal office again..." (Common Dreams).
“…If Republicans had uniformly and overwhelmingly supported the impeachment of the president for his treasonous actions, this public rejection would have been an important first step toward removing the stink of Trump from the Republican Party.
ReplyDelete“Mind you, I’m not saying this would make up for what the Republicans have done over these past four years in appeasing and aiding and abetting Trump, nor would it erase the fact that Mitch McConnell turned his party into one of obstruction before Trump came on the scene. All I’m saying is that Republicans had an opportunity to reject Trump and move beyond him, and they rejected it.
“Oh yes! This was the most bipartisan impeachment in history! This is true as far as it goes. But only 4% of Republicans in the House voted to impeach the president for his actions. 96% of Republicans voted no.
“This was a choice.
“Given the chance to reject the violence and corruption of Trumpism, Republicans instead chose to roll around in the mire, smearing themselves in Trump’s excrement. That the violence at the capitol last week failed to loosen Trump’s hold on the Republican Party—when he is an outgoing, disgraced president, de-platformed and out of his mind—is and should be horrifying…” (Libby Anne, Patheos).
“…Donald Trump has long exulted in superlatives. The first. The best. The most. The greatest. ‘No president has ever done what I’ve done,’ he boasts. ‘No president has ever even come close,’ he says. But as his four years in office draw to an end, there’s only one title to which he can lay claim: Donald Trump is the worst president America has ever had.
ReplyDelete“In December 2019, he became the third president to be impeached. Last week, Trump entered a category all his own, becoming the first president to be impeached twice. But impeachment, which depends in part on the makeup of Congress, is not the most objective standard. What does being the worst president actually mean? And is there even any value, at the bitter end of a bad presidency, in spending energy on judging a pageant of failed presidencies?
“It is helpful to think of the responsibilities of a president in terms of the two elements of the oath of office set forth in the Constitution. In the first part, presidents swear to ‘faithfully execute the Office of the President of the United States.’ This is a pledge to properly perform the three jobs the presidency combines into one: head of state, head of government, and commander in chief. In the second part, they promise to ‘preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.’
“Trump was a serial violator of his oath—as evidenced by his continual use of his office for personal financial gain—but focusing on three crucial ways in which he betrayed it helps clarify his singular historical status. First, he failed to put the national-security interests of the United States ahead of his own political needs. Second, in the face of a devastating pandemic, he was grossly derelict, unable or unwilling to marshal the requisite resources to save lives while actively encouraging public behavior that spread the disease. And third, held to account by voters for his failures, he refused to concede defeat and instead instigated an insurrection, stirring a mob that stormed the Capitol.
“Many chief executives have failed, in one way or another, to live up to the demands of the job, or to competently discharge them. But historians now tend to agree that our worst presidents are those who fall short in the second part of their pledge, in some way endangering the Constitution. And if you want to understand why these three failures make Trump the worst of all our presidents, the place to begin is in the basement of the presidential rankings, where dwell his rivals for that singular dishonor…” (Tim Naftali, The Atlantic).