It is well known that President Trump does not drink alcohol. He does, however, have another couple of addictions – power and adulation. Let’s look at his addictions through the lens of an alcoholic. Let’s assume that Trump is an alcoholic.
If Trump was the boss of a large organization and most of those around him knew he was an alcoholic and continued over a period of years to cover for him, defend him, rationalize for him and continue serving him alcohol whenever he demanded it, what would happen if he killed someone while driving drunk? Would all of those people be culpable in enabling and defending behavior that led to that tragic consequence? The answer is most assuredly ‘yes.’ Even a bartender can be held liable, criminally and civilly, for serving alcohol to a customer is obviously drunk.
Since the tragic and shameful events of January 6th, we have seen a number of Trump administration officials resign ‘in protest’, and we have seen a number of former Trump allies and enablers try to distance themselves from the President now that the President’s reckless actions have culminated in the deaths of 5 people, including a police officer, and an assault on the very seat of American democracy. It’s too little, too late! All of these people that served in this administration and enabled Trump’s reckless, dangerous, divisive behavior over the last four years cannot wipe the slate clean by a token resignation after the damage has been done. They are no less guilty than the bartender who continues to serve alcohol to a severely impaired customer.
What happened on January 6th was easily predictable and completely avoidable. Months ago, when Trump was asked if he would support a peaceful transition of power, he could have simply said, “I will respect the results of the election, whatever they are because that is the way our democracy works.” If he had said that, and meant it, the events of January 6th would never have happened. It’s that simple.
Instead, Trump, the media that supported him, and his Republican enablers, continued to spew baseless conspiracy theories and propagate the myth about a ‘rigged’ election. And the more his ‘base’ got riled up and bought into this narrative, the more Trump fed off of it. It was just like serving Trump a dozen ‘power cocktails’ made with 151 rum. And these same people were ‘shocked’ when Trump got falling down drunk on power and adulation and got out on the highway of American democracy and caused a massive multi-car pileup that killed 5 people. So, to those that are all of a sudden resigning, bullshit! All you are doing is leaving the scene of an accident that you are partially culpable for.
There has to be consequences for Trump for the carnage that resulted from his actions. I sincerely doubt that Mike Pence has the spine to invoke the 25th Amendment and try to gather the required Cabinet majority. Although Secretary of Education, Betsy Devos, and Secretary of Transportation, Elaine Chao, resigned allegedly in protest, it would not surprise me if the real reason for the resignations was that they didn’t want to have to vote against Trump if the 25th Amendment were invoked. In any case, I don’t think invoking the 25th Amendment will go anywhere.
I think it is highly probable that Trump will be impeached a second time. Articles of impeachment have already been drawn up in the House of Representatives and will probably hit the floor on Monday with a vote on the floor likely to happen a day or two after that. The question then is what will the Senate do? Will they finally convict him or will they acquit him again and let him off to wreak more havoc? I frankly think that even amidst the growing outrage among Republican senators, they will not have the spine to actually convict Trump. They will argue that he will be out of office in a few days so what is the point. The point is that if they had the courage to convict, Trump would never be able to hold office again. If Trump is impeached and the senate once again fails to convict him, they will have to live with the consequences and it sure as hell didn’t turn out very well the last time.
Simultaneously, the top federal prosecutor in DC, Acting U. S. Attorney, Michael Sherwin, is looking at everyone involved in the events of January 6th including Trump. This may lead to more legal problems for Trump beyond what he is already facing when he gets out of office. Whether it is via the invocation of the 25th Amendment, an impeachment and conviction in the Congress, or criminal prosecution, I think and hope Trump’s political career is over.
He, like so many people with substance abuse problems, just didn’t know when to quit! Trump has demonstrated over the last four years that he will never admit that he has a problem, which is why it is imperative that others act to ensure that he cannot ever get ‘behind the wheel’ again on the highway of American democracy and cause more death and destruction.
Very good article! Unfortunately, all the Trumpers are just as addicted as he is. They will all have to go through the twelve step process in Trumpoholic Anonymous and recovery will take a long time.