Now is the winter of Donald Trump’s discontent
From what I’m hearing from my friends on social media, the political noose has tightened around Donald Trump’s neck as a result of the testimony by former FBI Director James Comey at his Senate hearing Thursday morning. In their opinion, Trump’s impeachment, if not right around the corner, is inevitable.
I see things differently.
As far as I can tell, they have not gotten the memo that I have which says that the president’s support in the GOP-controlled congress has not waned as a result of the latest Russiagate revelations, including the Comey hearing.
And, as Gerald Ford reminded us when he was house minority leader, “an impeachable offense is whatever a majority of the House of Representatives considers it to be at a given moment in history.” It’s going to take an honest-to-God smoking gun to convince these flunkies that their president has done anything that qualifies as an impeachable offense.
(Of course, a few GOP congressmen, like ships deserting a sinking rat, might decide to withdraw their support for the president when forced to confront the cold, harsh reality of electoral politics in closely-contested congressional districts at home. But this number is not sufficient to change the impeachment calculation much.)
Many of my friends also imagine that a portion of Trump’s base is about to abandon him. I don’t see any sign of this happening. To the contrary, polls suggest that they are being energized by Trump’s combat with Democrats and the media. They are convinced — and will remain convinced — that all the legal maneuvering over Russia is nothing more than the lefties trying to steal the November election which they won fair and square.
Indeed, I think things are looking up for Donald Trump right now.
The seeds for Trump’s current discontent were planted during his presidential campaign and his time as president-elect. There is no doubt that he compounded these problems since taking office by mishandling the fallout from Russiagate, for example, by treating James Comey as though he were his wavering Mafia henchman. That said, unless Trump starts planting some new self-destructive seeds, the Comey hearing may very well mark the beginning of the end of the ongoing political harvest.
This is not to say that there is not a lot of turmoil in store for the administration. Much of it will be inflicted by Trump himself, as he continues spewing crazy tweets and giving ill-considered answers in interviews. But none of these missteps will result in a mortal political wound. And you can bet that son-in-law Jared Kushner, Boy Diplomat, will soon find himself under scrutiny by congressional committees for working with Russian operatives to establish secret communications with the Kremlin. That other Trump Russia-implicated campaign aides will land on the pavement gazing up at the underside of a fast-moving bus is pretty much a sure thing, too. But, absent a smoking gun, the Donald will come out of all of it unscathed.
Remember, also, we won’t find out for a year or more what Special Counsel Robert Mueller has to add to the Russia story, and even then there’s no guarantee that we’ll be privy to the confidential report he is charged to deliver to his supervisor in the Justice Department at that time, whoever that might be.
I’m all in favor of stirring the Russiagate pot to keep the Trump White House off balance and thwart the Republican congress from enacting their disastrous legislative agenda. But let’s not lose sight of the fact that we aren’t going to win this battle in the halls of congress or the criminal courts.
The only clear path to victory is at the polls. And that means developing a slate of compelling candidates and turning out the vote like we’ve never turned out the vote before. These things don’t have anything to do with deposing Donald Trump.
