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The morning after impeachment

Published by digby on December 20, 2019

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The morning after impeachment

by digby

I can’t see into the future and I have no idea how this whole thing is going to turn out. But  regardless of what comes next, Trump being impeached is an undeniably good thing. Even if they decide to impeach every Democrat in the future, as they threatened to do all day long (reminiscent of Justic Kavanaugh screaming “what goes around comes around” at his hearing) it will still have been worth it.

In the middle of any crisis, its important that some people keep their heads, use their common sense and work together to get through it. There are always hysterics running around in circles screaming and opportunists taking advantage of the situation but you have to ignore all that and keep focused on doing what is necessary to survive.

Our democracy is in crisis. Trump’s reign is an incoherent mass of revanchist resentment driven by propaganda, demagoguery and tribalism. But the foundation its built on is a white nationalist, authoritarian, kleptocratic Republican Party and that must be opposed at all costs.

They have convinced their brainwashed followers that they are the only true Americans and that they are the majority. Yesterday, Louisiana Representative Clay Higgins gave a rousing speech against impeachment in which he showed this map:

He said: “We don’t face this horror because the Democrats have all of a sudden become constitutionalists, we’re not being devoured from within because of some surreal assertion of the socialists’ newfound love of the very flag that they trod upon. We face this horror because of this map.” 

“This is what the Democrats fear. They fear the true will of ‘we the people.’ They are deep, establishment D.C. They fear. They call this Republican map flyover country. They call us deplorable. They fear our faith. They fear our strength. They fear our unity. They fear our vote. And they fear our president.”

You, of course, realize just how fatuous that map is. Rocks, trees and corn fields don’t vote. People do. And here is the 2016 map adjusted by population:

Throughout the debate yesterday Republicans evoked the “63 million” who voted for Trump as being a silent majority the Democrats were trying to suppress. They even held a minute moment of silence to “honor” them.

I don’t have to remind you that in the real world, 66 million people voted for Trump”s rival and he only won the election due to 77,000 votes spread across three states that allowed him to eke out an electoral college victory.

The only person to mention that yesterday was Steny Hoyer in his big closing speech.

Last night Trump soothed himself with a big rally in Michigan where he basked in the glow of his ecstatic followers as the House voted to impeach him. It was a bitter and ugly rant, even by his own standards.

He smiled and said he was “having a great time” and insisted he isn’t “worried” and when it comes to being removed from office, I’d guess he’s right. Mitch McConnell and the GOP Senate will not remove him.  As angry as he is, reports say he’s looking forward to wreaking revenge in the election campaign.

So, the crisis is not over, not by a long shot.  But the Democrats stayed together and behaved like adults. The Republicans did not.  The showed the entire country, not just their shrinking minority of voters, who they really are:

They weren’t trying to hide it. Neither is Trump. Neither are those rally goers in Michigan last night cheering wildly for their Mad King. They see themselves as a huge majority who are being unfairly treated as a minority.

And they know something about how badly minorities are treated.

In many ways, what they fear is the vengeance of those they’ve subjugated. Luckily for them, the  Democratic coalition is multi-racial, multi-ethnic and pluralistic and they are not looking for revenge. Indeed, they will agitate for policies that benefit the people who scorn them even if they get slapped in the face for doing it.

And I hate to say it,  this shrinking rump of complainers may just have one or two more election wins in them, especially if their foreign allies remain willing to help and they can keep in place the vote suppression and purges in enough states to eke out electoral college victories. The majority which opposes them cannot afford to be complacent.

We cannot forget that those angry white men on the House floor yesterday and the screaming crowds at Trump’s rally yesterday still hold a lot of power. Their plutocratic patrons are working overtime to degrade the institutions that guard our democracy. While the fantasy White America Trump supposedly represents never existed and it’s certainly not going to exist in the future, the true believers aren’t going down quietly. It’s will take everything the rest of us have to defeat them.

I hope you will check in here at Hullabaloo as we try to sort all this out during this tumultuous time. I don’t think it’s ever been more important to stick together.

You can count on us to keep an eye on this unfolding drama seven days a week even when you find it too stressful to do it yourselves.  If you have he means to help support this blog for another year, I would be very grateful.

Again, thank you so much for reading and supporting my work all these years. It means the world to me. — digby

And Happy Hollandaise everyone!

Lol. Here’s bleary-eyed me on the morning after. Oy…

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