Yes, the impeachment proceeding does threaten to worsen hyperpartisanship and tribal warfare, just as our wonderful president wrote in his six page brain explosion. So what? We have two major parties that hate each other for no apparent reason. Neither party stands for much of anything in spite of babbling about love of country, the Constitution, traditional American values. Our system of legalized bribery, which we euphemistically call campaign finance law, ensures the two big parties spend most of their time courting and shaking down big money donors based on handing out taxpayer financed contracts, tax breaks, subsidies, etc. The only real disagreement arises concerning emotional issues, fear mongering, finger pointing and otherwise diverting attention from the fleecing of the citizenry.
The Democrats foolishly believe they can suddenly become highly principled when it comes to impeaching a president of the other party. So committed are they to this narrative that they’re willing to bring a case without absolute proof. Republicans just as foolishly believe they can work up so much fake moral outrage that they’re justified in ignoring the oath they take as impeachment jurors. With the Bill Clinton impeachment still in the rearview mirror, the hypocrisy of both parties is glaring. The usual cloak for hypocrisy is to claim the moral high ground, which only highlights the hypocrisy.
So the huge majority of voters will snuggle deeper into the bosom of their favorite party. The irony here is that they should run screaming from both parties. The best antidote to destructive partisanship is to reject the parties promoting it, but the average citizen doesn’t know that. How could they? From the moment of birth, they are fed a steady diet of fear and loathing. Donald Trump is the perfect leader for such a population. No wonder younger voters are disengaged and cynical. We keep offering them more of the same, demanding they choose between bad and worse, and we wonder why they don’t come to the polls and support the candidates stuffed down their throats. That’s the discouraging part of the possibility that Bernie Sanders could be the Democratic nominee. Resentful mainstream Democrats would spend as much energy ruining his chances as they should spend working against Trump. And there is a certain logic in this, since Bernie and other progressives represent as much of a threat as, perhaps even more of a threat than, the Republicans and Trump.
So, while most Democrats are celebrating the impeachment, I’m getting depressed. I don’t hate Trump enough to risk immersing the nation deeper in the cesspool full of bipartisan excrement. Sorry to be such a Debbie Downer. Maybe I’ll feel better when Bernie gets the nomination.
