Just a Starting Point

Nick Welsh is absolutely right that we need peace and unity now. Can we afford it?

With no consequences for the crimes of a president, the next Republican in office will see Trump’s actions and behavior as the starting point, the platform from which to test new and wider limits.

Trump scuttled the emoluments clause in the Constitution. The business interests of the next Republican president will be run from the West Wing by employees on the public payroll. All possible contracts will go to friends or relatives of the president. With sons and daughters now on the payroll, nepotism will run unto third cousins and incompetents. Tax cuts for everybody with the president’s income or more.

Fomenting an attack on Congress failed, but a vigorous campaign in the red states to overrun Sacramento and create the state of Jefferson would teach California a lesson. That would distract from the failures in Washington, DC.

Just testing, mind you.

Can we avoid this? In just two years Mitch McConnell may be back in charge of a do-nothing senate. One day there will be another Republican in office, and the mail-in vote will be rigged by crippling the Postal Service. (Oops. Sorry, tried that one already.)