America first
Trump supporters must decide if loyalty is to their country or to a man.
We know some of the reasons nearly 63 million people voted for Donald Trump, and not all of them involve a wall.
In Trump, some Americans disillusioned with politics saw a businessman, not an ideologue. They saw a rich man, though not one restrained by political correctness. They saw a man who promised to talk straight. To drain the swamp. To restore American pride for those who found it fading.
Voting for Trump in 2016 wasn’t inherently foolish. It’s American to take risks, to cast aside tradition, to believe people can reinvent themselves. After the election, many dearly hoped that a billionaire playboy who racked up bankruptcies like tabloid headlines could become presidential. We hoped he would actually put America first — all 325 million of us — not just the minority who elected him, or the lucky few who share his tax bracket.
Now it is time to face reality. Those for whom loyalty runs strong need to ask: Is your allegiance to your country, or to a man?
If it is to the man, no argument will sway you. You will see only the good: the tax cuts, though not the disproportionate benefits to the wealthy; the high employment, though not the decline of real wages; the downfall of Obamacare, though not the millions, including those with pre-existing conditions, who will lose access to health care.
If your allegiance is to your country, you cannot ignore the events of this week.
The presidential candidate who chanted “lock her up!” about an opponent who stored sensitive email on a home server has now been implicated in an actual crime. His former attorney and fixer, Michael Cohen, has said, under oath, Trump directed him to violate the law to sway the election.
The people have got to know if their president is a crook, as President Nixon once said. Now it appears Trump is the un-indicted co-conspirator. We should neither convict nor exonerate him prematurely, but we should be honest.
The president, crook or not, surrounds himself with crooks. His former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, was found guilty on eight counts of financial crimes as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s ongoing investigation into illegal Russian interference with the 2016 election. The verdict further validates Mueller’s investigation.
Then there’s Cohen, who pleaded guilty to tax fraud, wire fraud and breaking campaign finance laws. As part his stunning admission, Cohen incriminated Trump in his illegal payola scheme to silence women during the campaign. “He stood up and testified under oath that Donald Trump directed him to commit a crime by making payments to two women for the principal purpose of influencing an election,” Lanny J. Davis, Cohen’s attorney, said. “If those payments were a crime for Michael Cohen, then why wouldn’t they be a crime for Donald Trump?”
Don’t trust Cohen? Don’t worry. He has audio recordings of Trump discussing the payoffs.
The man who promised to drain the swamp is compounding its toxic ecology. If we’re not careful, the American people will find ourselves in a fix similar to a bayou toad plopped into a kitchen pot, slowing growing accustomed to the boiling brew of scandal and corruption until we’re cooked.
Meanwhile, Trump-aligned politicians are treating their public service like a smash-and-grab. Former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt and former Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price have already left office following their own scandals involving, among other things, spending public funds on private jets. Add that to the guilty pleas by Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos for the crime of making false statements to the FBI, and campaign staffer Richard Gates for making false statements to the FBI and conspiracy against the United States.
For those Americans who say they don’t care whether Trump or any of his associates broke the law, for those who may think it’s a small price to pay for a couple of conservative Supreme Court justices and the still dangling promise of a border wall, we ask this: What about law and order?
Those who demand border-crossers be judged by the letter of the law, making no exception for vulnerable Central American asylum seekers fleeing deadly violence, should demand the same zero-tolerance of our president. Anything else is hypocrisy.
Of course, perfection isn’t possible — especially in politics. Yes, President Obama lied when he continued to say you could keep your health plan. He was wrong, but he did it to help millions of Americans get health insurance.
Why does Trump lie? What purposes are served by his daily dribble of falsehoods? Trump’s purposes, his highest priority.
If you share that purpose, Team Trump is still the place for you.
If you put America first, you’re on a team that includes both Democrats and Republicans. It is a team of patriots, including Robert Gates, the former Secretary of Defense who served eight presidents and led Texas A&M University, and also retired Admiral Bill McRaven, the former Navy seal who led the raid on bin Laden and later led the University of Texas. Both stood up to Trump last week after the president revoked security clearance of John Brennan merely because the former CIA director criticized him.
“Through your actions, you have embarrassed us in the eyes of our children, humiliated us on the world stage and, worst of all, divided us as a nation,” McRaven wrote.
A house divided against itself cannot stand. President Lincoln knew that. In their hearts, Trump voters know it, too.
They must decide: the man or the country. Amid the lies, scandals, investigations and Omarosa exposés, a record 72,000 Americans died last year of drug overdoses. A much-needed infrastructure bill is nowhere to be found. Tariffs are straining foreign relations and igniting trade wars that cost Americans jobs and drive up prices. Hundreds of migrant children separated from their parents have yet to be reunited.
Americans should pay attention as Mueller’s investigation continues. Trump has no shame; he won’t resign as Nixon did. So it is up to Congress to hold him accountable, and if the facts support it, to call for impeachment. It is up to the American people, including those who voted for Trump, to examine our loyalties: America, or the man?
We already know Trump’s choice.