Impeachment has not been an edifying spectacle

The impeachment of Donald Trump has not been an edifying spectacle. One almost pities the man. Mentally vacuous, morally obtuse, without even the good manners taught little Bushes, Trump has no grounding beyond his money and the adulation of crowds — neither with any intrinsic value. Of course he is unfit to be president, but how many have been? I didn’t vote for him, but he was elected.

Where were the hands to help? Instead a vicious Republican party happily exploited him for their every venal and reactionary purpose. He was surrounded in the White House by squabbling factions of the well- and ill-intentioned, none of them loyal (unless you count Vice President Pence, standing at his shoulder complacently looking on, as well he might).

Liberals and the liberal press greeted him with the same unthinking scorn they use to demonize Vladimir Putin. His clumsy initiatives to calm relations between the world’s nuclear powers were howled down by them and subverted by the same national security apparatus that thwarted President Obama’s.

Baffled beyond endurance he has vented his rage against the Democrats, who have risen magnificently to the occasion. Congressman Schiff has shown again that a skilled lawyer does not need a good case. I for one am reminded of a bullfight, the bewildered beast tormented by the agile and fleet, determined to bring him to his knees for the gratification of the Colosseum crowd.

Classical politics tells us that democracy does not end in tyranny. First you get anarchy.

— Carl Peterson, Paradise