Arrest Trump for Treason

[Bob Butler 54]

Watergate changed American politics.  The press and the Democrats took a president all the way down.  I’ve a sense that ever since the Republicans have wanted to return the favor.  The willingness to smear political opponents has been getting ever more rancid.

Yet, Nixon deserved it.  His flaw was paranoia.  His White House existed in a world where the Democratic Party and the Students for a Democratic Society were infiltrated and controlled by the Soviets.  To save the country, these internal traitors hostile to the United States had to be defeated by any means possible.  Living in this alternate reality, seeing the opposition as living a total lie, they lied themselves.  There was no respect for truth at all.

I’m starting to feel a genuine echo.  Trump isn’t paranoid.  He’s a narcissist.  That changes things in a lot of ways, but not all.  Any who oppose him are The Enemy, to be attacked from the hip.  There is again an alternate reality and lack of respect for the truth.  One should also remember that Nixon’s personal covert operations team was called ‘The Plumbers’ as their original purpose was to stop the rampant leaks that were sabotaging many of Nixon’s efforts.  We're starting to see that dynamic building again, where genuine patriots feel it necessary to expose a genuinely flawed administration, while the administration will futilely try to respond by trying to block the leaks.

There isn’t enough blood in the water yet for the sharks to go into a full feeding frenzy, but I’m starting to get the feeling of early Watergate.  The press has their knives out.  The Democrats sense a weakness.  The White House isn’t particularly attached to reality or truth.  The ongoing deceptions only whet the appetite to press harder.  Trump also simply doesn’t have the people skills to hold together a coherent coalition.

I’ve also a sense that Putin has his knife already in, and is waiting the best time to twist it.  He is being provocative, deploying treaty banned missiles, parking spy ships off the East Coast, having fighters buzz US assets…  and Trump doesn’t seem willing or able to respond.  All Trump is doing is pretending it isn’t happening.  Putin was quite willing to take down Hillary, and I’ve no reason to believe he won’t also take down Trump.  I suspect he has the ammunition, the means to leak it, and is waiting for the perfect timing.  I’m starting to take seriously the notion that the Trump White House can be blackmailed, that Putin will take advantage of this as much as he can, then he will twist the knife.  He does not seem to be playing it subtle.

Putin has been portrayed by the West in general and the US government in particular as a gangster capitalist with the morals of a fascist.  Ok, so maybe there are good reasons for such a portrayal.  Still, maybe, just maybe, he's a bit ticked off.  Maybe he wants to kick the US off it's high horse, to take the US status as 'leader of the free world' down a notch or three.  

One political party down.  One to go.  Working on it.

Since Watergate we have had no lack of scandal, press hostile to the president and confrontational attack politics.  Watergate set the example, and too many people since have thought presidents fair game and tried to repeat the exercise.  They haven’t been able to do so as the presidents since Nixon haven’t been so deeply flawed.  Trump may be just that flawed.  While I haven’t been big on the ‘Arrest Trump for Treason’ thread or the like, it is starting to feel like it might really happen.