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We Are Better Than That

Posted by leftoflansing on November 24, 2019January 5, 2020

As much as I‘m a HUGE proponent of impeachment & have been riveted by the hearings, I can’t shake the feeling that Trump got what he wanted (endless media mentions about Biden, scandal, & corruption in the same sentence) and Putin got what he wanted (America at war with itself.)

— Chris Savage (@Eclectablog) November 22, 2019

I understand what my good friend, Chris Savage, from Eclectablog is saying.

The Occupant believes there’s no such thing as bad publicity. No matter what happens in the impeachment process, he’s the focus. And he likes that.

And while the administration is nothing but a cesspool of anti-American corruption, The Occupant and his followers are also using the impeachment spotlight to lie that Joe Biden is just as corrupt.

Trust me, I know where Chris is coming form, and listening to corporate right-wing radio isn’t lifting-up my spirits either.

But we’re in a values war. It may not be a civil war where there’s bloodshed on battlefields, but the ultimate causality in this war is our democracy.

We have to keep up the rhetorical pressure, and fight back even harder. Fiona Hill’s testimony will forever be remembered as a watershed moment in this country’s history. Hill essentially called-out The Occupant, Intelligence Committee ranking Republican member Devin Nunez, and the right-wing echo chamber for doing Putin’s bidding. As they lie about how Ukraine was working on behalf of the Clinton campaign in 2016, Hill reminded the world that’s exactly what Putin and Russia want us to believe.

Muddling the message and dividing hard-working Americans is Putin’s goal.

So, while the evidence is overwhelming that The Occupant clearly attempted to extort and bribe Ukraine to create false stories on his political rival, his followers don’t seem to care he thwarted the Constitution. They also apparently don’t care they are pushing Putin’s message.

Whatever it takes to stop those of us who believe in equal opportunity and decency.

I refuse to believe The Occupant’s followers outnumber the rest of America. The 2018 election showed that to be the case, especially in Michigan.

Which is why despair is not an option. Exposing the criminal enterprise of The Occupant’s administration and his followers is worth doing.

As The Washington Post’s Greg Sargent wrote today of the entire Republican voting base:

It’s time to drop the posture that Trump’s defenders can be shamed into accepting what has been unearthed, or that they can be shamed into arguing from a baseline of shared democratic values, or into arguing over how to interpret a comprehensive set of shared facts.

Instead, let’s rhetorically treat Trump’s defenders as his criminal accomplices. Not just as “enablers” of Trump’s corruption but as active participants in it.

Sargent accentuates his point on how South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham announced he’s going to investigate the Bidens. Because, of course.

And now, we’re learning how Nunez is, himself, a fact witness, thanks to some excellent by The Daily Beast’s Betsy Swan:

Lev Parnas, an indicted associate of Rudy Giuliani, helped arrange meetings and calls in Europe for Rep. Devin Nunes in 2018, Parnas’ lawyer Ed MacMahon told The Daily Beast.
Nunes aide Derek Harvey participated in the meetings, the lawyer said, which were arranged to help Nunes’ investigative work. MacMahon didn’t specify what those investigations entailed.

Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell of California expertly exposed Nunez as the corrupt fanboy he is when Swalwell introduced that Daily Beast article during Fiona Hill’s hearing last Thursday.

By the way, this is the same Lev Parnas who’s been indicted with his friend Igor Furman for illegally pushing money from foreign donors to American campaigns. And this is the same Parnas who was pictured hanging-out with Michigan Republican Senate candidate John James in 2018. (Please, read the Eclectablog post about Parnas and James.)

So, Nunez traveled overseas on taxpayer money to dig-up dirt that the Bidens were doing something illegal in Ukraine. And during the hearings this week, Lev Parnas’ name came-up multiple times, and Nunez had the gall to call Democrats the conspiracy theorist.

Yet, I guarantee you, this won’t change the cult’s minds. They will keep pushing, “But, the Bidens! The Bidens!” Whatever it takes to stop the libruls!

The cult is lost. It’s gone. That some Democrats believe they will come back is living in Fantasyland.

That’s fine. We must move-on and connect with new people. And besides, I know right-wingers and their echo chamber. They’ve been gone for the last 40 years. The Occupant isn’t some anomaly within the Republican Party. He IS the Republican Party, and the Republican Party is him.

Impeachment might ultimately be a losing battle in the Senate. That being said, we called The Occupant and his followers to the fold, and they’re exposed. History will note it.

Ultimately, impeachment had to be pursued because as Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff reminded the country when he quoted the late Elijah Cummings: