Trump Just Cemented His Place In the Notorious Pages Of History Along With Hitler

This is some week. A year ago this week was the beginning of Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial. A week ago today was the bloody insurrection at the Capitol. A week from today, Joe Biden will be our president. So this week is like a vantage point on a hill, where you can see miles behind you and in front.

Today was the House vote to impeach Trump for the second time and it passed handily, 232 to 197, with 10 Republicans, led by Liz Cheney, voting to impeach. For her troubles, a petition was circulated to oust her as House GOP chair.

The minute the gavel came down, Donald J. Trump passed into the history books in the same category where you find Adolph Hitler, Augusto Pinochet, and even his BFF Kim Jong Un. What they all have in common is that they’re men whose ascendency to power hurt their people far more than it ever helped them and for some time to come. The Trump-fueled insurrection at the Capitol last week is an episode that will live in shame in the annals of this nation for who knows how many decades to come. It is an episode that will stand out as a benchmark and be taught in history books. Is is assuredly an episode that will mark the nadir of democracy as we know it — we hope. If we’re lucky it isn’t going to get any lower than this.

And all of this came about, the insurrection and the impeachment, Trump’s legacy in history, because of one lie, and it’s a whopper. Donald Trump insists he won the election. That’s where it all started, the early morning of November 4, where he got up and did the equivalent of an acceptance speech, to the horror — but not to the surprise — of one and all. Trump actually went there. And he went there, because he’s a man with no bottom. There is no low he won’t go. And it all started then. This is what he said. The Triad:

It’s also clear that we have won Georgia. We’re up by 2.5% or 117,000 votes with only 7% left. They’re never going to catch us. They can’t catch us. . . .

So we won by 107,000 votes with 81% of the vote. That’s Michigan. So when you take those three states in particular and you take all of the others, I mean, we have so many… We had such a big night. You just take a look at all of these states that we’ve won tonight, and then you take a look at the kind of margins that we’ve won it by, and all of a sudden, it’s not like we’re up 12 votes and we have 60% left. We won states. . . .

This is a fraud on the American public. This is an embarrassment to our country. We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we did win this election. We did win this election.

What you see here is Trump claiming as facts suppositions that he could not possibly have known to be true.

He was not saying, “Things are very tight, they look good for us and I’m confident.” He claimed “we did win” even as votes were still being counted.

That is a premeditated lie. First-degree lying, if you will.

He lied that night. And then he doubled down on the lie the next day and thereafter until the insurrection occurred. And the Republican party enabled him, as usual.

Think about it from the perspective of the person who believes the lie: They have been told by the president of the United States that the election was fraudulent. The vast majority of the president’s party has testified to the truth of this story. The only reasonable conclusion of this tale is that America is currently undergoing a coup. That the incoming government is not only illegitimate, but is an occupying, authoritarian force.

If you believe that—if you really, truly believe it—then how could you acquiesce in anything that is happening? How could you pay taxes? Why would you obey laws? Why wouldn’t you storm the Capitol? Because if you believe this lie—really, truly believe it—then you are trying to save our democratic republic.

That is what they believe. This lie about about the election, along with all the other lies Trump has told and which he is backed up in by right-wing media, right-wing talk radio, social media and most of all his GOP co-liars, has poisoned our culture. And this is what Trump will be remembered for.

Here is a comment that came in on one of Murfster’s pieces and which I deleted earlier. I banned this crackpot. But I saved his comment, because I want us all to take a look at it and see what we’re dealing with.

Utterly fucking ridiculous! He was not the one who brought these people to the whitehouse!!! He asked for a peaceful protest like he has all 4 1/2 yrs. I think the media needs to get their heads out of the dems asses and start thinking for themselves and not be spoon fed! The last 4 yrs there has been numerous violent protest all over the country by people who hate Trump this is no different the Clinton’s were responsible for the coo that blamed Trump for their doings, this is all to cover up what Trump has been trying to uncover since he took office ( the crooks of the swamp)! The ones who raise taxes, fund every country more then the u.s., cover up dealings of Hunter and the new administration. The dems have more to gain then Trump leading these riots!!!If they keep everyone’s focus on Trump you people will not see what is really going on! Why would Trump even start this kind of violence when he wants to stay in office? He wouldn’t! They would because that is the final thing they can blame on Trump to prevent him of ever running again! To take the focus off that there was deffintly many things that tell us the election was not the Americans vote for President it was the corruption of the dems to prevent this none political man from continuing to investigate and do the medias job in exposing a long cover up in the Whitehouse! Why have all these dems gotten rich why in office and all had their own personal fundraiser projects that fund nothing bimut their own pockets? Trump gave away his salary because his focus wasn’t what he could get by being a President it was to make big changes that would end our rights to come- to stop a corrupt dictatorship that had and is now developing the biggest coo ever. Right before your eyes that many refuse to see- he wanted a free America free from many years of corruption, protect the rights of freedom, and grow as a nation EVERYTHING THE INCOMING OFFICE WILL TAKE AWAY !! But unfortunately will all be clear when its to late, because they have directed attention on Trump being the cause of the Wednesday destruction on Washington. Where was security? Why was it so easy to brake in to the building? Why was bml being ushered to the national mall by police to continue violence- biden knew all about it and was apart of the destruction so it would appear that they were rescuing us from Trump when they created it to look good because they could convince people of anything they wanted. Because that’s what the new administration will be they will make designs on whats good for the corrupt swamp not US! And you won’t even realize it until its done then we will be in dictatorship- we will be Russia. The people didnt vote for this corruption, the vote was taken away if the past 4 yrs has taught us anything its everytime Trump did something or tried to do something the dems tried to stop him because it wasn’t good for them! But everyone will see soon as Trump leaves office everything will be clear! Trump was our only chance to rid corruption and be strong as a nation!

Isn’t it incredible? I like “whitehouse” and “coo” best of all.

But this guy’s (or gal’s) comment is important to look at because it illustrates what differentiates 2020 from all other elections. We had crazies in the past who believed that the government was illegitimate, but we have never had a sitting president declare on every day of the interregnum that the election wasn’t over and that the election results were going to be overturned just any minute now — and get the backing of Senators and Reps, who pushed the same lie. That is the difference. And it is a leviathan in size and in the effect it has had on this transition and on our lives in general.

There are always people who believe elections are fraudulent and that the government of the United States is illegitimate. (See Timothy McVeigh and the long history of American militias.)

What is different today is that at no point in living memory has the defeated president of the United States, along with the majority of his party, proclaimed that a national election was fraudulent and that the incoming president is illegitimate. In all prior instances, they did exactly the opposite: They testified to the legitimacy of the new government in an effort to tamp down the conspiratorial falsehoods which always exist in small numbers.

Today, the president and his party are the wellspring of these falsehoods.

And here is the point which you must understand:

Nothing can get better in American politics until this lie is repudiated by the main body of the Republican party in the public square, with enough force and repetition that the majority of Republican voters cease to believe it. [emphasis theirs]

And therein lies the rub. The majority of Republicans are terrified of their own constituents. They don’t know what to do. They are programmed, like Pavlov’s dogs, to follow the president’s direction. The fact that this president is insane and so is the direction he is leading them, doesn’t seem to resonate with a lot of them. They balk. They flail. They don’t know what to do. A few of them have finally found their moral compass — yes, Liz Cheney, we’re talking about you — and that’s a hopeful sign but the bottom line is that it may be too little, too late.

Kevin McCarthy says that Trump “bears responsibility” for the insurrection, but he also voted not to impeach him. These mixed messages are what is killing America.

What the Republican party has done over the last two months is akin to having dropped polonium into America’s political groundwater.

And the radiation from their lie has poisoned everything.

Donald Trump is absolutely in the dumpster of history. He earned his spot there. But the jury is still out on the Republican party, while they go through their internecine war. Their lies have had the effect of the party splitting into two factions, the red traditional GOP, and the orange Party of Trump.

A house divided against itself cannot stand. The GOP is one house. Unfortunately, the American people constitute another, larger house.

“He who bothereth in his own house shall inherit the wind.” Donald Trump ran through the house of politics and shat everywhere like the un-housebroken mad cur that he is. And the Republican party said, “nice doggy.”

America is not going to heal when 46% of the people think the election has been stolen. That much is certain. Mitch McConnell did his thing talking about Trump’s “sweeping conspiracy theories” and that was a step. Mike Pence finally came out and said he couldn’t do anything to overturn the election but not before he had a number of lawyers and scholars research the fringe legal theory.

Until the GOP comes clean and admits that there was never any reason to contest the election, that they were just going along with Trump, this nation can’t begin to heal and things are only going to get worse. And I have no confidence that they will come clean.