On that bright Tuesday in November, 1932, the country
had reason to sing “Happy Days Are Here Again”. The
country was in the grips of a deep economic depression and a new
president had been elected and with him overwhelming majorities in
both houses of Congress. Change was coming.
It had been over three years since the stock market had
crashed. It had since rebounded before tumbling yet again, but the
damage was done. Confidence was shaken and the economy ground to a
near halt. Twenty five percent of the work force was now unemployed
and millions more were working at wages far below what they had
earned only a few months before. “Hoovervilles”, shanty
towns really, so named in the President's honor, had sprung up—like
thistles on a well trimmed lawn-- all across the land. Panic had
given way to despair. The pain had set in.
Upon defeat, President Hoover had, in the waning moments
of his administration, come up with another program to alleviate the
crisis. Roosevelt, the incoming President, would have none of it.
In those days the election was held in November but the
new President would not be sworn in until March. Four months the
nation would wait, and Roosevelt—telling Hoover that the nation has
only one President—would not budge. Hoover would own it.
Roosevelt's inaugural address is now remembered for the
words “we have nothing to fear, but fear itself...” but
that wasn't the most significant part of the speech. In this first
address to the nation, Roosevelt asked for war powers, declaring the
crisis to be on par with war, the damage done equal to a foreign
invasion. He asked for the tools and the nation responded.
He could only have done that in the depths of crisis and
he could only have done it if he could disown what had created the
crisis and declare that now we start anew. Like Lincoln, Roosevelt
understood that a cold break with the past was imperative.
But the timing, in recent history, has proved
unfortunate. Tricky Dick Nixon was just beginning his second term
when the storm of Watergate began to engulf the ship. No such luck
here.
In 2008, the crisis had not reached epic proportions
until late in the year. The economy had begun to shudder under the
strain of the housing crisis a year before but it wasn't until the
parasites on Wall Street began to game the oil markets that the house
of cards began to collapse. With gasoline, in some places, above
five dollars a gallon Americans suddenly found themselves up against
the wall. With serious commutes and even more daunting mortgages,
households suddenly found themselves having to skip the mortgage and
rent payments in order to get to work. The result, wholly
predictable, ensued.
The rest, in the idiom of our time, is history. But not
only did the nation not have enough time to absorb the enormity of
the crisis, but Obama—unlike Roosevelt—quickly signed on to Bush
policies to deal with the crisis, getting little in return—and, in
the process—transforming himself into Republican-lite.
Let's be clear here. The crisis simply didn't go on
long enough. The pain wasn't near as deep as it should have been—if
we had followed the idiocy of the likes of Ayn Rand and other
capitalist idiotlogues . The consequence is that Obama quickly owned
the crisis and he himself said as much. This, in turn, allowed the
quickly emerging opposition fueled by the billionaires and populated
by the knuckle-draggers to paint the newly minted president as
somehow part of the established elite while at the same time a
migrant from the mud-huts of Kenya. In any case, the chance for real
reform was lost. The response and the timing were not quite right.
Similarly, with our present crisis. Our Caesar
Disgustus has now been under investigation since well before he was
sworn into office. But the crisis had not reached the level of
collective consciousness necessary for remedial action until well
into his first year in office. With his own party totally bereft of
conscience or principle, in control of both houses, Congress
abdicated its sworn duty to protect and defend the constitution,
opting to do the exact opposite by defending the criminals instead.
Abdicating Congressional oversight in favor of passing the
responsibility to the Department of Justice delayed public exposure
of criminality to the point where the country now finds itself
bumping up against the next quadrennial election. Yes, there is
political remedy at the polls, but this does not acquit the Congress
of its sworn duty to protect the republic from graft, corruption and
abuse of power. Again, if impeachment wasn't written into the
Constitution for tRUMP, then who, and if not now, when?
The timing is off. That we know. It would be chaos if
impeachment proceedings were to occur during the heat of the upcoming
election. Justice demands action. This is not a question to be
decided by plebiscite; this is not a political question, it is a
constitutional crisis. And the constitutional remedy of impeachment,
like the bill of rights, is not and cannot be allowed to become a
question determined by the passion of the moment. It must, instead,
be remedied by Constitutional and established legal process. We must
act now or, like Obama, we will all own it. The clock is ticking.
Time waits for no one. Whatever the Russians have done to us, we
must now roll the dice and confront the outcome.
On this April first, we've all become the fool.
“An Br'er Putin, he jus' laugh and laugh”
Impeach and Imprison.
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