Nothing better demonstrates the absolute fraud of modern
American Conservatism than it's long war upon the institutions of
this country. Waging war upon social institutions was understood,
heretofore, to be anathema to the Conservative; indeed, the very
definition of Conservatism is to nurture and protect social
institutions and norms—that is, to Conserve.
What we have now is a movement, a half century in the
making, that calls itself conservative, but finds itself
waging war not only to repeal the twentieth century, but the very
institutions upon which this country is founded.
It is one thing to oppose liberal political initiatives;
to repeal certain pieces of legislation; to modify or reverse public
policy. It is quite another to seek to destroy political norms and
institutions. As a case in point I give you “Moscow Mitch”
McConnell.
McConnell has long abused his office, using his position
as Senate Majority Leader to obstruct and transform what had been the
World's Greatest Deliberative body into a mere echo-chamber. He has,
famously, tabled the nomination of a nominee to the Supreme Court—not
even giving Merrick Garland a committee hearing, let alone a vote on
the floor of the Senate as he sought partisan political advantage by
denying President Obama a final Supreme Court appointment. He is
currently sitting on nearly 400 pieces of legislation passed by the
house with none currently scheduled for consideration. Senate
Committees, under his leadership, have failed to provide adequate
oversight of this administration. Real investigations are being left
to the House of Representatives.
Contrast this with Watergate when bipartisan and
bicameral committees were formed to probe into wrongdoing. But where
are the investigations not only of tRUMP, but his children, his
cabinet members (most notably Wilbur Ross) as well as White House
staff? It has been reported that a company with no previous
experience with either building walls or with government contracts
was awarded 400 million in public funds to build this damn fool wall
on the Southern Border. Where are the investigations?
But now we are confronting a “see no evil” posture
of an entirely different order of magnitude. As the House Judiciary
Committee voted out two articles of impeachment of the President* of
the United States, McConnell—violating the very oath he will take
to begin the proceedings—announced that his office will work with
the White House Counsel to insure a favorable outcome. In doing so,
all pretense to an objective consideration of the facts, and a fair
and impartial verdict, have gone swiftly by the boards.
McConnell is, of course, not only an unconscionable
slack-jawed chinless political hack, and he has done more damage to
the institution of the World's Greatest Deliberative Body than any
political figure in our history. The Senate has always had its share
of buffoons, Senator Inhofe leaps immediately to mind. But these
men, being quaint quacks have, in their buffoonery, been occasionally
entertaining minor irritants. But McConnell, a funnel for Russian
money into the Republican Senate Campaign Committee, presents a
threat to the republic not only because he has welcomed and ushered
foreign involvement into our national elections but has elevated
partisan vindictiveness and political mendacity to a level that now
threatens the very representative institutions of this country.
There are reasons “Moscow Mitch” refuses to address
Russian interference in the 2016 election and why he will not address
the ongoing—right before our very eyes—interference in the
upcoming election, and why he and his cohorts are repeating the very
propaganda, the very talking points of the Kremlin in its attempt to
divert attention from themselves and blame Ukraine. The reasons are
quite simple. Mitch and his cohorts—Lenningrad Lindsay, the RNC
and several members of Congress are in the back pocket of Putin and
his henchmen. Kevin McCarthy, now House Minority Leader said as much
during a caucus of House Republicans in 2016 when he fingered Dana
Raurbacher and Donald Trump as two who were clearly on Putin's
Payroll. Then Speaker Ryan admonished him, advising the group to not
let that become public.
The war on the “Deep State”, as Steve Bannon calls
it, did not originate with Bannon or tRUMP. Republicans have been
waging this war for nearly half century. It began, as all roads to
hell, with Richard Shithouse Nixon and his war upon the Press and, by
extension, objective reporting—that is, truth. But Nixon bowed to
the dictates of institutional prerogative and political norms. But,
over the years the war has extended first to cultural issues and
then, by extension, to the destruction of institutional memory,
political and cultural norms of decency, and now the very
institutions of this republic.
What is new is that with Bannon came the war upon
institutional memory; a force as noted in previous essays in these
columns that serve as a bulwark against instability and chaos. But
with the hollowing out of career public servants by failing to fill
hundreds of major administrative positions—especially within the
State Department, appointing political hacks to the judiciary,
clearly unqualified individuals to important administrative
positions, Disgustus and his henchmen have done their utmost to
impose ignorance and incompetence upon the system.
Moreover, the war upon senior members of the
administration, many of them appointed by Disgustus himself,
especially senior administrators at the FBI, the Department of
Justice and the intelligence agencies, have compromised their
political independence and their effectiveness.
McConnell has been more than a passive witness to all of
this. He has not simply stood by and done nothing to protect the
institutions of this country from this all out assault by the scum in
the White House, but has done his level best to enable it and, on
occasion, lead it.
What we have here before us is the impeachment of this
president* upon evidence that remains uncontested; upon evidence that
any objective reading would conclude compelling. To dismiss this
evidence—especially the second article involving obstruction of
Congress—is an insult to and damages the very institution and the
constituents that McConnell presumably represents.
The failure of this administration to comply with
Congressional subpoenas to appear before committees and testify, the
failure of this administration to provide a single document not only
to the committees concerned with impeachment but with the oversight
committees, and the failure of this administration to provide tax
returns as required by law is a clear affront to the people's
representatives as they seek to perform the very important work of
congressional oversight. These egregious acts should have been met
with determined outrage by every member of Congress if, for no other
reason, than to maintain the balance of power within the government
and to protect the prerogatives of the institution that represent the
state and the people within that state as well as the institution in
which they serve.
But NO! Mitch and his cohorts have put party over their
state and their nation; partisanship tRUMPs statesmanship. As as a
consequence the ReSCUMlickans, by making a mockery of what should be
a deliberative and solemn process are further destroying the
integrity of what has been, until recently, a great institution.
This is a serious violation of the constitution. I'm
not speaking here of singular violations of constitutional articles
and provisions. I'm speaking here of material damage to the
institutions of this country. The constitution is nothing but the
establishment of institutions. The Legislative, Executive and
Judicial as well as—in its preamble—the purposes for with these
institutions were created. The defense of these institutions is, it
seems to this observer, the very definition of conservative. And,
it seems to this observer, that our Conservatives have betrayed not
only their ideology but, in the process, their country.
All of this in defense of a foreign adversary. As
Speaker Pelosi has observed: “All roads lead to Russia”
An Br'er Putin, he jus' laugh and laugh
Impeach and Imprison.
