This week begins the first public hearings aiming to unravel an equally serious White House scandal, featuring another corrupt president and all his men and women, that could have even more far-reaching consequences for the country than the first one.
There were a number of instances in which both presidents issued insane and illegal orders with some functionaries eagerly signing on while others blocked and tackled to prevent anyone from carrying it out. Recall that Nixon ordered a break-in of the Brookings Institute (which G. Gordon Liddy then proposed should be firebombed) and Trump wanted to launch missiles into Mexico to “take out the drug labs” and then deny it. They both wanted protesters shot and considered the free press the enemy. But it is not comforting to know that the only thing standing between America being a democratic nation and a fully formed tyranny is a few functionaries failing to follow his orders.
Congresswoman Liz Cheney, R-Wy., told Robert Costa of CBS on Sunday that the January 6th Committee has evidence of an “extremely broad and “extremely well-organized” conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election.
It’s worrying that the right is going to ignore, lie, obfuscate, distract, whatever it takes to keep people believing that Trump’s lawbreaking was simply a presidential prerogative instead of a coup attempt by the greatest sore loser in history. They certainly do not expect that Trump will be held legally responsible for what he did. After all, he had his “Article II” that says it’s not illegal if the president does it.
This week begins a new phase in this ongoing crisis of democracy. Let’s hope the Jan. 6 committee can lay out the story in such stark terms that at the very least there will be political fall-out for Donald Trump that shakes loose a few of his cult followers. I’m afraid that may be the best we can hope for.