Photos: YouTube Screenshots\Wikimedia Commons
Donald Trump is in trouble. So too is America.
But do we know it?
Trump has just entered a not guilty plea at his second arraignment, in as many months. But most Americans, even in our mentally-challenged country, know he is as guilty as sin. Criminality has defined the Trump presidency.
The question now is: how much damage is America about to endure because of this psychopathic former president?
Tuesday, Donald Trump, the twice impeached president, plead not guilty inside a Florida court, to 37 counts of mishandling classified documents—and obstructing justice when he was asked to return these government documents. 31 of the counts are alleged violations of the Espionage Act. Apparently, Trump was playing fast and loose with highly sensitive secrets—including military plans.
The recklessness of Trump’s behavior with classified documents isn’t surprising. It is portentous that at this moment in time someone so childishly malevolent as Trump could actually possibly become president again.
Trump has enhanced Republican race-baiting to the point where he now has millions ready to use violence to thwart American democracy. And the Republican Party is protecting this treacherous man. The fear of Trump can be seen among Republican politicians. Jan. 6 proved to them that Trump is beloved by the gun-crazy rabid racists in the Republican base who are willing to sacrifice the lives of Republican politicians.
Former Trump vice-president Mike Pence can’t bring himself to criticize Trump because, on Jan. 6, Pence was also, like other Democratic and Republican lawmakers, fleeing for his life—along with his daughter and wife—while hearing the chants of “hang Mike Pence.”
Donald Trump now leads all Republican presidential candidates by a wide margin. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, the closest competitor, is likely secretly hoping for a speedy Trump conviction. By now, DeSantis knows he has zero chance of beating Trump while Trump is still on the political scene. But even if there were to be a quick Trump conviction, that reality would still probably only help Trump win the Republican primaries.
We’re in uncharted territory here.
What happens if Trump is convicted and still elected as the next president? We would then have a president pardoning himself from going to prison. Wonder what the Founding Fathers would think of such a bizarre scenario?
As unbelievable as this seems it is a possibility we must consider given the millions who support their white MAGA Messiah.
The truth is many in Trump’s MAGA mob really don’t care about his guilt. They don’t really care that he may have been conspiring to misuse classified documents. They are only looking at what they regard as their main reason for supporting Trump: making America white again.
Racism lies at the heart of the Republican voters backing of Trump. And Trump knows it. This is why Trump ran on Birtherism to begin with, questioning the birthright citizenship of America first Black President Barack Obama.
Trump’s political emergence was built on the backlash to Obama’s Presidency. Racist white America was horrified that a Black man (with his Black wife, and daughters) were living in the White House, and not as domestic servants. The Republican base, which is filled with the most vociferously racist Americans, were reviled by the change President Obama symbolized.
It is no accident that we now live in a time where Republicans attack all things they characterize as “woke.” What they really hate is the new multi-cultural demographic reality that has crept up on them.
These white Americans are fearful that white power is waning. And they would rather burn down America than watch that happen.
This is why Republicans are now making undemocratic laws, particularly in red states, as they pursue their current white minority rule agenda posture.
The Republican faithful are exposing their naked hypocrisy in protecting Trump who is an obvious national security risk. This is because racism trumps all. These Americans want no America where power is shared with non-whites, especially Black Americans.
Trump understands this and has weaponized his words to manipulate this volatility inside America’s far-right—and that makes the pending future, as accountability catches up to Trump, dangerous and precarious.
