I’m starting to see a disturbing increase in stories that tell me that it is in our best interests, and those of democracy, to pardon trump and the rest of his little henchmen. Mona Charen over at ‘The Bulwark’ appears to think we need to give trump a mulligan over his escapades. She cites the fact that 70+% of polled republicans said that they disapprove of the Mar-a-lago search. And gosh, people, if we don’t roll over and give in to all their screechy spleen-venting and their repugnant rethuglican demands, ...it will be our fault when democracy craters. She/them seem to think we need to be the bigger people, as usual. “Justice may have to be sacrificed on the alter of order.” Shut up, Mona.
She isn’t the only one sounding like a collaborator, either. Is this what we’re to become? Vichy America? A client state to Russia, with a reinstalled ‘trump’ acting out the part of Marshal Petain? Screw this ‘pardon them all to save America’ bullshit! Screw them all to the floorboards, take your shoes off, climb into the tub of life, and them stomp them for the grapes of wrath that they are (metaphorically speaking, of course; there, I just turned the other cheek, again). A bloody, toxic vintage it will be, too.
Give them an inch on this and they’ll gleefully take another mile out of our hides forever more, laughing in our faces all along the way. Do these whey-faced apologists really think trump would be conciliatory? Do they think he will somehow slink off into the quiet shadows of some golf course bunker if he’s given a free pass? No! He’ll be back with a fury and a vengeance that will rival that of any of history’s vilest evil-doers. Will a republican led house and senate suddenly embrace détente? Quid pro quo? Hands across the aisle? Nope, they won’t, and you know it. To steal a line from Jim Morrison’s ‘Peace Frog’: “There’s blood in the street, it’s up to my ankles...” and it will only get deeper if we let them off.
Republicans are counting on us for another Gerald Ford, “Our long national nightmare is over” moment; don’t give it to them. I’m so tired of turning the other cheek, screw the meek! They may be able to exist on a steady diet of political cake, but I can’t, not anymore. Good gawd, people… we must have the courage of our convictions, especially now.