The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Former President
Far too many Republicans are supporting and enabling TFG (The Former Guy).
Photo Credit: Britannica
Issue #385 OpEd August 15, 2023
On Monday, August 14, 2023, a grand jury in Fulton County Georgia voted on a 41-count indictment against Donald Trump and eighteen others, charging them under the RICO Act with several allegations related to Trump's refusal to accept his presidential election loss.
This Georgia case could be the most problematic for Trump because if he is convicted there is no possibility of a pardon for ten years after he starts serving his time (a minimum of five years).
Georgia was one of the original thirteen colonies, but also one of the first states to secede from the Union and join the Confederacy.
I delayed this week's op-ed from its regular day on Monday to today (Tuesday), because I was pretty sure that a Georgia indictment would be executed this week because Fani Willis asked that her employees should work from home and court proceedings should be delayed until the end of this week.
If I hear the word "unprecedented" one more time, I may throw some ketchup against the wall!
Everything about Donald J. Trump is "Unprecedented!" He is a former president who used the powers of his office to subvert democracy. Most of the charges he faces in this Georgia case and others center on his use of his immense power for personal gain at the expense of the nation.
Of course this is unprecedented! No other president in American History has been this corrupt and conducted as many illegal acts while in office and afterward. Ever. And we've had some doozies as president. But nothing like this person.
With apologies to award-winning children's author Judith Viorst, whenever I think of Donald Trump and his one-term presidency, it comes to my mind that he is a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad president.
In the 1970s, Trump (and his father) broke the law with racist policies toward prospective tenants for their apartments.
Trump has been involved in scores of lawsuits because of his business dealings, most of which he either paid off or otherwise got to disappear. Trump University? Non-existent charities for which he received funds? Sexual assault during Miss Universe pageants?
Before he even started to run as president, he declared that Barack Obama was not an American citizen because he (Trump) could prove that he (Obama) was born in Kenya. This was known as "birtherism."
As he descended his golden escalator to make his announcement, he called Mexicans rapists. He called countries with brown and Black people sh*thole countries.
He (and his children, especially Ivanka and Jared) repeatedly went against laws that covered receiving bribes, monies, and other favors while he was in office. He continued to openly receive monetary rewards through payments for his various properties and other businesses.
In 2019, six months before the presidential primaries even began, Trump tried to bribe a foreign official (Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy) to dig up "dirt" on his probable election opponent, Joe Biden, who had not even been selected as the Democratic nominee for 2020. Unprecedented.
Only three presidents in American history have ever been impeached, but Trump was impeached twice. Unprecedented.
Throughout American history, several incumbent presidents have lost their reelection bids, including Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush. Never, ever did any of them act in this way. As hard as the loss was to accept, they all did accept it and moved on.
What vexes me almost as much are the Republicans, including many elected officials, who are enabling and excusing all of this behavior. 99% of them, instead of realizing that Trump brought all of this on himself due to his own criminal behavior, are blaming the left-wing socialists and communists, the "Deep State," Antifa, BLM, Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, "woke ideology," and liberals in general.
Monday night, Senator Ted Cruz actually stood outside of the Fulton County courthouse with a microphone as if he were a reporter, calling the indictment "unconstitutional." Every MAGA Republican in Congress and most of the current Republican presidential candidates are also blaming the Biden administration, saying the DOJ is "weaponizing the legal system" against Trump and conservative Republicans in general.
These Republicans completely miss the irony of Trump attempting to use the Justice Department and the military to help him to stay in power.
Overall, we have to keep a very close eye on this case and the three others Trump is involved in. Our very democracy depends on our vigilance.
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