I don’t want Trump to be pardoned for his crimes. Trump belongs in jail for the rest of his life. His name will go down in history as being truly among the worst of traitors, worse even than Benedict Arnold, Vidkun Quisling, or Kim Philby. As I’ve already stated, he is too much of a coward to have to be physically removed from office; my concern is what his followers, driven by two generations of Fox News and right-wing media, will do. How many Americans have to die?
Because with each American that dies in the internecine violence, Putin will smile.
You see, in reality this isn’t about Trump, but about Putin…and I don’t want to give Putin the added satisfaction of watching Americans kill Americans. Besides, what do you think will happen to Trump once he is pardoned and leaves office? Look at Nixon: how many schools are named after him? Not a street, not even a post office are named after him, even though he had some truly noteworthy accomplishments. And Nixon lived long enough to see history consign his name to the dustbin of shame.
It would be much worse for Trump, whose crimes are infinitely worse (and accomplishments are far less) than Nixon’s. We already know how many of his properties are losing money, how many people in buildings owned by him have demanded to have his name removed from those buildings. As soon as he’s (peacefully) out of power, the Right is going to turn on him for having cost them control of our government. Oh, they’ll still say nice things about him, but it will be condemnation by the faintest of praise. All of a sudden, nobody - not even the Saudis or Russians - will by staying at the Trump International Hotel in D.C. It will go bankrupt. So will his other businesses. He will eventually lose Trump Tower in NYC. The Trump name will be so toxic that the only ones who will do business with him will be a portion of those among the conservative rank-and-file who worship him today…and that won’t be enough to preserve his lifestyle, much less his businesses (or those of his family). Trump will see and rage against what’s happening to him, desperately reaching out to anyone who will listen…and nobody will, except for a few cranks and crazies. Sadly, while Trump will see the what, he’s not intelligent or self-aware enough to understand the why.
But Trump is only the tool. Putin is the one wielding that tool. Ending Trump’s power and influence peacefully (and exposing everything Russia et al did to influence our elections and destroy our institutions) is the only way to deny Putin a victory.
The United Kingdom peacefully survived Kim Philby (no small feat, mind you). We have to show that America can survive Trump, peacefully and socially intact. If we do that, then Putin will have failed, and he will lose power and influence domestically and internationally.
