"James Comey Cannot Be Trusted With a Trump-Russia Investigation"

[Solly Mack]

39. But that's just it, as you said, it undermines the institutions. It turns people off.

Over the last few months I've noticed a shading of memory about the Bush years. The man is a war criminal. There's nothing the least bit decent about him.

Protecting him from prosecution didn't help America. It didn't preserve democracy. It didn't make America stronger. It didn't encourage faith in government. It weakened our democracy because it showed what government could readily get away with and what the American people would simply swallow and move on from.

You can best believe there are those who are expecting no less from the American people in regards to Trump, Comey, and Russia.

And I'm not the least bit convinced they're wrong. I hope for better, but I'm not expecting it.

Unless the GOP decide Trump is a liability, he's in for the full 4 years. Having to depend on the good will of republicans gets us nothing, but you can pretty much bank on their sense of self-preservation. We don't have the votes in Congress to stop Trump or the GOP. The GOP will have to decide Trump is making them look bad, and if they haven't come to that point yet, they may never.

Watergate shook some people to the core. Corrupt government! Shocking! People really believed in the basic decency of those who held the office of President. It was naive to think that way, but people did (and still do). That's the event many like to point to as to when faith in government was lost. But instead of being impeached and removed from office, he was allowed to resign - and then he was pardoned.


Government tells us that people need to see police arresting the bad guys, and those bad guys going to jail after a fair trial, to have trust and faith in the justice system. Yet we treat presidents (p-elects) who commit crimes like they are somehow different and special, and wonder why people have lost faith in government? Same with anyone in government, or bankers, etc.. (people with money and power and influence)

The idea that presidents are somehow special and different is ludicrous. I don't care how much a particular president is admired - they're still just people, capable of all the good and the bad any person is capable of. They are not immune from graft and vice. No need for anyone to pretend otherwise. Same with members of Congress, judges, the police, etc..


Right now, this very minute, we are expected to take Trump's word that he will not feather his own nest (of course he will), believe that even if Russia did hack, said interference had no real bearing on the outcome of the election (which is bullshit), that Comey is still honorable even if compromised (more bullshit), that the GOP, while disagreeable, are simply doing what they think is best for the country (and not the danger they actually are), that a peaceful transition of power is paramount to our strength as a country (even though anyone with half a brain knows that at this point in time, accepting Trump is accepting everything he represents and none of it good - Russia, incompetence, Comey, election interference with foreign influence, pay to play, attacks on the press, enemies list, autocrat, authoritarian, GOP trickle-down run amok, make the whole of America into Kansas)

Because that's exactly what is meant each time someone talks about how great America is with a peaceful transfer of power. To respect the office even if we can't respect Trump. We are being asked to accept the unacceptable for the sake of an institution that will be even more eroded by a Trump presidency.

That's not how you save our democracy. That's not how you restore faith in government.