By Edwin Cooney
I feel sorry for those who only dare to take a position in order to be right! In the absence of hard evidence all any of us have is instinct modified by intelligence and experience. I’m an optimistic person by nature. When I reach a conclusion about anything, much of that conclusion is based on that combination of instinct, experience and intelligence. Nor do I have to be emotionally comfortable with my conclusions.
During this week, I received two very intriguing responses to last week’s column. One was from a reader who expressed surprise that I’ve “…drunk the Kool-Aid" and had thus fallen under the persuasion of that enemy of all that’s decent, George Soros. Mr. Soros, according to this reader, has most likely sent a handsome check to Dr. Blasey Ford for testifying as she did. (I wonder how much this writer really knows about the background and person of George Soros and what makes George Soros less legitimate than either the Koch Brothers or the Mercers or even the Murdochs?) When I really think about it, it’s not too surprising that Conservatives and their purely reactionary sympathizers suspect money to be the sole force that moves people when they themselves depend upon it so much. No sensible person allows themselves to be overwhelmed by feelings when they have so much to gain by collecting money. Many of these sympathizers would rapidly change their outlook had their sisters, daughters, girlfriends and wives been victimized by a drunken teenager some 36 years ago.
Another even more intriguing item I received this week is a commentary to which I must give further study before commenting on it. The writer of this missive introduces an article suggesting that we’re headed toward the brink of civil war due to the surrender to feelings rather than duties which have been bred into today’s liberals by permissive parents of the late 1960s and 1970s. As he introduces his article, he insists that although he thoroughly disliked President Barack Obama, he always gave to him the respect due to him as a legitimate occupant of his office. (I’m assuming, of course, that this gentleman never questioned President Obama’s citizenship!) He charges therefore that President Trump’s opponents deny him even the legitimacy of his office. For that reason their lack of respect for President Trump is pretty close to treason. Thus, we’re headed toward almost certain civil war. That guy is much, much further out on a limb than I’ve ever been.
If you ask me (and you haven’t), publicly stepping out on a limb serves a vital purpose. It stimulates debate by openly encouraging people to consider likelihoods rather than merely surrendering to the obvious. Therefore, although I heartily disapprove of conspiracy theories and theorists, before closing here, I’ll jump out on still another limb.
At the bottom of last week’s limb-hopping is my belief that “where there’s smoke, there’s usually fire.” Even more to the point is my belief that there’ll be a very heavy political price that’ll be payable by those who insist that what women assert as mattering is silly or irrelevant. Most of those who take that position are conservative absolutists in their individual and even collective morality.
My quarrel with President Trump isn’t that he didn’t legitimately attain his office. He’s as legitimately president as was Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, Rutherford B. Hayes and perhaps even more so than was George W. Bush, who was practically declared president by the Supreme Court of the United States in December 2000. As a student of history, I spent many a delightful hour studying the legitimacy of such British Kings as John (1199-1216) who was forced to sign the Magna Carta denying to kings absolute power; King Henry IV who usurped his cousin Richard II’s throne in 1399 and who died in 1413 guilt ridden by that usurpation; King Henry VIII, with all his greed and cruelty, was most definitely legitimate.
Nor do I quarrel with the president’s right to destroy the Affordable Care Act, to make enemies out of immigrants and a bosom buddy out of Vladimir Putin. After all, it’s up to a free people to correct a president who has gone too far on any issue.
Finally, although I’d oppose him even if he was primarily a Conservative, a la Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio or even (Heaven help me), Pat Buchanan, my objection to Donald Trump is his personal behavior. The president isn’t, as I see it, ultimately a Conservative. The president merely uses Conservatism to legitimatize Trumpism. President Trump doesn’t in the least fear fear; he endorses it as a vital aspect of legitimate power.
John F. Kennedy said in 1960 that the legitimate task of the president is to set before the American people the unfinished public responsibility of the people.
Clearly, President Trump believes the legitimate task of his presidency is to protect our borders rather than to tackle the problems in Central America which lie at the root of those border problems. Apparently, President Trump is perfectly willing to close off the borders of this country to millions of immigrants who would still like to share their energy and creativity with us rather than with the Chinese. Apparently, even in all his legitimacy, President Trump believes he can control all those who must work with him, both at home and abroad, using coercion rather than cooperation.
Free men and women cannot afford to be fearful. Fear, as I’ve written before, is merely the father of anger. You may well ask if I’m afraid of President Trump! The answer to that is that I’m leery of him and much of what he stands for, as well as of the tactics he’s willing to use to achieve his goals. However, I’m not afraid because I’m sure that sooner rather than later he’ll pay a devastating political price for what he’s been doing and for who he is.
My next limb asserts that a Democratic Congress will not seek Trump’s impeachment. They will definitely peck away at his political vitals, but ultimately they’ll do all they can to insure that the electorate in 2020 will proceed to delegitimize a possible second term.
Oh, as for that cracked limb, I forgot to mention my super parachute!
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY
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