Victory Lap

Was I let down when Special Counsel Robert Mueller chose not to lower the hammer on Trump & Co. in his recently released report? Sure. Was I surprised? No, not really. I never really believed that Trump & Co. were really capable of pulling off a John le Carré-esque bit of intrigue and conspiring with the Russians in any meaningful way. If for no other reason, they are all a bunch of bumbling fools for whom putting their shoes on the correct feet in the morning constitutes a minor miracle.

No, what I've been waiting for is more indictments (and convictions) for the corrupt practices that are more the rule than the exception with this crowd. The number of open cases involving Trump and his family and associates, most of which have little to nothing to do with the 2016 election, never mind "collusion" with the Russians, continues to increase. Again, none of this is at all surprising, because what we're seeing is a continuation of the kind of "business" practices Trump engaged in on his way to six bankruptcies and a myriad of suits and court cases for his sociopathic lack of ethos.

What worries me is the seeming effectiveness of Trump and his GOP enablers to turn the tables and go after the Democrats, at least in the court of public opinion. No, I don't see Adam Schiff or Jerome Nadler being frogmarched off to Gitmo anytime soon. However, the fact that Trump even tries to use the machinery of the state to go after his political opponents (often with the GOP leadership's blessing) reminds me of my time living in developing countries, working on democracy and governance programs. In these countries, the thin veneer of institutional checks and balances on the executive branch was so flimsy - IF it existed at all - that most political opponents were lucky to stay alive.

Here in the U.S., we'd like to believe that nothing like that could ever happen. But let's take note of the well-documented increased levels of terrorist attacks made on the basis of Islamophobia, misogyny, racism, homophobia, anti-Semitism, nativism, etc, many of which have assumed a more political intent. Let's also acknowledge that all of these diseases of the heart have been around for decades if not centuries in our country. Finally, let's recognize that they manifest themselves at dangerously high prevalence rates in our security sector forces, which, if we're really honest, we'll recognize as having been originally designed to safeguard white lives, wealth and supremacy.

So as Trump takes his victory lap, using his Attorney General's whitewashed summary of Mueller's report to falsely claim "total exoneration" and "complete vindication," let's make sure to put a few speed bumps in his path. Let's return our focus to methodically gathering evidence and making the case for prosecuting what has clearly been a corrupt presidency with a dual mission: the pursuit of self-enrichment and the execution of a relentless hit job on our nation's institutions of governance. Otherwise, we risk giving him license to continue on his merry, psychotic way, running over all who dare to place themselves in his path with his out-of-control golf cart.