How Does Donald Trump Keep Getting Away with It?

[babylonsister]

https://www.thenation.com/article/trump-threat-to-democracy/

How Does Donald Trump Keep Getting Away with It?
Hint: From Congress to the courts, people keep treating Trump like a ‘normal’ president. It’s time to stop.
By Elie Mystal
Today 8:35 am


Every day, President Donald Trump or his minions say something stupid, wrong, or demonstrably false. Most days, these people threaten to take illegal actions. Some days, they make good on their lawless threats.

And yet, they are still in power. Trump and his family and sycophants get help from the Russians (whether willfully or not) to influence our elections; obstruct justice; engage in corrupt practices; violate Constitutional principles; intimidate witnesses; ignore Congress; and lie as if “Falsehood” was their native tongue. And they seem to get away with all of it.

Nobody stops them. Yes, the Republican Party has shown itself to be a collection of craven hypocrites, so utterly debased from wallowing around in Trump’s filth that they can’t even remember what decency smells like. But if you’ve been paying attention, Republicans are always like this. Just ask Merrick Garland. Our system shouldn’t be so weak that the perverse noise makings of Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham can scuttle the very concept of the rule of law.

snip//

Everybody wants to see the “un-redacted” Mueller report, but nobody is outside of Bill Barr’s house right now demanding that he release it. Chief Justice John Roberts could be sitting right next to you as you read this, and most of you wouldn’t notice him, and those that do wouldn’t scream “I can’t believe you voted for the Muslim ban, you accomplice to bigotry” right in his face. The “resistance” should be near revolt, but instead we’re dithering about whether the normal process of impeachment is “worth it.”

The courts will regard Trump as a unique threat to the normal operation of government just as soon as we make the normal operation of government impossible while he reigns.

People know the start of the Frederick Douglass quote: “Power concedes nothing without a demand.” But most forget how the passage ends: “The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.”

How does Trump keep getting away with it? Because we let him.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. We don't know what to do with an abnormal president.

We've had incompetent presidents and dishonest ones, but even they were "normal" in the sense that they didn't violate every single norm of the presidency and flagrantly disregard the law. The media don't know how to treat him (although a lot of them seem to be coming around), which has been a big part of the problem. It was assumed and expected that once he settled into the job he'd figure out what was expected of him. Maybe be he'd be unconventional, they thought, but he's something else entirely.

He has to be investigated and impeached or voted out of office, whichever happens first.

[Initech]

8. And it's happening all around the world. We don't know what to do.

It happened in England with Brexit.

It happened in Australia with their tax election.

It happened in the Philippines with Dutuerte.

It happened in Turkey with Erdogan.

It is happening in France with the Yellow Vest protestors.

It is happening in Italy with their rising tide of white supremacism.

It is happening in places like Hungary and Poland as well.

But really, it can be traced back to two men - Vladimir Putin and Rupert Murdoch. They are turning this planet into a shit show and it's being broadcast 24 hours a day. :grr

[Mr. Evil]

22. One is a KGB trained operative and the other is a full-blown racist.

Vladimir Putin is not a lawyer or a businessman or a scholar. He is a highly trained KGB officer whose only objective is to ratfuck anything and everything that can be ratfucked. He appears to be very adept at turning people against each other. A 'divided they will fall' sort of thing. Murdoch, on the other hand, knows anger and fear. He stokes the flames of bigotry with continuous screeds about those 'other' people. They are the reason your life sucks. And republicans are complicit because it translates into instant, perpetual votes by the perpetually gullible.

Anyone that answers the age-old question of "what can I do?" with the answer of "I'm just one person." needs to look at those people. Putin and Murdoch are each just one person and look at what they have done so far. By the way, there used to be this colossal asshole named Hitler. He was just one person. Look at everything he was responsible for.

[Initech]

29. Yup. They are the very personification of evil.

[Skittles]

24. we would if he wasn't enabled by the Senate

Founding Fathers never envisioned an entire PARTY of traitors

[sprinkleeninow]

31. The idolatry of power and money blinds and is pernicious. I feel it organically changes the

brain, soul, psyche.

[Rene]

2. nobody want pence to take over nobody

[Maru Kitteh]

13. Oh bull. Pence was chosen for his utter and complete lack of charisma and spine.

Pence is not a thing.

[11 Bravo]

20. Pence is Lindsey Graham with slightly fewer principles.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

25. And much more boring. He has all the charisma of yesterday's leftover Tuna Helper.

[sprinkleeninow]

34. Hay now!

😊

[maddiemom]

21. Since Pence has no chance of getting elected himself...

I'm sure we could put up with him for the little of Trump's term that would remain by the time we got rid of him (Trump).

[unblock]

3. It all falls apart for him when enough people no longer see an upside in keeping him in power

The Republican senate see him as their best shot at keeping a Republican senate.

Most of the media see him as their best bet at catching eyeballs.

Oddly enough, many Democrats see the status quo as our best chance to win in 2020.


Too many people are fine with the status quo, albeit for different reasons.

[murielm99]

4. If you have known other narcissists,

you know this is true. I know a couple of them. People treat them like they are normal. It is very hard to get enough people's attention on the havoc they wreak, often until it is too late.

How are we going to stop letting him? I don't know. I hope the Democrats in the House are coming up with some good ideas.

[spanone]

5. His party owns the senate and they don't give a flying f*ck

[meow2u3]

6. It's time the media start treating Trump like the serial criminal he is

Even if it's a bit late, the public will catch onto Trump's criminal antics if the media, Congress, and the courts scrutinize him like a criminal president instead of treating him like a normal one.

His cultish base will follow him to the bitter end, but those losers are too far gone. We have to persuade the PTB to stand up to the Tangerine Tyrant. The very nation is at stake.

[Wednesdays]

7. Two words:

Fox News.

[Nuggets]

9. Imo it's basically because

people don’t want to face truths they don’t want to believe. Can’t stand conflict, especially with a party made up of bullies.

People in general cringe at the thought of confrontation no matter how nicely it’s brought about. They’d rather any truth tellers fall off the face of the earth and pretend everything is just fine.

These writings are from an expert in these disorders that might help explain why. I got it from the counselor who helped our family.

Provoking behaviour is not seen as the problematic crazy-making behaviour that it truly is – whereas standing up for yourself, or becoming distressed by the narcissist’s crazy making behaviour, is viewed as the behaviour of a troubled person who can’t let things go.

The narcissist wants the target to explode. It is a set up to keep them under control, and seen in a poor light as an over-reactive person with emotional regulation problems.

These reactions to the abuse enhance the other family members negative perception of the target(s), and cement in their minds that the person is unstable.

It amazes me how many enabling people just go along with, believe in the lie, and have unrealistic expectations of somebody who is being prodded and prodded and prodded to react.

The terribly sad reality here is that the person has no idea they are being baited for reactions by the narcissist, all for one reason and one reason only; to enhance the negative perception of their victims.

Wealthy, “martyr narcissism” is imo, is one of the most hideous form of these disorders. They will go to unbelievable lengths to keep themselves from being exposed. People place a higher value on giving money than doing the actual work the money pays for.

I believe the enablers are just as bad as the NPDs They love peace at all costs ..to you. They try to make themselves appear superior or more mature as they sit on the sidelines and watch the target suffer instead of standing up for the truth.

[empedocles]

10. Cable news in particular, normalize trump by referring all the time to 'the President'.

News reports refer to Pelosi, not as 'the Speaker'. It's McConnell, not as 'the Senate Majority Leader'.

The reality is that often, as is the case in trump's inciting a trade war with China, is that trump's trade war is about trump trying to benefit trump. There is broad bipartisan consensus that trump is making a mistake.

By referring to the President's China policy,[do we really think trump has a considered China policy or is trump just launching another trump campaign thrust?], trump is able to draw down on the good will toward past Presidents over time.

This 'normalizing' trump as 'the President', is part of the reason he keeps getting away with his crap.

[lapfog_1]

11. the founders never imagined a ignorant and unpatriotic

electorate totally in the thrall of a charlatan / foreign operative.

The republicans are too afraid of their "base" to even express some doubt as to his constant lies

[mitch96]

12. This kinda sums it up for me...

[democrank]

35. Sums it up for me as well.

[displacedtexan]

14. As long as people keep laughing at him, he'll keep getting away with crimes.

Especially on the news. No one ever laughed at Nixon, & Republicans feigned horror at Bill Clinton's lie about sex. Not excusing Bill taking advantage of an intern, but compared to every freaking R President!s ponderous chain of crimes?

[watoos]

15. Orwell explained it.

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/05/george-orwell-has-given-us-an-essential-lesson-on-how-to-deal-with-trumps-relentless-attack-on-reality/

[richdj25]

16. How Does Donald Trump Keep Getting Away with It?

Good old fashion - red - blooded American racism. The black guy before Trump scared the living crap out of the GOP and it's followers, so of course they had to reinforce their hold on this country and it's white power structure with the likes of Trump.

[pdsimdars]

17. Establishment doesn't want to rock the boat, because it's THEIR boat.

[uponit7771]

18. He's White, Rich, Male, Hetero and Christian ... AKA the never touch. Here to kill all the non-wight

... walkers and rid America of their threat

[kimbutgar]

19. The media gives him a free pass and treats him as info entertainment

But i don’t understand them putting up with him attacking the free press and them not fighting back. The N.Y. times is worthless at least the Washington Post puts up some pushback against him,

[VOX]

23. 45's Five Pillars of Support: billionaires; Fox; social media; Russia; complicit Republicans.

Break apart just one or two of those elements, and 45 implodes.

Alas, they haven’t yet been broken up yet. But he’s vulnerable.

[redstatebluegirl]

26. I swear he is the teflon Don.

His supporters hate liberals, blacks, hispanics, women so much, they will follow him to the edge of the earth and jump off.

[zipplewrath]

27. Two Words

Fox News

[pazzyanne]

28. "How does Trump keep getting away with it? Because we let him."

AMEN to that!

[Loge23]

30. Apathy - the real reason

Apathy among American voters is what has led us to this point.
This is what has allowed republicans minority rule in this country.
The simple cure is Voter turnout, but that path has been littered with significant restrictions from that minority rule.
In Florida, voters voted overwhelmingly to restore voting rights to ex-convicts. But the minority-led Florida legislature (read: ruling junta) has effectively blocked this initiative with a poll tax right out of the Jim Crow era.

Just today, the Senator from Arkansas, who won with 56% of the vote there (479,000 votes), advised Americans to "sacrifice" in order to allow a minority-led, disastrous trade war to rage with China.

Think about the dirt bags running the show these days:
The #IPOTUS: famously lost the popular vote but won the election by 77,000 votes in key states with Russian assistance. 55.5% of all voter-eligible citizens voted.

Lindsay Graham: Won in 2004 with 672,941 votes, 54% of the total. South Carolina has approximately 3,000,000 registered voters.

McConnell: a poster boy for minority rule, McConnell won in 2014 with 56.2% of the total, 806,787 total votes. Kentucky has over 3.4 million registered voters.

Grassley: Fooled 926,007 Iowans into voting for old grouch, some 60% of the turnout. There were 1,935,873 registered voters in 2016, so Iowans do turn up at the pools; but, the total number of registered voters in Iowa represents 1.25% of all registered voters (157 million est. out of approximately 250 million eligible) in the USA.

Cotton: Won in 2014 with aforementioned 56.5%, 478,819 total votes. Arkansas has 1,570,961 registered voters.

Bottom line:
* We have approximately 63% of Americans who are eligible to vote actually registered to do so.
* The four dirtbags listed above total votes comprise a grand total of 29% of the total registered voters in those four states.
* Those four "senators" total votes for comprise 1.8% of all registered voters in the USA, while their total number of registered voters in their respective states equals 6.3% of all registered voters in the USA.

We're being ruled into disaster by a distinct minority, folks.

We have to figure out a way to get people registered and to the polls.
We have to demand changes to the rules of the Senate and Congress that give so power to what are basically minor players that keep getting voted in by a few of the smallest states in the country.

We have to wake up the country and fight back.

[kentuck]

32. Same reason the student/shooter got away...

...with dropping his pencil on the floor and "joke" that he was going to begin shooting.

It was so abnormal that the other students just nervously laughed. It is the same uncomfortable feeling with the dictator in the White House.

[Vinca]

33. Republicans are enabling him. Democrats can subpoena and request and beg and carry on

24/7, but in the end it won't amount to anything because Republicans have picked party over country. It's disgusting.