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Charles Pierce: Trump can't escape this time.
http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a53159/trump-campaign-russia-communicate/an excerpt from the middle of the article. More at the link.
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. . I no longer have any doubt at all that there were borscht-stained thumbs on the scales throughout 2016. (I never had much doubt, but what little I had has completely vaporized.) I have very little doubt any more that the Trump campaign served two primary functions: one, to monetize Being A Candidate and then Being The President on behalf of the Family Trump; and two, to act as a vessel for Russian interests in the west. The Republican Party and, god knows, the good of the Republic, were secondary and tertiary concerns at best. The Republican Party has demonstrated that it doesn't give a damn what this president* does to the country as long as it gets its tax cuts on; in December, Slate had an interesting report on how Mitch McConnell monkey-wrenched a study of Russian influence of the election. The question is how much the people in the country can take.
And that's the rub. One of the things the Trump people have done very well is immunize their supporters against any bad news. This, of course, merely built on the work done over 30 years by the conservative movement and the burgeoning conservative media complex. (Do you have any idea how many people out there still really believe the 2008 economic crash was caused by how the Community Reinvestment Act "forced" big banks to give loans to Those People?) Shadowy figures from Spookland whispering to reporters is unlikely to put a serious dent in the reasons they decided to vote for the snake-oil peddler with the gilded commode who told them that he was the last real hope they have.
This story fairly screams for an extended televised series of hearings on the Sam Ervin model. Investigative journalism can penetrate only so deeply. Televised punditry based on that reporting can penetrate only so deeply, and the audiences for those shows are so polarized at this point that they have fairly well abandoned the idea of changing any minds or moving any numbers. But turn this into a mini-series and, in concert with all of that other activity, that's when the country has the best chance to move on its rulers.
It can't go on like this.
We can't have a White House this compromised and this oblivious to the water rising over its head. We can't have an intelligence community permanently at war with the civilian government. We can't have a Congress so set on its economic and social agenda that it abandons its oversight function. (Do you know what your House of Representatives was doing today? Among other things, it dealt with the issue of hunting bears in Alaska from the air. Sarah Palin was ahead of her time in so many ways.) And we can't have an American public so numb and disengaged that this carnival of the bizarre and grotesque—and worse—sounds like the way self-government is supposed to work. . .
And that's the rub. One of the things the Trump people have done very well is immunize their supporters against any bad news. This, of course, merely built on the work done over 30 years by the conservative movement and the burgeoning conservative media complex. (Do you have any idea how many people out there still really believe the 2008 economic crash was caused by how the Community Reinvestment Act "forced" big banks to give loans to Those People?) Shadowy figures from Spookland whispering to reporters is unlikely to put a serious dent in the reasons they decided to vote for the snake-oil peddler with the gilded commode who told them that he was the last real hope they have.
This story fairly screams for an extended televised series of hearings on the Sam Ervin model. Investigative journalism can penetrate only so deeply. Televised punditry based on that reporting can penetrate only so deeply, and the audiences for those shows are so polarized at this point that they have fairly well abandoned the idea of changing any minds or moving any numbers. But turn this into a mini-series and, in concert with all of that other activity, that's when the country has the best chance to move on its rulers.
It can't go on like this.
We can't have a White House this compromised and this oblivious to the water rising over its head. We can't have an intelligence community permanently at war with the civilian government. We can't have a Congress so set on its economic and social agenda that it abandons its oversight function. (Do you know what your House of Representatives was doing today? Among other things, it dealt with the issue of hunting bears in Alaska from the air. Sarah Palin was ahead of her time in so many ways.) And we can't have an American public so numb and disengaged that this carnival of the bizarre and grotesque—and worse—sounds like the way self-government is supposed to work. . .
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