The sham (pick your partisan flavor) is on

Whether you believe with Republicans the impeachment itself is a sham or with neoliberals (Democrats) that the trial will be a sham, it is on. For me, the Republican denial that Donald Trump did anything wrong is pathetic,[1] but I am increasingly convinced that the principle involved here is not the Constitution but rather neoliberalism,[2] which disgusts me to no end.

Neoliberalism is a moral imperative for neoconservatives;[3] neoconservatism and neoliberalism have been adopted in a bipartisan consensus among mainstream U.S. politicians since the fall of the Berlin Wall.[4] So I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that the neoliberal party fails to see crimes against humanity as meriting impeachment. That does not improve my tolerance for such crimes or for racism by omission.[5]

It will all, ultimately, be for nothing as Senate Republicans, who control that chamber, shirk their constitutional duty by one means or another.[6] That might be just as well as I fear the violence that might result if Trump were to be successfully impeached and removed from office.[7] But I am left nauseous, nauseated by what neoliberals included and what they omitted from the impeachment charges, nauseated by how Republicans are responding, and nauseated that none of this solves a damn thing.

That both sides are so shameless in their self-righteousness, whether in affirming Trump did nothing wrong[8] or in enabling his bigotry and crimes against humanity,[9] strikes me as yet another example of the morality of polarization.[10]

I am disgusted. It’s all fucking stupid, from beginning to end, every last bit of it.

  1. [1]Colby Itkowitz et al., “Trump becomes third U.S. president to be impeached as House approves both articles against him,” Washington Post, December 18, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-impeachment-live-updates/2019/12/18/237147e8-2110-11ea-bed5-880264cc91a9_story.html
  2. [2]David Benfell, “It’s still a smoke-filled room,” Not Housebroken, December 6, 2019, https://disunitedstates.org/2019/12/06/its-still-a-smoke-filled-room/; David Benfell, “How the neoliberal (usually known as Democratic) party may well lose in 2020,” Not Housebroken, December 7, 2019, How the neoliberal (usually known as Democratic) party may well lose in 2020
  3. [3]David Benfell, “Conservative Views on Undocumented Migration” (doctoral dissertation, Saybrook, 2016). ProQuest (1765416126); Gertrude Himmelfarb, “Irving Kristol’s Neoconservative Persuasion,” Commentary 132, no. 2 (2011), 25-29.
  4. [4]Melvyn P. Leffler, “The Free Market Did Not Bring Down the Berlin Wall,” Foreign Policy, November 7, 2014, http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/11/07/berlin_wall_fall_25_anniversary_reagan_bush_germany_merkel_cold_war_free_market_capitalism
  5. [5]David Benfell, “The whiteness of impeachment,” Not Housebroken, December 15, 2019, https://disunitedstates.org/2019/12/15/the-whiteness-of-impeachment/
  6. [6]Michael Wilner, Emma Dumain, and Francesca Chambers, “‘He’s the only hope we’ve got.’ All eyes on chief justice in Senate impeachment trial,” Sacramento Bee, December 18, 2019, https://www.sacbee.com/news/nation-world/national/article238470443.html
  7. [7]David Benfell, “The least violent solution,” Not Housebroken, December 16, 2019, https://disunitedstates.org/2019/12/16/the-least-violent-solution/
  8. [8]Colby Itkowitz et al., “Trump becomes third U.S. president to be impeached as House approves both articles against him,” Washington Post, December 18, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-impeachment-live-updates/2019/12/18/237147e8-2110-11ea-bed5-880264cc91a9_story.html
  9. [9]David Benfell, “The whiteness of impeachment,” Not Housebroken, December 15, 2019, https://disunitedstates.org/2019/12/15/the-whiteness-of-impeachment/
  10. [10]David Benfell, “The morality of polarization,” Not Housebroken, September 21, 2019, https://disunitedstates.org/2018/09/21/the-morality-of-polarization/

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