The November 4, 2020 Article I Wish I Could Write: “Hillary Clinton Elected President”

In a stunning reversal of political fortune, and with an historic female ticket with vice-presidential candidate Stacey Abrams, Hillary Clinton has been elected the 47th president of the United States in what experts are already calling Washington’s greatest comeback ever. President Mike Pence called Clinton last night at 11pm to congratulate her on her landslide victory.

Pence, who became the 46th president after Donald Trump was impeached in late 2019 and removed from office a month later when Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell joined with democrats to convict after direct witnesses including Mike Pompeo, Mick Mulvaney, John Bolton and Rudy Giuliani implicated Trump in a massive criminal cover-up, appeared stunned by Clinton’s historic margin of victory:

“Secretary Clinton ran an incredible campaign,” said Pence. “She won by 18-million popular votes and 540 electoral votes, demonstrating that the American people were fed up with the massive corruption in Washington.” (Pence is still under Federal investigation for his role in the cover-up and Trump’s abuse of power and obstruction of justice and Congress).

Clinton’s popular vote margin is the largest in modern history since Richard Nixon’s in 1972, and the largest electoral college victory since Ronald Regan’s 525 votes in 1984 (270 electoral college votes are needed to win the presidency).

Clinton won her party’s nomination after a late-entry into the race in January after Trump was convicted in his Senate trial, and after it became clear that the other leading democratic candidates had sputtered and failed to connect with a majority of voters. She quickly vaulted to the top of the polls and sailed through the primary process, winning handily early on in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

“I am beyond thrilled to take my unprecedented experience and qualifications — which includes the White House, Senate and State Department — and help America get back on track as the greatest nation in the world,” said Clinton. “I will be the president for every American, and will work tirelessly starting in January to unite the country and bring back American idealism and exceptionalism.”

Clinton’s victory sends a very powerful, inspiring message to every American, especially our daughters, of grit, courage, fortitude, perseverance, determination and vindication. That, no matter how hard your detractors knock you down, you can stand up, dust yourself off, continue the fight and ultimately prevail. That glass ceilings can still be shattered.

Clinton and Abrams will be sworn in on January 20th.

Why Trump Will Resign in 2020

As I first wrote over a year ago, Donald Trump will resign before his term is up.

Trump’s political and legal problems are mounting. And no amount of Tweeting will make them go away. He is now just the third president in history to be impeached. And despite what he and his defenders would like to believe, he’s facing a punishing Senate trial which likely won’t end in conviction and removal, but will be a campaign and PR nightmare.

The evidence against Trump is beyond incriminating. It’s devastating. And while he and Senate Leader Mitch McConnell continue to push for a quick trial with its shameful predetermined verdict, the public keenly sees one party desperately fighting to expose the truth while the other fights like animals to hide it and obstruct justice in a massive coverup. In the court of public opinion, Trump’s a goner.

In a new poll released this week a record-high 55% of Americans now want Trump removed from office…an increase from 48% just last week. Voters aren’t stupid. They’re paying attention. They care. And this number’s going to keep rising until McConnell can no longer ignore it.

Trump the narcissist has spent decades crafting and protecting his image. He will stop at nothing in doing so. This includes pretending to be his own publicist to leak exaggerated claims of his wealth and sexual prowess to pathological-lying and gaslighting reality. He hates being perceived on any level as a failure and loser, and is obsessed with boasting of massive success and “winning.”

Since his impeachment earlier this month we’ve witnessed Trump’s colossal emotional meltdown on TV and on Twitter, where he’s been breaking his all-time highs (as much as 125 tweets in one day) with attacks on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and the ‘validity” of his very impeachment…a ludicrous charge he’s been leveling since Pelosi’s brilliantly withheld the Articles of Impeachment until McConnell agrees to conducting a fair trial with direct evidence and witnesses.

Trump also knows he’s lost much of his base (defined as everyone who voted for him in 2016). Gone are moderate Republicans, independents, college educated women, suburban women, minorities and many youth and seniors. His math and path to re-election no longer adds up.

Trump also lives in mortal fear of conviction in various states for his many financial crimes. He still fears the Mueller probe’s criminal referrals to the Southern District of NY, Eastern District of VA and elsewhere. And, he knows better than anyone that so much more evidence of his High Crimes and Misdemeanors will inevitably come out between now and the election.

Furthermore, Trump, the most immature, undisciplined, impulse-control-bankrupt, chaotic, self-destructive president to ever occupy the Oval Office, is sure to continue breaking laws. His hole will get deeper and deeper. He simply cannot help himself.

Which is why he will resign. He knows he’s going to lose. And lose big. Perhaps even in the largest, most humiliating landslide in American political history. And he will not subject himself to that.

Here’s how it’ll go down: When it’s become abundantly clear that he’s going to be a loser, and as the long arm of the law comes marching down the hall with threats of indictment, and more importantly when McConnell and the party abandons him, Trump will do what he always does: lie and gaslight. He’ll cut a deal (generously afforded out of respect to the office) and will craft a narrative that feeds his ego and allows himself a sensational, grandiose, self-soothing out. It won’t matter one bit that’ll be all bullshit.

And here’s what he’ll likely say: “Many people are saying, but nobody’s taking about it…and you all know it better than me…that I’m gonna win this election bigly…the polls show it, even the fake-news media’s predicting it….probably gonna be the biggest win ever in the history of elections. Democrats, Crazy Nancy, Cryin‘ Chuck…they all know it and fear me winning again. But ya know what? Even though I’d win YUGE by millions and millions of votes… I don’t want it. Washington is a swamp and I’m tired of fighting these animals who are destroying America. I got what I wanted. I won the biggest victory ever in ’16 and we all know I’d do it again. I’ve proven what a winner I am! But now I’m gonna go back to my business where I’ll make $100-billion next year. And play a lot of golf…because, as you know, I never got to play much while I was working non-stop so hard for you! So, I’m outta here, suckas! You can have this crappy job and old, small shitty house! Politics is for losers! Nobody wins like Trump! Believe me…”

The Most Important Election in American History

It’s been said by Democrats before: “This is the most important election in history.” And perhaps at those times the warnings were well-founded. The fight against abortion, the push for gun control, the need to combat climate change, the battle over the courts all seemed like grave threats to personal freedom, health and survival (and they still do).

But today the warning is rooted in democracy’s existential crisis. The survival of our Constitution, the rule of law and everything we’ve cherished for the past 243 years is at stake. Our precious democracy is teetering on the verge of…take your pick…autocracy, authoritarianism, dictatorship.

The Founding Fathers were brilliant in their creation of a system of checks and balances, where each of the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches of their nascent government would be equal. A fail-safe designed to reign in and hold accountable a rogue president who uses and abuses the office for personal gain, even at the risk of the our national security.

And for 243 years the system worked without fail. Until now. What the Founders never contemplated, and therefore did not create remedies for, was if one or more of those co-equal checks abdicated its oversight role and instead aided and abetted a corrupt, power-usurping president. 

Welcome to the Reign of Donald Trump.

Wake up, America. Next year’s election is not about policy. It’s not about ideology. It’s not about right vs left. It’s about right vs wrong. Law vs lawlessness. It’s about the survival of democracy and everything we hold near and dear about our great nation. It’s about core values, decency, honesty, truth and American exceptionalism and idealism.

It’s about the end of our society as we know it.

In just three years of his tainted, now-impeached presidency, Trump has blatantly and shamelessly broken laws, shattered norms and dismantled institutions. His relentless attacks on our free press, law-enforcement apparatus, intelligence community, diplomatic corps and independent judiciary have shredded the fabric of democracy.

Trump’s corrupted the Department of Justice and Attorney General William Barr, who executes the duties of his office as if he were the president’s personal attorney and protector (his “Roy Cohn”). He’s corrupted the Republican Senate and Leader Mitch McConnell who, as Trump’s chief enabler, violates his oath daily, for example, when vowing to fully coordinate impeachment-trial strategy with the White House. And he’s corrupted the courts by appointing 158 unqualified, controversial, partisan sycophants to every critical level of the judicial system including the Supreme Court.

To be sure, these critical levers of government are firmly, albeit inexplicably, in Trump’s pocket. Perhaps it’s blackmail, fear of rage-tweets, hyper-partisan power-lust over tax cuts and judges, racism, or all of the above. But make no mistake, with their help, Trump has been able to operate with reckless abandon, utter disdain for authority and in the mode of a maniacal despot.

That is until Nancy Pelosi and democrats took control of the House in 2018. Imagine, just imagine, where America, and Trump, would be today if Republicans controlled the House as well. Imagine if Devin Nunes, Mark Meadows, Jim Jordan, Doug Collins, Louis Gohmert and the legion of Trump-ass-kissing GOP goons held the keys to the Constitution.

But thanks to Speaker Pelosi and democrats, America still looks, smells, feels and tastes like a Democracy. But things can and will get unfathomably worse if Trump is re-elected.

Which is why next year’s election is the most important in American history. Democrats must retain the House and re-take the Senate. And, we must ensure that Donald Trump — the most dishonest, corrupt, treasonous, dangerous politician in U.S. history — is not allowed anywhere near the White House after January 20, 2021.

What Would Jesus Say?

Donald Trump tweeted “Merry Christmas” this morning and then issued the following statement:

“…Together, we must strive to foster a culture of deeper understanding and respect — traits that exemplify the teachings of Christ.”

Excuse me, but I think I’m gonna vomit…because Trump and his First Cohort Melania are the very antithesis of everything Christ lived and died for. Everything.

I often wonder what Jesus would think if he were here today. What he’d say if he witnessed Trump’s vile behavior.

I think about the deliciously satisfying scene in ANNIE HALL when, on a movie line in the lobby, a pseudo-intellectual standing behind a clearly irritated Woody Allen waxes arrogantly to his date about the philosopher Marshall McLuhan and gets emotionally pulverized when Allen brilliantly has McLuhan step out from behind a poster to school him on his work. But in my fantasy, it’s Jesus who’d step forward and tell Trump…

“I heard what you were saying. You know nothing of my work…”

So what would Jesus actually say to Trump? I suspect he’d begin by reminding him of the obvious: love, honor, respect, decency, compassion, empathy, faith, forgiveness, sacrifice.

But perhaps he’d take it a step further. He’d assure Trump that he’s not The Chosen One. That he’s not a prophet. That there’s only one Jesus.

He might even get angry and excoriate Trump, and the evangelicals who enable him, for the specific sins he commits on an hourly basis…

“How dare you defile my name in furtherance of policies, positions, attitudes and behavior that directly contradict everything I stand for. You sexually assault women. You covet thy neighbor’s wife. You cheat on yours. You mock and bully the aged, the sick, the disabled, the poor, the needy, minorities. You steal from the poor to give to the rich.You foment hate and violence against your opponents. You attack and ignore those escaping persecution and who desperately seek refuge. You cage children. You separate families. You self-enrich at the expense of others and your country’s safety. You break laws, shatter norms and dismantle institutions. You’re a pathological liar. You respect no one, cannot be trusted and are a threat to civilization. And, you constantly take my name in vain as justification for spreading your cancer on mankind. So please…stop…talking…about…my…teachings. Just STOP.”

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah, everyone…