The ancient Athenians flourished almost two thousand five hundred years ago, but they seem to have grasped many of the elements of the human experience, despite not having the benefit of the wisdom either of Marx or of Freud. It was they who gave us the word kleptocracy, which I fear will become as familiar as internet or twitter in the years ahead. It seems Donald Trump has been unable to resist monetizing the Presidency even until after his inauguration, if this story in today's NY TIMES is to be believed.
At least for times on this blog, most recently last March, I have invoked the valuable insight of my former UMass colleague Zina Tillona, who observed about a professor newly elevated to a Deanship that most people do most things the way they do most other things. So it is with Trump. He has spent his life in the desperate and fitfully successful pursuit of profit, and not even the majesty of the Presidency will change him.
It is now only a matter of time, and not much of that, before he starts molesting and assaulting White House interns. Will it become public knowledge? Of course. Everything does. Will he deny it? To ask the question is to answer it. Will a Republican House of Representatives impeach him, as an earlier House impeached Bill Clinton? Do not be absurd.
I understand the attraction of a White House internship, but I would advise against it.
I'm not so sure impeachment is really so farfetched. After all, Mike Pence is a mainstream Republican who is much more likely to implement a predictable Republican agenda than President Trump, whose real policy preferences no one knows since his expressed policies are either incoherent or self-contradictory. Impeaching Trump would give us President Pence, which I think most Senate and House Republicans would prefer hands down.
ReplyDeleteIntern as double agent?
ReplyDeleteOne can only hope. It would be hazardous duty, deserving of combat pay.
ReplyDelete