Accountable

One day last week (around noon on Wednesday) I may or may not have been singing, “Ding, dong the witch is dead!” Technically he’s not dead, he’s simply crawled back under a rock (a very large one) in Florida, which means most of us can now breathe a collective sigh of relief. Let’s face it, if ever there was someone who should not have had any of his tiny fingers on the button, it was surely this man.  Now the only buttons his fingers will have access to are on his beloved phone, although since he’s been banned from Twitter, it remains to be seen just how much use that phone will get, which of course, brings to mind a quote from a certain jacket,  “I really don’t care, do U?”

And really,  I don’t care. Honestly if I never heard another word from or about any of the grifters who’ve been in and around the white house over the past four years that would be just fine with me. I’d also prefer to not write another word about he who should not be named (or ever be in office again) but unfortunately, we aren’t quite rid of him yet. I’m sure in the coming weeks we’ll be finding out more and more about just how much damage has been done by the former president and his inept henchmen. Already there are stories about the lack of a vaccination plan. Apparently the stable genius who liked to crow about his role in developing the vaccine, forgot (or couldn’t be bothered) to figure out the best way to get that vaccine into people’s arms. There are also now reports of some kind of scheme to use the Justice Department to strong arm Georgia into changing its election results. There will likely be a never ending torrent of these tales. So like it or not (definitely not), we’ll still be hearing plenty about the disgraced ex-president. 

Plus, in a little more than two weeks, we’ll be on to the impeachment trial.  I’m sure we’ll hear some republicans, not to mention whatever lawyers he dupes into working for him (without pay), come out with something along the lines of, “impeachment is for removal from office and he’s already gone so let’s just forget about it and get back to work. After all, we have to get to work obstructing the Biden administration.” Truthfully you probably won’t hear that last part from anyone but minority leader McConnell (minority has a nice ring to it!). Moving on does sound nice and I’d certainly like to see Individual-1 fade into obscurity, but I do think that for once in his miserable life, he must be held accountable. 

Let’s imagine for a moment that I just spent four years robbing a country, I mean, a bank. No I don’t mean it took me four years to rob a single bank. Think metaphorically here please! Anyway, for argument’s sake, I’ve robbed this bank, and I’ve been caught (possibly the whole robbery was televised). A judge, possibly one appointed by a certain unindicted co-conspirator, might say “Mr. Vibes I find you guilty. You will not pass go and you will go to jail.” In other words, I’d be accountable for my crime. Of course, the judge might also say, “Did it really take you four years to rob this bank?” Then I’d have to explain about metaphors and the like and we’d be way off track (as usual).

Now imagine that in my hypothetical court appearance, I countered with “even if I did rob the bank,  I’m not robbing it now. I’m all finished. Currently, I’m under a rock (yes a large one) in Florida, so let’s just forget about it and get back to work” That is not being accountable. That is getting away with it.

Want another hypothetical? How about if you (not me, I’m in enough trouble with that bank robbery) got a speeding ticket? “Well your honor, I might have been speeding then but, you see, uh, I’m not speeding now, so let’s just move on and get back to the important work of obstructing any sort of meaningful legislation that might help people.”  And so on.

But this was not a hypothetical bank robbery or a hypothetical speeding ticket, in fact, it wasn’t hypothetical at all. This was an actual coup attempt that we all watched in real time. It started with the big lie about election fraud, invented by the ex-president. He spent months nurturing that lie, along with Faux News and the usual suspects in congress until it reached a fever pitch on January 6th and actual people (not hypothetical people) died. For that and so much more (threat to democracy anyone?), he must be held accountable.

How about one last hypothetical? Imagine you were the one (remember I only deal with banks) who riled up an armed, angry mob, sent them off to the capitol, and then as a result, people died. Would the authorities let you off the hook? I think not. And the senate shouldn’t let him off either.

I won’t be holding my breath but they should vote to convict him and then make sure he is never allowed to hold office again. Afterward they can go back to their obstructing and I can go back to writing about anything but politics, hypothetically at least.