Trump is hurtling toward a Nixonian ending

[brooklynite]

Joe Scarborough:

The anniversary of Robert F. Kennedy’s assassination has long served as a stark reminder of all that was lost on that day in 1968, and of what American politics might have become had the New York senator survived that turbulent year. Wednesday’s 50th anniversary of the tragedy saw a deluge of tributes remembering a man both haunted by history and driven by the vision of an America redeemed.

Esquire’s Charles Pierce this week describes Kennedy as a man uniquely capable of standing against the “foul gales” that were then rising in American ­politics. Pierce believes, as do I, that Kennedy’s election to the presidency could have healed a nation pushed to a breaking point by a cacophony of cultural tremors. Despite campaigning against the bleak backdrop of Vietnam, torched American cities, heightened racial ­tensions and political assassinations, RFK would have stitched together the shredded fabric of American culture and healed the soul of a country that remains, as Pierce writes, “perpetually ­redeemable.”

In a new book, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Jon Meacham reminds readers of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s belief that for all of this country’s failings, the trend of American civilization is forever upward. That is an invaluable reminder during a time when the president proclaims his power unrestrained by Madisonian checks and balances, including ignoring federal subpoenas, killing Justice Department investigations, obstructing justice to protect his personal interests and even pardoning himself. The president’s hapless lawyers seem to have convinced Donald Trump, like Richard M. Nixon before him, that “when the president does it, that means that it is not illegal.”

But that twisted interpretation of presidential authority is dead wrong. Even in President Trump’s America, no man is above the law.

[dem4decades]

1. Not fast enough.

[Oneironaut]

2. I disagree, especially with the last sentence.

Trump is absolutely above the law. He could essentially do whatever he wants now, as there is no desire to push back against him. I'm convinced that he could even start murdering his political opponents, and the Republicans would find a way to twist it into being justified.

I have no faith in the current government to do the right thing. They just go along with whatever Trump wants. They will do anything to win, even if it destroys the country.

Trump will never face consequences for his actions, and in fact, will very likely be re-elected in 2020. For every loud enabler he has, there are 10 other silent enablers. His entire fandom is a like a cult, where their leader is god-like and can do no wrong. They would throw themselves off a bridge en masse if he told them to.

[rainin]

3. They wouldn't justify murder, they would simply create an alternate reality like they always do.

Scary times.

[Oneironaut]

4. Sounds like Putin's Russia,

where journalists seem to constantly fall victim to random robberies that end with the journalist being shot multiple times in the head. It's amazing how people can see what is going on, and delude themselves into not believing their own eyes.

[3Hotdogs]

5. That would go too far. Deep in back of feckless Repuk Congresscritters would be the thought,

He could kill me 5 years from now. After all, who is his best foreign buddy?