Hugh Hewitt
Man, I despise Hugh Hewitt. Hewitt is a conservative radio talk show host out of Wisconsin. His show is on the Salem Radio Network, and can be found on most “mainstream” conservative stations. When you’re falling asleep at the wheel, he’s a great choice. Whatever they’re talking about, it’s bound to raise your blood pressure. By the end of the show, you’re mad, frustrated, and wide-awake. There’s your highway safety tip for the day.
I don’t despise Hewitt for his views. Lots of folks, many of whom I call friends, share his positions. Hewitt was a conservative before Donald Trump, working in various Republican Administrations and the Justice Department. In fact, I respected Hewitt in the months leading up to the 2016 election. He stuck to his conservative “guns”, in spite of Donald Trump. He called Trump “as he saw him”, a charlatan and a fool.
No my big problem with Hewitt was his conversion to Trumpism. In a few short weeks in January of 2017, Hewitt went from a conservative critic to a Trump mouthpiece. Every Trump talking point became a Hewitt battle cry. I’m sure it didn’t hurt that Hewitt’s son was working in the Administration. And it that’s convenient change of heart that frustrated me. I knew Hewitt before, and I knew him after, and I don’t like what I know now.
Derangement
So it isn’t a surprise that Hewitt wrote a long editorial for the Washington Post calling on Americans to let Trump finish out the eleven days of his term. Hewitt does not want Trump impeached; he sees that as a form of revenge and retribution, not justice. He even pulls out the term “Trump Derangement Syndrome” claiming that those who wish to remove Trump before January 20th are simply suffering from some mental disorder.
Just an aside – I hate the term “Trump Derangement Syndrome”. It is the way that pro-Trump folks use to denigrate those who oppose Trump. It’s all about “well the stock market set records,” “our taxes went down,” and “he built the Wall”. It says that because of the “mental disorder”, hatred for Trump, those suffering from the “syndrome” are ignoring all the “good” that Trump achieved. I’ve got to tell you – it’s hard to find much good achieved in the past four years. And the bad so outweighs the good: ask 375,000 Americans dead in the last ten months.
Donald Trump fomented an insurrection. He did it by promulgating false information about the American election, claiming that there was massive fraud that took “a beautiful landslide victory” away from him. Trump convinced millions of Americans that their storied Republic was being subverted. He called them to Washington DC, on the day that the Electoral ballots were counted. And he sent many thousands of them to the Capitol, primed to “defend their President”.
Trump didn’t have the “balls” to lead them into the Capitol building. He was the ugliest kind of leader: an arsonist who lit a match then went back into the White House and laughed as the mob smashed into the seat of our Democracy.
Wink and a Nod
And then the President issued a staged video, telling his loyal followers that it was now time “to accept the results”. I didn’t see “the wink and the nod”, but the entire nation is still waiting for it. We all know how this works; we saw it after Charlottesville. “There were good people, on both sides; I know it and you know it too”. Trump is incapable of accepting the loss; he will call on his “people” again. Maybe we should call that “Trump’s Derangement Syndrome”.
So I’m all in favor of getting Trump out of office as soon as possible. Vice President Pence and the remaining Cabinet members could do it. This is one of the scenarios the 25th Amendment was written for. Unfortunately, Pence and Pompeo have made the political calculation that they will need Trump’s “people” to fulfill their own ambitions. Pence should get a couple of “Atta-boys” for doing his job and counting the votes, but I’m sure that’s as far as he goes. And Pompeo (rhymes with pompous) is hiding from the world, probably in an “undisclosed location” in the State Department.
Or Pence could cut a deal with Trump: a resignation for a pardon. I can hear President Pence’s speech to the nation now, subverting Gerald Ford’s “now our long national nightmare is over” speech after the Nixon pardon. But I’m not holding my breath for that either.
Insurrection
And I don’t blame Speaker Pelosi and the Democrats for seeking any means to remove this President before he can do more damage to our Constitution. He literally tried to overthrow the government. Men were walking through the Capitol Building with handcuffs. A gallows was erected on the Capitol lawn. Sure they looked like fools at a drunken college riot after losing the football game, but America was close to seeing some South American style power grab. As long as Donald Trump is in the White House, the risk is still there.
But damn, Hewitt’s right. Impeachment won’t get us there. Mitch McConnell’s final act as the Majority Leader of the Senate will be to shelter Trump one more time. He’ll do what he does best – delay. Like Pence and Pompeo, it’s not about protecting Trump, it’s about protecting Republican Senators from taking a vote on Trump’s removal: politics.
Impeachment won’t get Trump out of office any sooner. What it does do is exactly what Hewitt claims: revenge and retribution. And while there is no one more deserving of both than Trump, we have better processes for that than impeaching and removing a man who will no longer be in office when we get there.
We have the Courts for that. And if Trump pardons himself and his family, we have the Courts for that as well. If the Courts fail, we can always resort to the ballot box. Meanwhile we need to hang onto our Republic tight for the next eleven days. It is at risk.
