I remember waking up on Wednesday, November 9th<\/sup>, 2016.\u00a0\u00a0I hoped it was a nightmare, that the election results I watched until the darkest hours of the night had somehow changed.\u00a0\u00a0I wished that Hillary Clinton, up on the stage, doing her best to show \u201cwhat was right\u201d and acknowledging the unthinkable, was a dream.\u00a0\u00a0Donald Trump was the next President of the United States.\u00a0\u00a0It was the sublime to the ridiculous:\u00a0\u00a0Barack Obama to Donald Trump.\u00a0\u00a0It took days to even believe it was possible, and it didn\u2019t take much effort at all to wonder if it was true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was in that first month of the Trump Administration that I began to write the essays, now called \u201cOur America\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0And some of those questioned the veracity of the election results, decided by such a fractional margin of the popular vote: the number 77,744 is etched in my brain. It was the difference in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin that put Trump in charge.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then we discovered \u201cCrossfire Hurricane\u201d, the FBI investigation into Russian connections to the Trump campaign.\u00a0\u00a0And while MAGA world did (and still does) everything they could to discredit them, there were connections.\u00a0\u00a0Paul Manafort, the Trump Campaign Manager, was passing inside campaign information to the Russian government.\u00a0\u00a0There were connections between Mike Flynn and Russia, and even more with T\u00fcrkiye (the modern spelling of Turkey \u2013 just like Peking became Beijing<\/em>).\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Jared Kushner was on the phone to Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov.\u00a0\u00a0But it wasn\u2019t enough, even after the Mueller Report; enough to \u201cbring down the king\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s a saying attributed to Emerson: \u201cWhen you strike at a king, you must kill him\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0Crossfire Hurricane struck at a king, and the result was ridiculed like a seventies sit-com as \u201cRussia-Russia-Russia\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0Even the gravitas of Robert Mueller and Adam Schiff were unable to save the investigation from the machinations of Attorney General Barr and the propaganda wing of MAGA-world.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0What we learned is that if you strike at a King, you can\u2019t afford to be \u201cclose\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0This ain\u2019t horseshoes or hand grenades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That was strike one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then came the \u201cperfect phone call\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0It was absolutely obvious: Donald Trump, the President of the United States was using US aid to Ukraine to extort Ukraine’s President for “evidence\u201d against Trump\u2019s likely opponent in 2020, Joe Biden.\u00a0\u00a0My gosh; it that isn\u2019t illegal, using public money to get personal political gain, I don\u2019t know what is.\u00a0\u00a0And while Nancy Pelosi, then Speaker of the House, was slow to acknowledge it, other Democrats in the House felt they MUST hold Trump accountable.\u00a0\u00a0They impeached him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The evidence was clear.\u00a0\u00a0But political partisanship and MAGA threats were more important than the truth.\u00a0\u00a0So the Republican controlled US Senate failed to reach the 2\/3 majority required to remove Trump from office.\u00a0\u00a0It wasn\u2019t even that close, despite the \u201cprima facie\u201d case that Trump committed an actual crime.\u00a0\u00a0The expectation, that somehow Republicans would show \u201cProfiles in Courage\u201d in the face of the truth, showed to be the nonsense of political fiction.\u00a0\u00a0It still is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That was strike two.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And it emboldened MAGA-world.\u00a0\u00a0Two strikes at the \u201cKing\u201d, two failures.\u00a0\u00a0No wonder they thought they were invincible.\u00a0\u00a0Only Covid was able to \u201cstrike down\u201d the Trump Presidency, and then by an even narrower margin than he won the first time.\u00a0\u00a0So it shouldn\u2019t have been a surprise that January 6th<\/sup>, 2021 happened.\u00a0\u00a0And no matter how hard MAGA-world tries to rewrite the history of that moment, we can all honestly still feel the fear and nausea as we watched the crowd on the steps of the Capitol.\u00a0\u00a0We could literally feel the strain of our democracy, our Constitution, nearly tearing in half, as our Representatives and Senators determined to go back in the night and finish their work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump had to be held accountable.\u00a0\u00a0He was impeached again in the House, and tried again in the Senate.\u00a0\u00a0And this time, there was a clear choice for Republicans.\u00a0\u00a0They could end the Trump era, for good, for all.\u00a0\u00a0Or they could hope to endear MAGA-world to themselves, to assure their own political future.\u00a0\u00a0And their leader, Mitch McConnell, who clearly acknowledged to the world that Trump was responsible for the devastation, chose to vote against conviction, taking the needed 2\/3 majority with him.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Democrats weren\u2019t wrong. But it was still strike three.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Three strikes, in American culture, that means you\u2019re out.\u00a0\u00a0No wonder Joe Biden and his Attorney General, Merrick Garland, were in no hurry to investigate Trump.\u00a0\u00a0But the January 6th<\/sup>\u00a0Committee held their feet to the fire of Trump\u2019s planned \u201ccoup d\u2019\u00e9tat\u201d. \u00a0And so, with almost visible reluctance, the Jack Smith investigation began.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It was really a matter of too little, too late.\u00a0\u00a0The Supreme Court stalled, then intervened.\u00a0\u00a0While Smith\u2019s report made it clear he had \u201cthe goods\u201d on Trump, it didn\u2019t matter.\u00a0\u00a0In the end, Trump\u2019s lawyers were able to run out the clock.\u00a0\u00a0Trump had to run for President in 2024; it was his only way to avoid conviction.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Think of that all or nothing proposition:\u00a0\u00a0win and be President, or lose and be in jail.\u00a0\u00a0What would a billionaire give to make sure he won?\u00a0\u00a0What deals would he make, and what lengths would he go?\u00a0\u00a0Was the 2024 election somehow rigged?\u00a0\u00a0This time, the number was around 255,000; the difference in the swing states that put Trump back in the Oval Office instead of a prison cell.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n That was strike four.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We probably will never know.\u00a0\u00a0Even if somehow our Constitutional system survives this growing authoritarian regime; even if Democrats win back the Congress in 2026 (a fair election?) or the Presidency in 2028.\u00a0\u00a0No one will go back; they\u2019ll be no American \u201cTruth and Reconciliation Commission\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s likely we\u2019ll simply put Trump and MAGA behind us, like the Japanese Internment Camps or McCarthyism.\u00a0\u00a0That is, if we get the chance to do so.\u00a0\u00a0Otherwise, America, already radically changed in just over 100 days, will be unrecognizable, to us, and to the world.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n There will be no strike five.<\/p>\n\n\n\nCrossfire Hurricane<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
A Perfect Call<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Insurrection<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
You\u2019re Out<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Earlier Essays about Elections<\/h5>\n\n\n\n