When news of the Trump campaign’s wrongdoing surfaces, like Julia Ioffe’s scoop today, my feelings are always mixed. On the one hand, I can go along with the predominant feelings of the threads here, the anticipation of the actors in orange jumpsuits, the anger at what they’ve done to our country, the hope that our national nightmare is coming to an end.
On the other, I feel a bit hopeless. The country elected this man and the doofuses around him. The media fell for the Russian tricks. And Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell are much too busy looting the country for their billionaire sponsors to do anything about it.
And I don’t know how this ends.
Watergate was a simple burglary, directed and covered up by the President. This involves years of money laundering, ambitions of an emotionally and ethically deficient man and his hangers-on, and some things we don’t yet understand, like how those folks in flyover country like Jeff Sessions and Sam Clovis got so friendly with the Russians. There are multiple threads.
Robert Mueller and his team are pulling on some of those threads, and they will come loose eventually. People will be convicted. It may happen quickly or it may linger.
Some large number of people seem to be implicated. Most of those in the Trump campaign, possibly Ryan and McConnell. Most of the chain of succession is made up of the incompetent Cabinet officers Trump has appointed. I don’t know how we’re going to deal with that.
Then there is the question of how the public will take it. I think that this will not be a major problem. There will be a vocal minority that continues to support Trump, but most will follow the political leadership. And yeah, the Republican leadership stinks, but I think that will turn one way or another.
Yes, let’s enjoy seeing the facts come out and imagining the perp walks. But we need to prepare for a long and unpleasant slog.