The latest tempest in a [container size to be determined] to splat on the front pages of the media is the firestorm over President Trump’s assertions that the Obama administration wiretapped Trump Tower during the election last year. The Left and the mainstream press (but I repeat myself) immediately rushed out with mockery and dismissals, declaring that Trump’s failure to provide proof meant that he was, yet again, lying and making stuff up. Unfortunately for them, there apparently is something to the assertion, as explained over at National Review.

Drudge, never one to miss a chance at chumming the political landscape, semi-literally did so with a giant banner declaring “DEMS SMELL BLOOD IN WATER.” This article covers Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s assessment that “either way … the president’s in trouble.” Presumably, Trump’s in Dutch if his claim is baseless, and he’s in deep doo doo if the claim is true. Regarding the latter, Schumer observed “that means that a federal judge, independently elected, has found probable cause that the president, or people on his staff, have probable cause to have broken the law or to have interacted with a foreign agent.”

Lets set aside the chasm of difference between probable cause for a warrant and indictment/conviction. Lets set aside the conflation of the possibility that a server in Trump Tower might have connected to a financial institution with actual malfeasance on Trump’s part. Lets set aside the onanistic fantasies that, this time, the Left has found the smoking gun that will remove the Untethered Orange Id from the White House.

Lets, instead, contemplate the aftermath of the fulfillment of that fantasy.

What, exactly, do the Dems think is going to happen should they manage to unseat Trump over something as flimsy as this latest kerfuffle?

Will all Trump’s supporters merely shrug their shoulders and say “oh well, so it goes?” Will the GOP actually hop onto whatever agenda the Dems want to pursue, despite the latter being a minority party in both houses of Congress and having suffered massive electoral rebuke at the state level? Will American voters, having been shown the light and the error of their ways in supporting the aforementioned Orange One, suddenly flip over to the Democrats and put them back in power?

Or will the Dems’ efforts in all this create a massive political firestorm? Will President Pence, a full-blown social conservative with beliefs and positions that are anathema to liberals, somehow make the Dems feel better about themselves than Trump did? Is Trump’s blonde coif and orange scalp nailed to their wall the end-game, with no consideration for what happens next? Or is there some belief that taking him down is the jump-start their moribund party needs to begin its climb back to power?

If the last bit is truly where their thinking lies, how do they explain their decline and fall? Does the Democratic Party, the party that suffered such massive losses the past 6 years, even with the popular and charismatic President Obama at the helm, expect to mount a comeback simply by vanquishing Donald Trump? What’s the long game here?

And, to take it a step backward, do the Dems really think that the Republican House will impeach Trump over this little bit of nonsense? There’s a perception game afoot, and while Trump remains reviled by the Left, the perpetual jabbering by a party and a Press that suffers the vapors over, well, everything Trump says or does is not winning converts so much as alienating those not already in the tank.

I don’t like a number of Trump’s policy proposals. Most of his immigration policy runs diametrically opposite to what I think the country needs (although he’s now talking comprehensive reform, which might actually get a couple things right). His calls for massive infrastructure spending and dramatic increases to defense spending speak of a person and a party that has given little thought to getting the budget and debt truly under control (he’s talking some good cuts here and there, and he’s talking tax reform – also good, but the net looks to be in the wrong direction).

I also don’t like his style, although it’s obvious that this style has been a substantial contributor to his victory and the loyalty his supporters have for him.

However, I recognize that the Republic will survive Donald J. Trump, just as it survived Obama, GWBush, Clinton, GHWBush, Reagan, Carter, Ford, Nixon, Johnson, Kennedy, Eisenhower, Truman, Roosevelt, Hoover, Coolidge, Wilson, and on and on.

The fact is, Trump got elected President. While it is absolutely the right thing to do to keep an eye on him and to call him to task should he commit acts in violation of the law, this perpetual poo-flinging his detractors are engaging in are not only stupid and counterproductive, they are furthering and adding to very bad precedents, precedents that they have established or magnified, and that are now biting them in the ass.

So, if you’re among those cheering the Dems on in their scorched earth campaign against Trump, please, answer me (or yourself) this: What’s the end-game? What comes after the victory you so crave? Or, if unseating Trump isn’t the actual goal, what is? Is it mere obstructionism, the desire to thwart his actions? How does that play out for you in the mid-terms and in 2020 if you succeed? What’s the message your party will offer the voters then?

And, do you realize that, in eroding the fabric of government itself, you’re opening the door for predations even worse than those you accuse Trump of perpetrating – or, possibly, actual violence?

I’m sure many of you will weep tears of joy if you do manage to claim Trump’s scalp, but that can’t be the end-all, can it? Or are you truly indifferent to the perils your “success” will create?

• About the Author

About Peter Venetoklis

I am twice-retired, a former rocket engineer and a former small business owner. At the very least, it makes for interesting party conversation. I'm also a life-long libertarian, I engage in an expanse of entertainments, and I squabble for sport.

Nowadays, I spend a good bit of my time arguing politics and editing this website.

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