The Dogs of War

The current probes into possible ties between  Russia and the current administration is currently being bathed in the bright lights of the media. Everyday we are continually deluged with stories and talk of investigation tampering and back room deals and the impending explosion of this administration. The fact of the matter is that this couldn't be going any better for President Trump. I can say almost absolute certainty that this investigation will never lead to the removal of the President. Given the current make up of the House, impeachment is off the table for at least 2 years. And given the make up of the Senate, it would impossible to get a 2/3 majority to vote for his removal. I'm not so sure that even Nixon would have lost a vote in the Senate. 

So what do we have? We have a story that provides cover for almost everything else that's going on in Washington. Every other issue has taken a back seat. The Republican leadership in the Senate works in secret on a health care bill that would gut Medicaid, but the bright lights are pointed elsewhere. The President and his team continue to sign executive orders that are dismantling the Obama legacy as if that were his only goal in life. All the issues that we should care about are being affected from education to the climate, but all we hear about is the Russian investigation. 

I am not saying that this investigation is not important, because it is. We should know exactly what the relationship was between the Trump campaign and Russia. We should know if there are business ties that may lead to compromised decisions. However we should not focus on that one topic to the exclusion of everything else. I understand that some on the left go to sleep at night dreaming of Watergate part 2, but our politics have become so fractured that I can't see our elected leaders agreeing on an issue as contentious as impeachment. The President has very loyal supporters who would pounce on any elected Republican who would turn his back on Trump. The thing that politicians care about the most is their own skin. The folks in the House, who face an election every two years, would never even think about placing their own necks on the line for a matter of principle. 

I always think it's possible that Donald Trump might wake up one day and decide that he just doesn't want to do this anymore. Being President is a hard job and he's not particularly fond of doing this kind of work. I never thought that he actually wanted the job in the first place. It was an exercise in brand building gone wrong. I think the only thing that keeps him doing the job is the fact that his ego gets stroked every second of the day. He is the most powerful man in the world and that keeps him in a constant state of arousal. 

Those on the left need to keep their eyes on what's going on everywhere in this administration and not get sidetracked by the shiny object with all the bright lights. That is not where the important decisions are being made. The President is once again playing the left like a puppet. Keep them dancing on a string shouting "impeachment", and keep doing the dirty work outside of the spotlight. As Shakespeare so appropriately put it, "cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war".