Here’s How Trump’s Reign Will End

Each Faction of Government Can Only Withstand So Much Opposition Before the Levee Finally Breaks

 

Over the past few weeks, Republican Senators and Congressmen (as well as some moderate Democrats) have been swamped by their constituents at town hall gatherings. They are being taken to task for supporting – tacitly or otherwise – President Donald Trump, whose policies and general state of mind many, many people find disagreeable. Like, 54% of all Americans.

One of the most vocal of these gatherings took place last week in Arkansas, where Junior Senator Tom Cotton was inundated with questions regarding the GOP’s intention to repeal the Affordable Care Act, or “Obamacare”. “[You] expect us to be calm, cool and collected?” said one woman, before adding, “Well, what kind of insurance do you have?“, to rapturous applause. Elsewhere, Senator Mitch McConnell – the great obstructionist infamous for having the lowest home approval rating of any sitting senator – was faced with a woman who was rightly incensed by his smug involvement in stripping honest labourers of their insurance and neglecting veterans. She even managed to get a jab in at his tantrum that saw Elizabeth Warren silenced at a confirmation hearing a few weeks back. It’s worth watching in full, purely for the dormant rage on his face at being spoken to so aggressively by a woman:

Most significantly, Senator Joni Ernst and Congressman Jason Chaffetz have been faced with crowds chanting at them, “Do your job!” For Ernst, this was in response to him cutting the town hall gathering short when a question about Trump’s ties to Russia made him clearly uncomfortable. Chaffetz, however, has a much more substantial duty he has been neglecting: as chairman of the United States House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, it is Chaffetz’s job to investigate any and all matters pertaining to Trump’s conflicts of interest and unethical practices that might arise in the course of his presidency. Y’know, the sort that might be apparent from his refusal to divest himself of his many business ventures, or the kind of impropriety that comes from many of his chief aides being in contact with Russia during the fucking election. However, apart from a weak feint of a probe directed at Trump’s handling of a matter of national security in the dining hall of his Mar-A-Lago resort, Chaffetz has been conspicuously unwilling to look into any of the President’s potentially compromising affairs.

Let’s set aside the juvenile claims by the GOP at large that these protests and gatherings were the result of people being bussed in from out of state to attend or that, in the words of Sean McCarthy-Spicer, these were the result of some “professional, manufactured protest[ing]”. This vocal dissent is real, it is substantial and it is not going away anytime soon.

These accosted representatives, so far, have appeared somewhat indifferent to such public outcry, but none of them can afford to remain so nonchalant for much longer. Mid-term elections are a scant 18 months away and, whereas previous years have seen a woefully low turnout for Democrats in mid-term voting, the ineptitude of the past four weeks alone seems to have done more to galvanise the left than any previous administration in recent memory. Add to that the fact that many identifying Republicans have no affection for Trump or his cronies, and that the Affordable Care Act transcends partisan ideals to benefit millions of Americans, and it paints a dire picture for many GOP representatives. In November next year, every one of these politicians will be judged retroactively on how quickly they decided to put the integrity of their office above party loyalty, and the clock is ticking with deafening malice.

It’s under these particular circumstances that, typically, things fall apart; the centre cannot fucking hold. It will not be long before someone who is in a position to do so will fold under the pressure of the voting public and start investigating Trump. Whether it be Chaffetz himself or a congressional majority – which is looking more likely, what with Rep. Darrell Issa’s recent insistence of some form of governmental inquiry – it is clear that the wolves can smell the blood and are ravenously scratching at Trump’s door.

Because let’s be very clear about this: there is, at the very least, one incriminating piece of evidence sitting quietly somewhere that, once unearthed, will deem Donald Trump ineligible for the office of President of the United States. This isn’t a conspiracy theory or wayward assumption, just simple common sense. It’s why we still haven’t seen his tax returns yet and, short of a congressional order, probably never will; it’s why he refuses to publicly denounce Putin and the Russian government on any level, let alone their cyber-attacks during the election; it’s why he’s gone to great lengths to demonise the press in the eyes of his supporters, lest they independently uncover some damning bit of evidence that he needs to desperately discredit.

In any case, the end result will be swift and much the same. In my opinion, to avoid mounting pressure from their constituents an internal probe will be launched within the GOP, finding a devastating scandal that will be used to pressure Trump into resigning. For the sake of the party this would, obviously, be preferable to the other inevitable outcome, in which a revelation comes to light in the public sector and the GOP has no choice but to prosecute the President for misconduct, which could lead to jail time (and look, we don’t use emojis here but just imagine the most shamelessly grinning face spammed constantly after that sentence).

Putting a timeframe on something like this can be fairly arbitrary and unravel the credibility of your argument, but here’s where I’m at after the last month of non-stop arsery that has been Trump’s presidency: if the man is still in office come May, these is something seriously wrong with the checks and balances in place in America’s system. If he makes it to the end of the year, the system needs a total reboot. If he actually lasts his full four year term, then the system is working perfectly fine. It’s clearly just not designed for the people.