With over 1,000 people lost to coronavirus per day, Donald Trump is still incapable of organizing a national emergency program to deal with the tragedy.
With unemployment rates hitting 14.7% in April, Donald Trump still cannot gather the moral fortitude to agree to give unemployed workers $600 per week.
With the GNP falling 32.9% in the second quarter of this year, Donald Trump is still incapable of organizing a national infrastructure plan to do what the government can do to deal with unemployment and growth.
Of the many questions in foreign policy, the Trump administration should at least be asked, "On whose authority did Michael Flynn assure Ambassador Kislyak that it would be OK for Russia to occupy Crimea?"
Donald Trump has serially bankrupted each and every one of his private businesses: Are we ready to let him bankrupt the country?
This bankruptcy does not involve only people and dollars; it ultimately involves our moral fiber.
Notwithstanding our deep congenital flaws, foreigners used to stand in awe of our struggle for an ever-expanding sense of democracy and justice. No more. Foreigners now laugh at us;
Indeed, the country is too consumed with the short-term politics--on both sides, on both sides--to be paying serious attention to any long-term constructive measure whatsoever.
As widely recognized, Donald Trump is a bully. A bully is unable to stop himself or, sadly, herself. A bully must be stopped by others.
The Framers of the Constitution foresaw the need to remove a despot; they established the impeachment procedures. We pursued this avenue, but Republican Senators, with just one partial exception, opted to favor party over nation.
A similar measure, the 25th Amendment, is unlikely to be called into action. It was designed for a physical or mental debilitation of the President, not for moral (and political) debilitation. Worse still, members of Donald Trump's administration, for whatever good reason, have facilitated the actions of the President; they are not likely to admit their own errors.
What is left, then? The best is left. All it takes to reverse the dangerous slide of the nation into the nether world of negativity is for five brave Republican Senators to respectfully ask President Trump to resign--for his own good, the good of the nation, and for the good of the Republican Party.
August Republican Senators might want to take this step before the GOP National Convention, soon thereafter, or, if Donald Trump is reelected, the afternoon of the inauguration.
All these five Senators need to do is to check with Mr. Trump whether he is aware that, after asking for Russia's help on Mrs. Clinton's 30,000 missing emails on July 27, 2016, he committed perjury on inauguration day, while he swore to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic". Perjury is a federal criminal offense.
If that offense does not count, are not the current attempts to undermine the electoral process serious violations of the Constitution?
Who are these five Senators? With my scant knowledge of the field, I can identify them in this order.
Senator Rand Paul, who, being of a rather independent mind, and being a medical doctor, has taken the Hippocratic Ought: Do no harm.
Senator Mitt Romney, who lost courage in the past because he lost hope in the good behavior of his confreres. He will rise up again at any scintilla of hope.
Senator Ted Cruz, who, with his Latin blood, will rise up to the opportunity of finally being able to defend the honor of his family.
Senator Susan Collins and Senator Lisa Murkowski, who will finally be given the opportunity to cast their vote, not in quixotic dissent, but in concerted political action.
If these five Senators were to announce their intentions to Senator Mitch McConnell, they will likely, tacitly perhaps, obtain his approval--provided they commit themselves to a plan of infrastructure reconstruction funded, no longer by Russia, but by the Federal Reserve System. (This ought to be the germ of a plan for the economic reconstruction of the country.)
Russia's investments in Kentucky link McConnell to Trump and to Putin.
Being a bargainer, Donald Trump will ask what is in it for him. The five Senators can offer him, not pardon, because a pardon would split the country in two. They might want to offer him the opportunity to be part of a procedure established in South Africa under the leadership of President Mandela and Bishop Tutu: the establishment of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
President Trump ought to be given the opportunity to explain, in a systematic way, the ways of his actions and thoughts. He would still be receiving full attention from the nation. Being a narcissist, he might like that opportunity.
The establishment of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, for President Trump, and most certainly for many other prominent members of his administration, might finally break the vicious cycle of hate that seems to have conquered this country of late. Let us break this cycle with an exercise of deep love.
To sweeten the deal, our five brave Senators might spearhead the attempt to establish a Truth, Reconciliation, and Restitution Commission. The country might want restitution of all inappropriately gotten financial gains while in power. The nation deserves this reward.
Listening to his niece, Mary Trump, Donald Trump does not seem to have enjoyed a day of full, unconditional love in his life. To stop the dangerous fall into hate in which this country has lately fallen, let us return to the best American tradition.
America is great because America is good. Let us be good to Donald Trump.
Donald Trump deserves a happy retirement, because it is not his fault that he was elected totally unprepared, a non-politician to boot. It is not the fault of our popular will either. It is the institutional error of the Electoral College.
After getting rid of him, and getting rid of the Electoral College, we will have the opportunity to build a better democracy, a political system that truly respects the dignity of every human being: no matter the wonderful differences that exist among individual human beings.
Carmine Gorga, Ph.D. in Political Science, a Fulbright Scholar, see Wikipedia and Google Scholar, is president of The Somist Institute.
