And this is why it matters when half the country doesn’t vote

Many years ago (I’ve forgotten when) I told somebody (I’ve forgotten who) that there was more to electing a president than which man would do the best job of running the country. (Yes, it was always men back then.)

I said that the person who sat in the Oval Office was less important for his executive skills, leadership ability or policy positions than he was for the fact that he might get to appoint one or more Supreme Court justices for life. (I could have added “and other federal judges as well.”)

I suggested that even a weak president could fill his cabinet with qualified secretaries who would run the country while the president sat back and took the credit, but that appointing justices—should he get the opportunity—could affect the country in much more important ways and for much longer than the typical eight-year presidential term. A 50-year-old justice could easily serve for 30 years or more, outlasting the terms of three or more presidents while making decisions that forever change the lives of millions of American citizens.

I’m fairly certain that the person I was talking to thought I was completely bat-shit crazy.

Well fast forward to 2019, ladies and gentlemen, and I am ready to rest my case.

Watching Corey Lewandowski smart-ass his way through testimony before the House Judiciary Committee today while Donald Trump live-tweeted his approval brought home the fact that the worst president in the history of the country is having his way with the Constitution and the law and, because he also controls the Judiciary and the entire Justice Department, there’s not a damn thing any of us can do about it except vote him out of office, and hope that he actually leaves when his term eventually expires.

I never thought I’d see the day when a corrupt president could double down on his corruption by feeding information to a legislative committee witness in real time and for everyone to see—and get away with it because there is no one to hold him accountable. It was like watching a cheerleader rooting on his favorite team on live TV. I could almost see Trump wearing a letter sweater and a pleated skirt and waving some red MAGA pompoms.

I was reminded of the line from the movie “A Few Good Men” when Jack Nicholson asked who would man the wall at Gitmo if not for him. “Who's gonna do it?” he asked. “You, Lt. Weinburg? I have a greater responsibility than you could possibly fathom.”

I was thinking that all of the witnesses who have been subpoenaed to testify before House committees and refused to appear—or did appear and put on a clown show like Lewandowski did today—should be held accountable by, oh, I don’t know, maybe being sent to jail for a few weeks to think about their refusal to cooperate with legitimate congressional oversight. But then I heard myself ask, “Who’s going to do that? You, Attorney General Barr? You, Justice Kavanaugh? You, Justice Gorsuch? You, FBI Director Wray? You, Trump-appointed federal judges? You, anybody else in Trump’s government?”

And then I heard myself say, “Of course not, you idiot. There is no one to make them obey the law. They’re all afraid of, or otherwise beholden to, Donald Trump.”

Until 2016, I don’t think anyone could have imagined that the president of the United States could so effectively consolidate his power that he could control both the Executive and Judicial branches of government while rendering the Legislative branch completely powerless to rein him in…but that’s exactly what has happened.

And all because Hillary Clinton was such an unpopular candidate that 46% of the voting public stayed home on Election Day, and a few thousand others in three key states voted for third-party candidates that had no chance of winning a race for county executive in Bumfugg, Idaho, let alone the presidency. That cleared the way for a shallow, narcissistic, misogynistic, xenophobic, racist con man tax evading pathological liar and sexual predator with dangerous, Fascist-inspired ideas and a probable mental illness to occupy the nation’s highest office while committing at least one crime almost every day of his presidency.

Thinking about it drove me outside to sit on my deck and drink.

On the bright side, I guess, we didn’t elect a woman whose husband once got a hummer in the Oval Office and had a bunch of personal emails she didn’t want anyone to see, because having her as president would certainly be much worse than the mentally deficient and morally bankrupt criminal we’re stuck with now.

Don’t you think?