This presidency's coda? by @BloggersRUs

This presidency's coda?

by Tom Sullivan

Willy Wonka's evil half-brother. Image via White House twitter account.

Amidst the tweet-shaming Monday night of the sitting president's cold fast-food reception for college football's national champions; and news that a unanimous panel of House Republicans stripped Iowa's Rep. Steve King of his committee assignments over his wondering aloud why anyone finds "white nationalist" or "white supremacist" offensive; and swirling stories about furloughed federal workers rationing insulin as U.S. air traffic controllers working unpaid during the now-historic Trump government receive pizzas donated by their Canadian counterparts; and in the wake of revelations that the F.B.I. is investigating whether the president of the United States is "working on behalf of Russia against American interests" and that he has "gone to extraordinary lengths to conceal details of his conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin"; plus a warning Monday night from the former head of the Justice Department's Counterintelligence and Export Control Section that Donald J. Trump represents "a clear and present danger to the national security of the United States"; this masterful almost-coda to the Trump presidency from Michelle Goldberg:

Trump has turned out to be the Norma Desmond of authoritarians, a senescent has-been whose delusions are propped up by obsequious retainers. From his fantasy world in the White House, he barks dictatorial and often illegal orders, floats conspiracy theories, tweets insults and lies unceasingly. But much of the time he’s not fully in charge. He has the instincts of a fascist but lacks both the discipline and the loyal lieutenants he’d need to create true autocracy.

That doesn’t mean, however, that the country isn’t coming undone. Trump’s bumbling incoherence, coupled with his declining political fortunes since the midterms, makes him seem less frightening than he once did. But, two years in, the jaded weariness many of us have developed might obscure how bad things are. We’re living through an unprecedented breakdown in America’s ability to function like a normal country.

Goldberg's litany of Trump-plagues is near biblical. EBT cards that purchase about 10 percent of U.S. groceries will be drained in February. Domestic violence shelters are cutting services. Immigration cases may be delayed "as long as four years." Native Americans' health care access is affected. Thousands of low-income Americans face eviction when funds run out at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. That fruit on your cereal and your baby's formula? Were they inspected and deemed safe?

House Republicans finally censuring Steve King after years of racist comments confirms (in part) the Abba Eban saying that “nations do behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives.” But that meager action is no signal of a return to normalcy by a party swept up by a cult. Having done so little until King's censure, the GOP's House leadership cannot be exhausted. This leaves them plenty of energy, in addition to their surfeit of patriotism, for joining their House Democratic counterparts in doing something about the clear and present danger in the Oval Office.

The enfant terrible of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue entertains like a seven year-old, lies by reflex, treats the U.S. Constitution as an inconvenience, holds his own citizens hostage, and undermines U.S. alliances for a hostile foreign power that helped elect him and likely still funds his businesses. To the untrained observer, Donald Trump appears "dirty" and has the bearing of a traitor. Trained eyes in the F.B.I. are investigating him as though he might be. In the case of Steve King, it took six years for Republicans in the U.S. House to shed the scales from their eyes. The rest of us don't have another two to spare.