"Weak and vicious minds..." Plus: Impeachment

My favorite American speech is the one given by Theodore Roosevelt on October 14, 1912 -- the year he mounted a third-party challenge to Wilson and Taft. He was shot by an anarchist. We have many anarchists among us today, on both the right and the left; the ones on the right are more worrisome.

TR, being TR, gave the speech anyways:

Friends, I shall ask you to be as quiet as possible. I don't know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot; but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose. But fortunately I had my manuscript, so you see I was going to make a long speech, and there is a bullet there is where the bullet went through - and it probably saved me from it going into my heart. The bullet is in me now, so, that I cannot make a very long speech, but I will try my best.

And now, friends, I want to take advantage of this incident and say a word of solemn warning to my fellow countrymen.

Much in this speech speaks to us today. Here's the section that spoke to me on this re-reading:

Now, friends, of course, I do not know, as I say, anything about him; but it is a very natural thing that weak and vicious minds should be inflamed to acts of violence by the kind of awful mendacity and abuse that have been heaped upon me for the last three months by the papers in the interest of not only Mr. Debs but of Mr. Wilson and Mr. Taft.

Friends, I will disown and repudiate any man of my party who attacks with such foul slander and abuse any opponent of any other party; and now I wish to say seriously to all the daily newspapers, to the Republican, the Democratic, and the Socialist parties, that they cannot, month in and month out and year in and year out, make the kind of untruthful, of bitter assault that they have made and not expect that brutal, violent natures, or brutal and violent characters, especially the brutality is accompanied by a not very strong mind; they cannot expect that such natures will be unaffected by it.

There was some interaction with someone just off-stage, who became concerned when the former president seemed to lose track of his words momentarily. TR got hold of himself.

I am not sick at all. I am all right. I cannot tell you of what infinitesimal importance I regard this incident as compared with the great issues at stake in this campaign, and I ask it not for my sake, not the least in the world, but for the sake of our common country, that they make up their minds to speak only the truth, and not to use the kind of slander and mendacity which if taken seriously must incite weak and violent natures to crimes of violence. Don't you make any mistake. Don't you pity me. I am all right. I am all right and you cannot escape listening to the speech either.

He may have been the epitome of macho bluster -- that was what made him appealing -- but TR was far more progressive than moderns understand. This was not a man who reflexively favored the capitalist over the commoner. He also was a friend to the immigrant, and movingly described how he promoted and rewarded fighting men born in other nations:

I make the same appeal in our citizenship. I ask in our civic life that we in the same way pay heed only to the man's quality of citizenship, to repudiate as the worst enemy that we can have whoever tries to get us to discriminate for or against any man because of his creed or his birthplace.

Now, friends, in the same way I want our people to stand by one another without regard to differences or class or occupation. I have always stood by the labor-unions.

It is essential that there should be organizations of labor. This is an era of organization. Capital organizes and therefore labor must organize. My appeal for organized labor is twofold; to the outsider and the capitalist I make my appeal to treat the laborer fairly, to recognize the fact that he must organize, that there must be such organization, that the laboring man must organize for his own protection, and that it is the duty of the rest of us to help him and not hinder him in organizing.

I don't care for many modern progressives. But Teddy Roosevelt was the real thing.

And now, let us turn to the current scandal.

Ukraine. Many people are wondering if the Ukraine scandal ties in with the Russia scandal. My answer: Zelensky is not what he seems. The hairs on the back of my neck stand upright in fear whenever I hear Trump speaking highly of Zelensky, or when I hear this conniving antipresident predict peace between Russia and Ukraine. Zelensky is a creature of the oligarch/crime lord Ihor Kolomoisky. When Trump says that Russia and Ukraine may soon make peace, what he really means is that Kolomisky and Putin are secretly colluding.

I hope to have more on that soon. In the meantime, you may want to check out Ezra Klein's argument as to why we must screech to impeach, even if impeachment does not result in removal.

Impeachment acts as a form of public disgrace. To be one of only four impeached presidents in American history, even if you are not convicted by the Senate, is to know an asterisk will be forever attached to your presidency, your offenses prominently recorded. It’s a humiliation for you and a warning to your successors.

But the Senate isn’t the only possible judge of an impeachment case. In 2020, Americans will go to the polls to vote for the next president. If the House conducts a serious, thorough impeachment investigation, the revelations of that inquiry will inform their choice. Indeed, if Senate Republicans are stonewalling accountability for a clearly corrupt president, it may affect Americans’ choices in Senate elections, too.

That one could backfire, particularly if assholes like John Solomon and Peter Scheizer churn out sufficiently insidious propaganda. Remember, we are facing some of the cleverest operatives within the intelligence services of several nations. These people know how to concoct bogus evidence, and they also know how to backstop it with seemingly-credible testimony.

The big questions: Fast impeachment or slow? A full range of charges, or should everything hinge on the Ukraine scandal?

I strongly favor tossing everything at Trump -- including the kitchen sink. I also think that Dems can and must move rapidly.

Yes, both things are possible. It would not take more than a day or two to summarize the obstruction section of the Mueller report. As for the rest of it -- oh, hell: Screw the hearings. Just write up the goddamned charges. Include emouluments, campaign finance violations, obstruction of congressional investigations, the pattern of lying, the gross mismanagement of the government, all of it. It wouldn't take more than a week to create such a document. How much time do the Dems need? Write up a document, put it to a vote, let the chips fall where they may.

Show some balls. Ask yourself: What would a bull moose do?