Where I Stand:

Come November 2020, will the ‘I’s’ have it?

Sun, Apr 7, 2019 (2 a.m.)

It is time, finally, to talk about the “I” word.

Wait, wait. I am not talking about Impeachment. The Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, seems to have handled that issue with clarity and determination. Simply put, there is no reason to impeach President Donald Trump because it would be a “waste of time.”

So says Madame Speaker.

But there are plenty of “I” words that we should be talking about, now that the Mueller Investigation is over and his report has been turned over to the Justice Department, which so far has seen fit to not do much with it. I expect we will be fighting over its complete release to the public well into the 2020 election cycle. Soon enough, voters will be able to weigh in on issues like transparency and ensuring no one is above the law.

Another “I" word comes to mind given the events of this past week at the president’s winter retreat at Mar-A-Lago. Just how many of our enemies and competitors’ Intelligence agencies have had their way with us when it comes to finding out what’s really going on in and around Team Trump is anybody’s guess. But Trump’s insistence that the Secret Service work with one or both hands behind its back to keep him and our national secrets safe borders on the edge of Insanity.

The voters will have a chance to weigh in on that issue too, come November 2020.

Oh, yes, Idiotic. This isn’t me talking folks, this is the very conservative and longtime U.S. senator from Iowa, Chuck Grassley, telling the president what he thinks of Trump’s claim that the noise produced by windmills causes cancer. Grassley allowed as how that comment may have been tongue-in-cheek (not likely) but the import of the entire affair is that when it is Iowa’s ox being gored (that state is big on wind power as is Grassley’s support of that renewable energy source) then the continued blind support of any of the president’s Idiotic policies may now be an open issue.

If the GOP senators who have voted lock-step with Trump’s policies start to peel away to save their own political hides, can their voters be far behind? The 2020 elections will answer that question.

I can’t recall how many thousands of lies President Trump has told the American people since his election but the word Incredulity comes to mind. As in: A person can believe whatever he wants to about President Trump’s ability to make America great again, but for anyone to believe that Trump is a truth-teller stretches the bounds of credulity. Is he really the kind of person we want our kids and grandkids to grow up to emulate?

Again, come November 2020 the voters will weigh in on whether telling the truth should still be an American imperative.

And that brings us back around to Impeachment.

I am with the speaker on this one. Barring a disqualifying revelation that could be in the Mueller report but may never see the light of day, or a not-too-hard-to-contemplate medical or mental imperative, it would be a waste of time this late into Trump’s first term to start impeachment proceedings. It is especially so given the eager willingness of the Republican majority in the U.S. Senate to hear, see and speak no evil when it comes to whatever Donald Trump does. Getting the votes to convict this president in the Senate is sheer folly.

However, there is another "I" word that we haven’t used yet. At least we haven’t seen too much of it as we watch the senators duck and run for cover rather than stand up to the Incompetence of the Trump team as it lurches from pillar to post in search of some coherent strategy for an America retreating from greatness.

And that word is Integrity.

No, we can no longer expect adherence to a moral compass from the Trump sycophants who unfortunately demonstrate a lack of Integrity at almost every turn. Not unless their ox or their re-election chances are being gored.

But I am talking about the Integrity of the American voters whose job it will be to decide what is really important to them and their families and their neighbors and their nation.

When November 2020 comes around we will see whether Integrity is still an American value worthy of our vote.

Impeachment, though, is a shortcut we should not take. We need to live a little bit longer with the consequences of our American mistake, however Idiotic that sounds.

 Brian Greenspun is editor, publisher and owner of the Sun

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