GRASSROOTS/Hank Kalet

Beat Bad Grammar at the Ballot Box

Donald Trump, grammarian — let’s call that an oxymoron. nnTrump on July 17 attempted to clarify his remarks about Russian collusion — remarks made during a joint press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin the day before — by claiming he misspoke.

It was a grammar issue, he said, a failed effort at using a double-negative, so there’s really nothing to see here.

Trump’s explanation rings false — which is my nice way of saying he lied — given his underwhelming facility with English.

Read this quotation:

“The sentence should have been, ‘I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t be Russia,’ sort of a double negative,” Mr. Trump said. “So you can put that in, and I think that probably clarifies things pretty good.”

That’s a fairly nuanced take on syntax from a guy who mixes up “good”and “well.” I’m not trying to be pedantic — many of us confused the adjective “good” and adverb “well” — except that Trump’s mea culpa is all about usage. Oops.

The approach is a bizarre one, given the firestorm that followed the Monday press conference in which Trump sided with Putin in dismissing charges of Russian interference in American elections despite overwhelming evidence that Putin’s government was involved.

Words like traitor and treason were bandied about — and not just by Democrats. Sen. John McCain issued a statement saying he’d never seen an American president debase himself before a foreign leader the way Trump had. Mitt Romney also weighed in, as did many others. Their critiques are striking given how obsequious they’ve been since Trump won the nomination two years ago.

I don’t doubt that their criticisms were sincere, but to say they were being selfless patriots would be a lie. We are less than four months from an election that could shift the balance of power in both houses of Congress, so I suspect their motives are more complicated.

Trump, for his part, shifted away from his mea culpa later in the day, as The New York Times reported:

“By nightfall, Mr. Trump appeared to regret the clarification, writing on Twitter that the ‘meeting between President Putin and myself was a great success, except in the Fake News Media!’”

We can write this up as another example of violated norms, or one more direct hit from Trump the disrupter. Except that gives Trump too much credit, implying he has a plan other than personal aggrandizement and self-preservation. He doesn’t. He wings it, wings everything, assuming things will break his way. His narcissism knows no bounds, and his only allegiance is to himself. He sides with Russia for no other reason than doing so fits his 2016 narrative — one in which he won an amazing landslide victory. Allowing for Russian interference undercuts that, and could undercut the legitimacy of his victory, so no interference, nothing to see.

Donald Trump is not fit for the presidency. He needs to be removed from office — by voters. There are three reasons for this: one is the political damage impeachment will do, creating a greater level of resentment among Trump’s base and potentially creating a crisis of legitimacy for the following administrations. Impeachment will be seen as a purely political act (see Republican response to Watergate), which will limit its legitimacy.

Second is the Pence factor. Mike Pence is a dangerous religious fanatic who comes off as a nice guy. His choice by Trump as running mate in the first place should have disqualified Trump, and Pence cannot be given the reins of power.

The last reason is the most important. Trump needs to be defeated at the polls, because doing so will act as a repudiation for the American people. It could not be read as anything else.

What this means is becoming more aggressive in building networks of progressives who can provide the grassroots infrastructure to take the government back from Trump and his band of disrupters.

We may get lucky. Democrats could win back both houses and the impeachment train could start rolling. Robert Mueller’s investigation could turn up a smoking gun.

Or Democrats won’t and Mueller’s run ends with conclusions that lack the kind of clarity needed to get Republicans on board the train.

Either way, Democrats need to win back the White House, and that won’t happen unless we begin building the campaign infrastructure now.

Hank Kalet is a poet and journalist in New Jersey. Email, grassroots@comcast.net; Twitter, @newspoet41 and @kaletjournalism; Patreon.com/newspoet41; Instagram, @kaletwrites; The Medium, @newspoet41; Facebook, Facebook.com/Hank.kalet; tumblr, hankkalet.tumblr.com.

From The Progressive Populist, August 15, 2018

Populist.com