Ash writes: "Far from caring about the well-being of federal workers and their families, Donald Trump actually sees the shutdown of the government as something that serves his interests."
U.S. Coast Guard families lining up for food in Novato, California, as the shutdown for a wall at the southern border drags into what is now the 35th day. (photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty)
The Shutdown Is Part of Trump's Broader War on Federal Law Enforcement
25 January 19
orget the border wall. The vast majority of Americans don’t want it, and Trump doesn’t care about it. 5.7 billion dollars, while a staggering sum, would only be a small down payment on a wall/barrier that would stretch from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico and even then be burdensome and ineffective. This isn’t about a border wall and it isn’t about any inability on the part of Congress to work together.
Far from caring about the well-being of federal workers and their families, Donald Trump actually sees the shutdown of the government as something that serves his interests. Personal, of course.
Directly in the crosshairs of the shutdown are the Judicial Branch and all of its tentacles. Many of those are currently wrapped around Donald Trump’s appendages. Put bluntly, Donald Trump is engaged in an ongoing conflict with the Justice Department, one of historic proportions.
What sets Donald Trump apart from every other person who has ever come under scrutiny by U.S. federal law enforcement are the vast, arguably excessive protections afforded the President of the United States, either constitutionally granted or politically assumed.
Trump is using those executive powers to combat the Justice Department and federal law enforcement in ways novel, creative, and not necessarily legal. The government shutdown, now more than a month old, is a means to create havoc for the Justice Department and the federal law enforcement agents who are working to investigate misconduct and illegality on the part of Trump and his entourage.
The damage the showdown is doing to the rest of the federal government is something Trump sees as useful. Trump wants total control of the U.S. in much the same way that his good friend Vladimir Putin has control of Russia, unquestioned and without reproach.
The shutdown is not going to be negotiated away by reasonable-minded civil servants putting the well-being of the country first. That’s a fantasy. For Trump and his Congressional enablers, the shutdown of the American government is a political weapon, one they will use with total ruthlessness to effect minority or even autocratic rule.
If that forces the hand of Speaker Pelosi and the House Democrats on impeachment, then let their hand be forced. The president is a charlatan, a fraud, and likely an agent of a foreign government. The special counsel’s team, based on what is already in the public record, must necessarily have significant documentation of that, at a bare minimum. If not, considerably more.
Evidence of High Crimes on the part of the president exists, you can be sure. The country and the Democrats are running out of room to run and time to act.
The only thing that can save democracy now is democracy. Time to use it.
Marc Ash is the founder and former Executive Director of Truthout, and is now founder and Editor of Reader Supported News.
Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.
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