By Patrick F. Cannon
It’s putting it mildly to say I wasn’t a fan of Bill Clinton. It seems long ago now, but it was only about 25 years ago on December 19, 1998, that he was impeached, charged with lying under oath and obstruction of justice in the notorious Monica Lowinski sex scandal. Despite being clearly guilty, he was acquitted by the Senate on the following February 12. You won’t be surprised that it was on a party-line vote.
Donald Trump was given two tits for Clinton’s one tat. Again, he was guilty, but also acquitted on party-line votes. Conviction and removal from office is clearly impossible in a closely divided and partisan Senate. But that hasn’t stopped the Republicans from trying to find some (any!) evidence that would let them impeach President Biden. So far, no dice, but who knows?
I clearly recall Hillary Clinton railing on about a “vast right-wing conspiracy” during Bill’s tenure, as she learned painfully that being smart wasn’t the same as being wise. By the way, the conspirators didn’t stop him from serving two terms.
Now, of course, we have the “vast left-wing conspiracy” out to get Trump. So far, they seem as ineffective as the righties since Trump is leading in the polls. I’ll be interested in seeing whether his lead holds up after his conviction last week in New York. I’m not sure if he should have been charged with felonies or charged at all. On the other hand, there’s no question that he was guilty.
So, folks, we’re faced with the same dismal choice we’ve been facing since the 2016 election. Two old men. One is thoroughly corrupt, and increasingly deranged. The other is trying and failing to appear strong and smart enough to lead our great country for another four years; and is desperately trying to buy votes by forgiving student loans and standing in picket lines. These are the best our political parties can give us? Are you depressed too?
Copyright 2024, Patrick F. Cannon
cannonnadedotcom 
What do the media consultants say, it’s all about the optics?
These impeachments and trials that are presented to us on TV by the opposing party are little more than political theater. Victims and villains.
Andrew Johnson’s impeachment in 1868 may have had some legal basis. In any case, no television stations came forward willing to televise the proceedings.
Clinton’s peccadillos, which involved “sexual relations with that woman,” were prime time material for the tube. There was the Oval Office (orifice???), a cigar, a stained blue dress, the buxom Lewinsky and a spy, Linda Tripp (nee` Carotenuto) who secretly recorded intimate conversations.
Juicy stuff but nothing really happened to Clinton. It was just about sex, Paula Jones got paid off to the tune of $850,000, and anyway everyone already knew Clinton was a sex addict hound dog.
No blue dress, Trump’s two impeachments were less colorful. Both were engineered by archenemy Nancy Pelosi, the first on charges of election interference (based on a story by Hilary Clinton), the second on inciting a resurrection against democracy on January 6, when Antifa members, FBI agents and a guy dressed like a Viking stormed the Capitol. Both trials came to nothing.
More recently, after these failures Democrats, realizing how popular Judge Judy had been, decided to do reality TV and take the unrepentant Trump to court.
To ensure ratings this time, they managed to have him charged with not one but several crimes, some revived from previous attempts (election interference and insurrection), others that were new like tampering with classified documents and business fraud.
For icing on this smorgasbord of desserts, knowing Trump’s reputation as a womanizer and “purse” snatcher, they found some kookie woman who claimed he had raped her in an I. Magnum dressing room many year ago. As it was a civil, not a criminal, trial Trump was declared guilty by a lurid judge of liability of battery and defamation. Not much raw meat there, but Trump was ordered to pay the lady an eye-popping $83 million, in cash.
The Dems were not finished, of course. They returned to the friendly confines of New York City where they managed to have him convicted of a novel felony nobody had ever heard of before or was able to explain.
At this point, however, the viewing public was becoming annoyed with the contrived plot, poor acting and character motivations. And how could an obviously guilty character not actually be guilty? So unsatisfying was the show that Trump gained support in the Nielsen ratings, along with $200 million in audience subscriptions to keep the show on the air.
And the show must go on! So we have Trump again on stage in the character of “Convicted Felon” vying for the presidency against a feeble actor in the role of “Old Fart” who can’t remember his lines.
It can indeed be depressing but also tiresome. These election spectacles never seem to end, do they? Outside the theater, ominous rumblings can be heard. Could they be those of a Category 5 climate change hurricane gaining strength? An economic earthquake that will swallow us up? A tornado of civil strife that will tear up communities?
We’ll find out after this brief station break. Don’t go anywhere! We’ll be right back.
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Is the audience falling asleep? I think I hear snoring.
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Sure cure for insomnia. Wouldn’t it be great if we had elections as they do in Britain and Europe, where campaigning starts about six weeks before voting, debates are boring exchanges between talking heads, and votes are cast on Election Day, without mailed ballots but with Voter ID? Americans love to be entertained, to death as they say.
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We can only dream.
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