Will Donald J Trump “Get Away With It?”

Today’s argument over whether George Washington’s and Thomas Jefferson’s statues ought to suffer the same fate as Robert E Lee’s statue is silly, really not worth the time to discuss.

So I’ll discuss it (briefly).

All three owned slaves. The first two helped create a Country with the cornerstone that “all men are created equal” and both took steps that guided the Country in that direction. When the time came that a war must decide the issue of slavery, the third man led the Confederacy’s principal armed force fighting to preserve slavery. Does anyone other than Donald J Trump and his hard core followers really believe there is equivalency here…or that cities all across the Country will under popular demand vote to take down the statues of our Founders as they are doing now with the third man and his confederates? Sure, if the Nazis, White Nationalists, etc. were the majority but they aren’t and they never will me.

Silly.

Okay, let’s talk about whether Donald J trump will get away with it (meaning, escape the condemnation and contempt of a majority of the American and World public and quite possibly the removal from the presidency and even a stand in the courthouse dock)?

Sam Waterson, the great actor whose long years on “Law and Order” entertained and enlightened so many television viewers, has written an op-ed piece for the Washington post on our subject. His thesis is that our society is turning more and more toward admiring and attempting to emulate those who appear to “get away with it.”  Waterson thinks that is a bad thing; I agree, although I once got away with something which involved him.

I was the MC many years ago of a charity dinner in New York City. One of the speakers at the dinner was none other than Mikhail Gorbachev, former president of the by then defunct Soviet Union. The charity organizers had allotted him ten minutes to speak. I told them there wasn’t a chance in Hades he would speak (through his interpreter) for only ten minutes. We would be lucky if he didn’t slip into his speech about the fall of the Soviet Union which I knew could go on for hours.  Well, I introduced him and he kept it to about thirty five minutes.

After dinner, Sam Waterson came up to me and asked if I would introduce him to Gorbachev. Now, I had previously seen Gorbachev on more than one occasion thanks to my tagging along in the press pen with Ronald Reagan and even had asked him a few questions from time to time but let’s face it, he didn’t know me from Adam. However, I couldn’t let Waterson, whom I admire tremendously, down so I agreed.

We marched up to Gorbachev and I said “President Gorbachev, allow me to present one of our finest actors of stage screen and television, Sam Waterson.” Gorbachev grunted, they shook hands and might have passed a few words (having done my part, I fled the scene). Apparently I got away with playing an “important person” to Waterson.

Getting back to the serious topic, here is the link to Waterson’s article. Since I have not yet learned how to put it on this blog in a form that allows you to simply hit it with your cursor you’ll have to type it in your browser address line.

http://wapo.st/2fOEf7P?tid=ss_mail&utm_term=.37670fa8cdab

As to question of whether Donald J Trump will “get away with it,” my emphatic answer is: NO!

And if you don’t believe that look around you: Pete Rose is not in the Hall of Fame, Richard Nixon did not complete his second term, Bernard Madoff is not still on Wall Street and der Fuehrer shot himself.

Yes, Donald J Trump has gotten away with a lot in his life and if he had been content to simply continue to con the rubes, cheat the workmen, dodge the tax laws and give himself unlimited mulligans as a small-time swindler he might have continued to escape the terrible hand of justice.* But he bit off too much; the presidency of the United States is not a place which allows you to “get away with it.” There’s just too much to deal with, too much to have to handle well when the harsh spotlight of public attention is always on you. And when the public turns against you – as it clearly has against Donald J Trump in increasing numbers as indicated in every poll and objective finding – why there is no place for him to hide and eventually not even a place to which you can run.

Donald J Trump is finished and when it’s over he will not only not have gotten away with it, history will place him in the one category he fears the most: LOSER!

*Plato defined “justice” as giving each man his due. What do you think Donald J Trump’s “due” is?