How about now? Now can we have justice?

 I sat in awe as I watched Cassidy Hutchinson testify before the January 6th Committee yesterday and paint a vividly clear picture of what was going on in Trump World before, during, and after January 6, 2021. Ms. Hutchinson was the proverbial fly on the wall throughout this entire saga and provided first-hand accounts of what was said and what was done -or rather not done- during this tragic day in America's history. She was physically there when all of it unfolded. I can't imagine the soul-searching it must have taken for her to finally come to terms with the fact that she was playing for the wrong team and then  courageously decide to share the truth so the entire country could understand how dangerously close our democracy came to collapsing. After witnessing the grotesque spectacle of a human being that is Donald Trump for way too many years, I was sure that nothing would shock or surprise me when it came to Trump and his enablers and supporters. I was sure of this because it seemed like Trump has some mystical power over all his followers and, regardless of what he did, none of them would ever have the sense, courage, or morality to stand up to him or call him out. Ms. Hutchinson spoke the truth at that hearing. The truth that most of us already know -and have known for years. That Donald Trump is an immoral, greedy, hateful, evil human being who only cares about power and money and stature. Moreover, he was completely incompetent as President of the United States and has set this democracy back at least a decade. She provided the most compelling evidence to date of just how childish and unhinged Trump was as President. Even sadder and more frightening to me are all the yes-men and enablers who continue to support and defend this piece of shit after time and time again witnessing his incompetence and questionable mental stability. Thanks to Ms. Hutchinson we now also have a very clear portrait of two of Trump's spineless henchmen; Mark Meadows and Michael Flynn (I refuse to ever call him "General" again because it's obvious the man has nowhere near a fraction of the honor that would be required to hold that rank). When a 24-year-old staff assistant has more common sense, level-headedness, and integrity than the President's Chief of Staff, it makes you wonder how Meadows ever made it this far in life. While an angry armed mob stormed the Capital, Mark Meadows sat for hours in his office scrolling on his phone. He was too afraid to confront Trump so he just sat there; aimlessly scrolling. Wow. And he's just one of the many, many clown car occupants who took part in the blatant lie that the election was stolen and the sinister plans to try to circumvent and invalidate Joe Biden's certification as the next elected President of the United States.

Many of us were on to Trump from day one when he formally and officially declared his candidacy. I laughed. I thought there was no way that any logically-thinking, sane person would look at this poor excuse for a human being and think he'd be a fine president. Still, to this day, millions believe in this phony and would probably march right off a cliff with him. It's mind-boggling to me and to millions and millions of other Americans. There are simply no words to explain the phenomenon except to say there's a sucker born every minute. Millions of them, in fact. People in this country have been lied to, misled, cheated, and disenfranchised by politicians for so long, I guess Trump represented the ultimate "fuck you" to the establishment for many people who felt they were pushed to the fringes of the American dream. So while I'm frustrated that so many people fell for this charlatan, there's a small part of me (very small) that understands why. What I can't understand is how anyone, after all that has happened and been brought to light over the last five years or so, can simply shrug it all away and ignore the blatant reality that Trump was never fit to be President. He's barely qualified to be a member of the human race.

For me -and I'm sure many others- the other inexplicable and infuriating thing is Trump has continually eluded justice despite the myriad of egregiously illegal and immoral things he and his administration have done during his 4-year tenure as President. It was as if he was coated with a layer of orange Teflon; nothing would stick to him. And it's quite obvious now that he had an entire cast of immoral enablers willing to knowingly break the rules and the law to help him get what he wanted. None of what he did during his presidency was on behalf of the American people. Trump is the equivalent of a spoiled, self-absorbed, tantrum-prone 6-year-old child. He craved attention and obedience because he believed that equated to respect. And for some inexplicable reason, dozens and dozens of Republicans were willing to give him all the attention and obedience he demanded. Why? Obviously, all these public servants were cut from a similar cloth. It was all about money and power... for the Republican party. This is what happens when you put a political party's aspirations before the needs of the people. I've written a whole other post on that so let's not digress too far.

After living through the nightmare that was the Trump presidency and somehow miraculously surviving, it was just plain awesome to witness Cassidy Hutchinson lay it all out there for the entire world to hear. She's a hero in my book. After yesterday, anyone still following or defending Trump needs to take a good hard look at the facts and a good hard look in the mirror. Because if yesterday's testimony didn't smack you back into reality, there is simply no hope for you. Trump and his cronies broke the law. They committed treasonous crimes against the United States of America. After yesterday that much is blatantly and painfully obvious. So my only remaining question is how about now? Now can we have justice?  Trump and everyone who played even the slightest role in the stolen election lie, in the premeditated plot to steal the election from Joe Biden, and in the facilitating and planning of the storming of the Capital on January 6th needs to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and severely punished. Because, after yesterday's testimony, if Trump and his cronies escape all this unscathed, there is no real justice anymore in America and we can all just collectively hammer the last nail in the coffin of this democracy.