Rhymes For The Crimes And The Times

 

It’s common at this time of year

To spread around holiday cheer.

Recount every reason

That during the season

A reader should shed ne’er a tear.

Ordinarily you know that I’d lust

To report on the ravings of Musk.

But it mustn’t be now

To be pointing out how

He’s becoming the elephant’s tusk.

Nor will I opine, though she’s scary

On the loser whose name starts with Kari.

I’ll not be lent ears

From my like-minded peers.

I come just to praise her not bury.

If I can’t always say something good

My mommy said clearly I should

Speak nothing at all

So I’m making the call

To say all the nice things I could.

On the day before night before gifts

I’ll not be promoting more rifts.

I’ll be nice as pie,

My thoughts aiming high

So readers won’t leave feeling miffed.

I won’t take us in the direction

Of Trump’s clear-as-day insurrection.

The holiday spirit

Demands that I gear it

Toward ignoring his claim of election.

A landslide he’s calling it still.

His cultists were itching to kill

The people with guts

To point out he’s nuts

And that facts to support him are nil.

But far be it from me now it’s Yule

To remind us of law and its rule.

Or the party of law

Dislocating its jaw

Lest words pass it that prove he’s a fool.

Our stockings I’ll hang by the fire.

And won’t be bogged down in the mire

Of politics mean

Nor sully the scene

Of hope and the dreams we aspire.

So as we approach Christmas eve,

Let us hold in our hearts and believe...

Okay, who am I kidding? Watching the final January Six Committee meeting, as they recounted the catalog of Trump’s crimes and those of his henchflock, I recalled how it all began with the contemptuous lie he pumped well before the election. Because, in his destitute mind, Donald, who knows more about everything than anyone, could only lose by massive fraud. It’s conceivable he actually believed it; it’s inconceivable that anyone still does.

The hearings presented compelling evidence; not from libtard, Trump-hating commies or members of an imaginary deep state, but from his own team, some of whom, unlike their boss, improbably believed in Constitutional democracy.

One after another, they confirmed that he knew he lost, had been told repeatedly that there was no fraud, that he didn’t care, that he reveled in watching besotted supporters incriminate themselves, on video, as they trashed our nation’s capital, bewitched into thinking they were “stopping the steal.” Ruining their lives for his lies.

The committee’s report is encyclopedic, and includes much more. Yet House Republicans are planning their own “investigation,” aimed at discrediting the current committee’s findings. Findings, we’ve seen, based on irrefutable facts and sworn testimony. Taking millions of Americans along for the ride, they’ll engage in unprecedented, party-wide abetting of criminality and corruption.

Trump lost a fraud-free election. He refused to accept it. He chose lawbreaking on multiple levels in multiple venues to overturn the will of the people, subvert the Constitution, and end what remained of democracy after four years of ignoring it. No American should tolerate it; none who accept the requirements of citizenship in a democratic republic. Which excludes every remaining Trumpist, every rightwing media star, and almost every Republican member of Congress. Confirming everything we’ve known about what’s become of that party, Liz Cheney, as reliably hardcore, far-right conservative as it gets, lost her job by a huge margin to an election denier. It’s Jonestown, but slower.

But, golly, we hear, it’s unprecedented to indict a former president. It’ll tear the country apart. It’ll be divisive. Really? How can we be more divided, how much aparter torn by defenders of Trump’s crimes? Of course it’s unprecedented, and we’re lucky it is. Until Trump, no president had conspired to overturn an election, to upend democracy with outrageous lies and deceit. Long term, the consequences for democracy of accepting this egregious “presidential” criminality are far greater than freeze-dried, just-add-water Trumpfoxian outrage over punishing it.

How sad at this holiday time

To dwell upon obvious crime

While those in Trump’s thrall

Are excusing it all.

Their justice is not worth a dime.

A palinode I’ll not out-dole

Nor mention the secrets Trump stole.

I know it’s the time

To stop making rhyme

And to help make our country be whole.

So no, I will not have us sup

Or drink from reality’s cup.

I’ll say what the hell,

Everything is just swell.

Trump’s down but we must let him up.

It’s Christmas, after all.