US President Donald Trump. The president may remain in office, but Democrats have made a historical mark. PHOTO | FILE | AFP
This is surely as good as it gets, if the Republican tribe in
American politics think it is necessary to
compare Donald Trump’s impeachment blues with the Passion of the Christ, which in any sane Christian environment would be considered blasphemous.
compare Donald Trump’s impeachment blues with the Passion of the Christ, which in any sane Christian environment would be considered blasphemous.
But
they are doing it with aplomb. One legislator compared the impeachment
that was decided on by the Democratic-dominated House of Reps as worse
than what Pontius Pilate did to Jesus before the Nazarene was crucified,
that is, that Pontius gave more magnanimous rights to the Easter
accused, Jesus, than Nancy Pelosi and her Democratic legislators are
willing to consider for poor, persecuted Trump.
It puts
one in all sorts of states to think that these avowed Christian
faithful can find something democratic in the man who sanctioned the
execution of their saviour. Forget that the words ‘democratic’ or ‘basic
justice’ were unknown then, just think that the whole narrative is
about the triumph of good over evil.
Also discount the
fact that we are in the festive season, not the week of crucifixion,
which the overzealous Republican congressman may have mixed up.
You
may think that any comparison between the Christian messiah of the
scriptures and the ogre in the Oval Office should be offending to
believers, but then where are these believers when bigotry, racism and
misogyny have completely taken over their politics?
Is
there anyone at all among Trump’s supporters who still believes in
turning the other cheek, or is Christianity that label you wear on the
sleeve as you go about your daily ungodly dealings?
There is no way Trump could be held up as a champion of
Christian righteousness, unless you also want to make people believe
that I am Shaka the Zulu. His whole political philosophy seems to be
anchored in exclusion and thriving on sentiments nourished by the most
depraved instincts of his ignorant followers who gobble up every inanity
he utters as if it were gospel truth.
A couple of
weeks ago, he was this big tough cookie goading Nancy Pelosi and her “do
nothing” Democrats to impeach him. “Bring it on,” he taunted.
Finally
they called his bluff and impeached him, and now he is screaming foul
all over the place, claiming he is not being the opportunity Jesus was
given before Pilate.
As someone said, Trump was goading
the Dems to impeach him only as a deterrent, because no one expects the
Senate, controlled by the Republicans, to actually vote to remove him
from office. That is the arithmetic impossibility that has shielded the
other two impeached presidents in US history.
But
Pelosi and her people must have reasoned that it is better to be seen by
posterity as people who took the necessary step to countermand
encroaching tyranny, even if it does not amount to removal from office,
than to keep quiet and do nothing, thereby condoning and
institutionalising impunity.
Trump has always wanted
his predecessors to be impeached. He wanted George Washington under the
bus for the Iraq war. “He got us into the war with lies”. He wanted
Obama impeached for “gross incompetence”. It is interesting to go back
to what Trump said about if Obama, his immediate predecessor, would feel
if he were impeached:
‘Do you think Obama seriously
wants to be impeached and go through what Bill Clinton did? He would be a
mess. He would be thinking of nothing but. It would be a horror show
for him. It would be an absolute embarrassment. It would go down on his
record permanently”.
The beauty about this little
passage is that it reads like the speaker was speaking about himself.
What the Democrats have done is to ensure that, using the muscle of
their number in the House of Reps, they have carried to Trump’s lips the
chalice of the poison he had wished to be delivered to Obama’s mouth.
It is called poetic justice, though I see no poetry in that.
Trump
has manifested enough hatred for the Clintons since he fought a bitter
election campaign in 2016 and defeated Hillary. Still, he seems to be
still sore from that campaign than the woman she beat. Yet here he is
now, only the third president impeached in the history of the US, seated
within touching distance of the second impeached president, husband to
the woman from the 2016 race.
Jenerali Ulimwengu is chairman of the board of the Raia Mwema newspaper and an advocate of the High Court in Dar es Salaam. E-mail: jenerali@gmail.com
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