December has begun with four sudden volcanic eruptions.
Two – those simultaneous eruptions on Hawaii’s Big Island in the middle of the Pacific – were the result of predictable forces of nature. They are still spewing molten lava. Experts say no end is in sight.
Two other eruptions – just days apart in the planet’s southern and northern hemispheres – were the result of a quite different, but also quite predictable, force of human nature. Two far-flung egocentric politicians erupted. They were pols who had survived two impeachments each; and even now they are unshakably sure they should still be in power as presidents. One is still spewing. Talking heads say no end is in sight.
Last Wednesday, one of those politicos erupted anew. He was described by The Washington Post as “inexperienced, possessed of a mishmash of ultra…ideology and surrounded by a group of corrupt advisers” – and he announced he had a plan. It was, the Post said, “a plan to dissolve Congress, ‘reorganize’ the judiciary and rule by decree.”
No, not you-know-who. (Not yet.) We’re talking here about the guy in the southern hemisphere: Peru’s then (but no longer) President Pedro Castillo. Just hours later, 101 members of Peru’s Congress voted to oust their president. He was charged with rebellion, arrested, and his vice president, Dina Boluarte, (yes, a woman) had taken the oath of office and was president of Peru.
Yes, the parallels seem to abound. But they only go so far, no matter how much we stretch. For example, we can say both Pedro Castillo and Donald Trump are men with backgrounds in education: Castillo (an ultra-leftist) was a rural schoolteacher; and Trump (an ultra-something else) was the man who made Trump University what it is today.
And mainly, as we know painfully well, Trump also took desperate measures in his vain effort to stop his nation’s constitutionally empowered Congress from certifying his presidential election defeat.
Trump’s plan was that he assembled a huge rally crowd of pro-Trump, anti-government activists and sent them to Congress on Jan. 6, 2021, to somehow stop Congress from acting. In his speech he never told them exactly how they were to stop Congress. But he told them to march on Congress, knowing some had guns (when they couldn’t get through his rally’s magnetometers, he told his Secret Service to turn off the mags because they weren’t going to shoot him). Trump told his protesters to walk to the Capitol – where they smashed and bashed their way in, hoping to stop America’s constitutional government, the one the president had sworn to defend.
Fast-forward to the eruption at Mar-a-Lago: Trump had endured a month of hell. He couldn’t hide from the shame and blame for the defeats of the most prominent candidates he endorsed only because they would recite his 2020 election-result denials.
Then, at 7:44 a.m. on Saturday, Dec. 3, Mount Trump volcanically erupted. In a post on his Truth Social network, @realDonaldTrump called for the “termination” of the U.S. Constitution’s rules – so he can somehow regain the presidency.
Remember, as you read his posting, that Trump is still the leader of the Republican Party whose members love to brag that they are the Party of the Constitution. Indeed, many love to reach into their suit pockets, whip out their mini-Constitutions to impress audiences. Now read Trump’s post:
“So, with the revelation of MASSIVE & WIDESPREAD FRAUD & DECEPTION in working closely with Big Tech Companies, the DNC & the Democrat Party, do you throw the Presidential election results of 2020 OUT and declare the Rightful Winner, or do you have a new election. A massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution. Our great Founders did not want, and would not condone, False & Fraudulent Elections!”
Later, he added: “UNPRECEDENTED FRAUD REQUIRES UNPRECEDENTED CURE!”
Trump’s words erupted out of America’s screens and oozed like political molten lava across America’s political landscape. At first we heard mainly stunned silence from the famous names of the no-longer Grand Old Party. But soon they began publicly disapproving of Trump’s call for a constitutional “termination.” Now many are publicly saying Republicans must move on to a new generation of leaders.
Of course, Trump reacted by saying he didn’t say what he clearly said. Also, claiming the “fake news” was lying about him. But each time he said that, it caused Trump’s old lava – “Constitution…termination” – to spew anew from our news screens.
We remember what the wags always said about squeezed toothpaste – and we know it’s way worse when its political lava that keeps oozing out of our news screens. Donald, you can’t put it back in the tube.
