by Robert Reich:'Ive spent much of this week in Washington

[elleng]

– talking with friends still in government, former colleagues, high-ranking Democrats, a few Republican pundits, and some members of Congress from both sides of the aisle. It was my first visit to our nation's capital since Trump became president.

My verdict:
1. Washington is more divided, angry, bewildered, and fearful – than I’ve ever seen it.

2. The angry divisions aren’t just Democrats versus Republicans. Rancor is also exploding inside the Republican Party.

3. Republicans (and their patrons in big business) no longer believe Trump will give them cover to do what they want to do. They’re becoming afraid Trump is genuinely nuts, and he'll pull the party down with him.

4. Many Republicans are also angry at Paul Ryan, whose replacement bill for Obamacare is considered by almost everyone on Capitol Hill to be incredibly dumb.

5. I didn't talk with anyone inside the White House, but several who have had dealings with it called it a cesspool of intrigue and fear. Apparently everyone working there hates and distrusts everyone else.

6. The Washington foreign policy establishment – both Republican and Democrat – is deeply worried about what’s happening to American foreign policy, and the worldwide perception of America being loony and rudderless. They think Trump is legitimizing far-right movements around the world.

7. Long-time civil servants are getting ready to bail. If they're close to retirement they're already halfway out the door. Many in their 30s and 40s are in panic mode.

8. Republican pundits think Bannon is even more unhinged than Trump, seeking to destroy democracy as we've known it.

9. Everyone I talked with thought a Trump impeachment wasn't possible, at least not any time soon -- unless there's a smoking gun showing Trump's involvement in Russia's intrusion into the election.

10. Many people asked, bewilderedly, “how did this [Trump] happen?” When I suggest it had a lot to do with the 35-year-long decline of incomes of the bottom 60 percent; the growing sense, ever since the Wall Street bailout, that the game is rigged; and the utter failure of both Republicans and Democrats to reverse these trends – they gave me blank stares.


---------

The worst part?

10. Many people asked, bewilderedly, “how did this [Trump] happen?” When I suggest it had a lot to do with the 35-year-long decline of incomes of the bottom 60 percent; the growing sense, ever since the Wall Street bailout, that the game is rigged; and the utter failure of both Republicans and Democrats to reverse these trends – they gave me blank stares.

[patricia92243]

1. k/r

[Juliusseizure]

2. Impeachment-Reich should clarify

So he's saying impeachment is not possible anytime soon, unless there's a smoking gun. What does that mean? Without a smoking gun, impeachment is still possible in the long term? Based on what? Passage of time?

Is he saying Republicans need a major smoking gun, but still may impeach in the long term without one (based on something like Clinton's perjury) when Trump becomes too dangerous for Republicans to handle? I'll give it 6 months max. He wants control of the party. Just like Putin. Why can't Reich just say that? He's going to be misinterpreted.

[tavalon]

3. Molly Ivins spoke to this allegorically

She spoke about how to get a bird dog to stop killing chickens. You take one of the killed chickens and you bind it around the aforementioned dog's neck and let it rot. When the chicken has finally rotted away, that bird dog will never kill another chicken.

Trump is bound to the Republican party's neck. When he becomes so putrid and pulls the Republicans far enough down that they are afraid of their re election bids, they will impeach him. The emmoluments clause makes him already impeachable. But as our clueless side knows, they can't, as the minority party, bring articles of impeachment.

We need to wait for the Republican's to realize they have to cut off the rotting Trump or go down with him.

It's very frustrating.

[OnDoutside]

6. I would slightly change your analysis,

The Republicans would impeach Trump today if they weren't going to be blamed for doing so. If they were seen to be even partly to blame, they'd split the party. The Republican Trumpists would never forgive them. So it had to be the Democrats after the 2018 midterms, or some 3rd party like an FBI investigation.

[tavalon]

7. I think you are wrong, but

I can't begin to fathom what happens in the cranium of Republicans, so you could just as easily be right.

[OnDoutside]

8. It would suit the Republican agenda to have

a "normal" Republican like Pence. You would have to think Bannon etc would be gone, normal foreign policy would be reinstalled, leaving them clear to concentrate on their long term agenda, while they can.

[tavalon]

9. Well, when Russiagate gets to it's full fruition

The Republican's will have cover, but they will also possibly lose a few of their own in the blood bath.

[OnDoutside]

11. IF ! not when. I fear we are putting such hope in Comey

To come through.

[tavalon]

12. Comey? I'm not putting any faith in him

There are 17 intelligence groups working on this, ignoring Trumps cocaine addled tweets, and Washington DC is leaking so bad right now, you needn't be a Woodward or a Bernstein to put the dots together. I'm surprised that it is taking this long, frankly.

[rpannier]

4. As long as Hair Douchengroper polls in the 80th percentile among republicans

they won't impeach
They won't even entertain it.
Hell. The most extreme in congress are getting invites to the white house and their caustic statements are embraced by Douchengroper

[ThoughtCriminal]

5. A few GOP reps could end this "presidency" overnight

Go to Trump, tell him if he does not resign by then end of the week, they will vote with Democrats to obtain his tax returns.

Trump knows that if the returns ever get out, he will not be worrying about impeachment, he will be too busy fighting extradition.

But if Republicans had courage, they would not be Republicans.

[tavalon]

10. And if Democrats had courage,

They wouldn't continue to cleave onto a dying corporatist agenda. Unfortunately, as politicians become soaked in the brine of the DC swamp, their spines dissolve, no matter the letter behind their name.

[pnwmom]

13. Yeah, right, blame the Dems for the GOP's evil President. Typical. n/t

[tavalon]

14. Really?

Democrats saying they are taking the high road is just a ploy so we don't notice they live on a boneless chicken ranch.

I am a proud progressive. I voted for Hillary because the leader of my party said to. I don't regret it but I do regret not fighting harder for Bernie. He had and somehow still has a spine.

The only trick I've seen Corporatist Dems do is roll over. And after 30 years of watching that one trick over and over, excuse me if I'm not charitable just because they have a D after their names.

The thing that makes the occasional Democrat stand out is when they stand up for us. It's the rareness of that trick that always gets me. "And Still She Persisted" is a 2020 campaign slogan for all times, far better than "I'm with her".

There are few true blue progressives in DC, but we are going to change that. One Progressive Democrat at a time.

If the Deplorables don't get us blown up in the interim, we Progressives (I am not a Corporatist Dem, DLC, Third Way or whatever the fuck they are calling themselves now) are going to be the tea party of the Democratic Party. Yep, we are going to purge the party. Our way or the Highway, though, since there have been no infrastructure fixes in forever, it may be hard to take the highway but they will.

We are starting locally, just like the tp's and we will own our candidates, just like they do. Surprising that there is so much to learn from such a batshit crazy bunch of folks, but they found the winning strategy and we are going to steal it, minus the spelling errors.

So, if you want to continue the crazy madness that has been wrought from money in politics, have at it. I won't be at your side, but neither will I step aside and allow my party to continue to masturbate with money. No more conciliation. Period.

[pnwmom]

15. The Dems can't impeach DT. They are doing what they can, but they won't succeed

unless everyone in the party, including the tea party wanna-be's, understand that party unity is critical

As for Bernie, he wouldn't have had any better chance than Hillary, because the Russians were determined to make sure DT won. There's no way the oligarchs would have preferred the socialist. And they would have had plenty of material to throw at him from his trip to the Soviet Union (back when it was a communist country), and his trip to Venezuela.

We will see how brilliant the GOP tea-part strategy is. It doesn't seem to be working very well for them now. They managed to squeak out wins through gerrymandering and vote suppression, but now that they have power they're discovering their party is a fractured mess.

[tavalon]

16. The Democrats can't do anything with or without our support

Sure I call them every morning to help hold up their spines, but we are the minority party and as such we only have as much power as the Republicans had when they were minority. Of course, Democrats would never block a Supreme Court Justice. That would just be so unseemly.

You get a C for reading comprehension.

And just to throw in a Christian meme, we would do well to look at the mote in the eye of our fractured party. And we've been fractured way longer than them. They just do it flashier.

[pnwmom]

17. And YOU can't do anything without Democratic support. All progressives have to come together

because a fraction of the party won't be enough to take the country back from the GOP.

Democrats have blocked Supreme Court nominees in the past, and we'll do it again -- if they don't change the rules to end the filibuster completely.

[tavalon]

19. I will be pleased if they do actually exercise what little power they have left.

Ignore the GOP for a minute.

The intention of the Progressive Dems is not to pull away from the party but pull the party away from moneyed interests and back to the working people and unions and all the places they never should have left. Certainly, there are people who want to leave the Democratic Party a la Brexit. I am not one. I am looking at the long game. I won't be around but the ones doing most of the heaviest lifting will be and the working man's party will be back in power in a few decades.

[raccoon]

18. K&R. nt

[progressoid]

20. #9 and #10

[Arazi]

21. #10 is straight up Bernie Sanders and so true eom

[not fooled]

22. Yep #10

plus the utter failure of the corporate media to adequately inform the public + the rise of Faux, flush, and others of their ilk that fool the ill-informed.

[yurbud]

23. number 10 is a serious problem. After the Wall Street bailout, no one in DC can make a case for

austerity for the rest of us after turning a firehose of money on the already wealthy.