Dan Rather: "I suspect most of the president's political opponents were disappointed because..." [View all]

[Miles Archer]

https://www.facebook.com/theDanRather/posts/10161598230490716

We are now in the aftermath of the bombshell. Not the report itself, at least not yet, but the summary of the report by an attorney general who may or may not have used his position to protect the president.

What do we know? Some things, some pretty important things.

What do we not know? A lot.

We know that the president was not engaged in a conspiracy to collude with the Russian government in its interference with the United States election. We know this after a man of integrity, Robert Mueller, assembled a team of top-notch investigators and spent years looking into the evidence. We should trust that verdict. We also know that the investigatigation led to multiple serious prosecutions and guilty pleas of people very high up in the Trump campaign. We cannot forget that.

Almost everything else is at this point up for interpretation. Were there other nefarious connections with Russian businessmen and the Trump family and organization? Perhaps. Others are investigating. Was there obstruction of justice? Hidden or in plain sight? Matters of interpretation up until now, but the report may contain much more information. We need to see it. There is so much left to find out. And the fight now begins in earnest, in Congress, in other jurisdictions, and ultimately with the American electorate.

But make no mistake, the president and his allies will claim this as an unadulterated and complete victory. This is of course an overstatement but it is not without any grounding in reality.

Many opponents of President Trump are deeply disappointed - for multiple reasons. Many wanted Mueller to uncover a conspiracy so vast and so damning for the President that bipartisan impeachment calls would crescendo. That hope has crashed against the rocks of the reality of Mueller's findings. And everyone should accept that or risk playing the same game with the truth as the President and his enablers.

Others are disappointed that a report that likely is full of nuance and reams of evidence was allowed to be characterized for the public by an attorney general of questionable independence from the man he serves. That is a fair criticism and worry. And the diversity of headlines in the press as to how to summarize the findings show the fight for how to frame the report will continue.

But I suspect most of the president's political opponents were disappointed because they felt that this report and the way it will be used will give fresh energy - maybe they fear even unstoppable energy - to the reelection of a president whom they feel is unfit for office for many, many reasons that go far beyond any question of Russian electoral collusion.

To these people I say, steady. It is almost 600 days until the 2020 election. Which in "newscycle years" is an eternity. In the give and take of politics, you can be beaten but not defeated. For those who feel like they did after the 2016 election, don't forget how you felt after the 2018 election. Ultimately to defeat Trumpism and not just the president will require a verdict from the American people. And we have seen that the votes are there but not without a fight. And that fight would have continued no matter what Robert Mueller found.

The president will crow about this as complete vindication. He will gin up crowds chanting his mantras in syncopated aduration. He will rally his Republican enablers and solidify his base. All that is true. Online his supporters will gloat and denigrate any storyline that does not parrot this simplistic view. They will demand fealty to all that is Trump. To those who feel his tenure in office is anathema to the America they know, this will be infuriating.

If that anger leads to despair, the destiny of this nation will shift much more to President Trump's vision. But if that anger leads to a deep resolve that it shall not be so, then America will likely have a very different journey ahead.

The battle lines for 2020 are clear. The question is who will show up to fight for their beliefs, to organize, and ultimately to vote.