With White House communications director Hope Hicks resigning from her post and more high-level resignations almost certainly coming soon, the Trump White House resembles the film Casablanca, with aides hunting for exit visas and nobody being certain who is ultimately loyal to whom.
Across the great divides of American politics a giant anti-Trump wave is building that will change the nation in the midterm elections. It is not a Democratic wave, though Democrats will benefit greatly. Nor is it a progressive wave, though progressives will probably enjoy a great celebration after polls close on Nov. 6.
{mosads}What is happening is a national wave of rejection and repudiation of the government and politics that Trump is imposing on America that Republicans in Congress, in one of most disastrous blunders in political history, are clutching tightly to with both hands.
Americans of many political persuasions know something is dangerously wrong when the president:
- repeatedly berates and humiliates his attorney general;
- insults and embarrasses his national security advisor for telling a security conference that evidence is incontrovertible that Russia is attacking American democracy;
- escalates his war against the FBI; and
- presides over a White House that is a snake pit of warring factions leaking dirt against each other almost every day.
Who will be next to obtain an exit visa from the president’s inner circle? Probably Jared Kushner, who acts like a secretary of State though he cannot obtain a high-level security clearance and is suspected of falling under the influence of foreign money from questionable sources.
It could be retired Gen. John Kelly, Trump’s chief of staff, who appears to be at war with Kushner and is now working to rectify a security clearance scandal, or General H.R. McMaster, Trump’s widely respected national security advisor and another recent target of the president’s insults.
In recent months, Democratic candidates have won stunning and unexpected victories in special elections in every region of the nation, in districts that Republicans typically win by landslide margins.
If this pattern continues through November, which history suggests is likely, there will be Republicans in Congress who are considered entirely safe today who will be shocked to lose their seats in the midterms.
Republicans are besieged by waves of unhappy voters.
In 2017, the wave was led by women who are fed up with being abused and rose to take their stand. Now the Women’s March and others are mounting a massive voter registration campaign that will have huge impact in the midterms.
In 2018, the wave has been joined by students, who are demanding that they not be mass murdered in school by weapons that kill enemies in war. Shortly after they march on Washington on March 24, the students will promote a massive voter registration campaign of young people that will have huge impact on the midterms.
These and other students should be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, which members of Congress can do, for their courage and action designed to end the carnage in our schools and the apathy of our Congress.
Across the great divides of American society, a majority of Americans are disgusted, revolted, angered, afraid and determined to end the swampland of scandal and division that Trump has brought to Washington, which Republicans in Congress seem determined to support and defend until the bitter end of their control of Congress.
This majority of Americans, of diverse political persuasions from all walks of life, know that something stinks when Russians support a Republican president who keeps attacking the FBI — the organization that defends America from the Russian attacks.
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They know that something is rotten when cabinet members make scandalous moves such as wasting taxpayer money on first-class airfare and luxurious furniture, when the president’s closest confidante and son-in-law faces multiple investigations and when a growing list of loyalists and former top aides are copping pleas, indicted for crimes or resigning.
They know that something very bad is happening when news stories reveal that the president has made thousands of statements that are flat-out false, his own lawyers apparently advise him to not testify because they fear he will lie under oath and his fourth communications director in a year tells Congress that a condition of employment for the post she will soon leave was to tell “white lies” on his behalf.
Black voters are fed up with being demeaned by their president. Hispanic voters are appalled when their dreams are under siege from their leader. Moms do not want their daughters abused. Dads do not want their children attacked.
Grandmas and grandpas worry that their Medicare and Social Security may be under attack by phony fiscal hawks to pay for massive deficits they created with lavish tax cuts for the wealthiest among us.
The liberal base is roused. Principled conservatives are offended. Moderates are motivated to vote in droves for change. News of more indictments is coming. More Trump loyalties will soon be copping pleas. Rumors of new resignations are in the air. The anti-Trump wave is building. Change is coming soon.
Brent Budowsky was an aide to former Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-Texas) and former Rep. Bill Alexander (D-Ark.), who was chief deputy majority whip of the U.S. House of Representatives. He holds an LLM in international financial law from the London School of Economics.