Trump and impeachment: How we got ourselves here

This is what happens when people spend more time worrying about football point spreads than presidential elections. This is what happens when people turn off the news because they find it boring, makes them feel bad or is simply too hard for them to understand.

You end up with a president of the United States who is not only incompetent, but so dangerous his own Cabinet members try to organize an uprising against him. Nikki Haley, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, states in a new book she has written that Trump’s own chief of staff at the time, John Kelly, and the U.S. secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, told her that the president didn’t know what he was doing.

They asked her to join them in trying to save the country by protecting it from Trump. Haley said she was appalled and refused, stating it is her belief that they should have been saying those things to the president, not to her.

Haley took an oath to defend the Constitution, against enemies both foreign and domestic. She did not take an oath to defend the president against criticism.

She and the people surrounding Trump owed it to the people of this country to tell them what they thought of the president. Haley should have told Tillerson and Kelly to go public with their beliefs. They owed their loyalty to their country, not to Trump.

When people believe a person is more important than the Constitution of the United States, when they believe that person is more important than the country itself, this is what happens.

Trump is facing impeachment. But nearly half the country will never believe he has done anything wrong.

That is what comes from telling people that all politicians lie.

This is what happens when people are told repeatedly that success can be determined by personal wealth, position and fame. This is what happens when the value of the stock market is considered of greater worth than ethics, values or ideals.

Money trumps morality. Employment becomes more important than the employee.

Twitter followers count for more than newspaper readers.

This is what happens when people can no longer think for themselves. They can only repeat what they have been told because it is simply too difficult to think for themselves.

Opinions that are different than their own give them headaches. They disturb the stomach. They make everyone nauseous.

It is better to listen to others who think like you. It is easier. It makes everyone happier.

Anyone who disagrees with you is disloyal, un-American and plain stupid.

Any facts that contradict what you believe are fake.

They may even be part of a deep state conspiracy, invented by the FBI, spread by the CIA and distributed by government bureaucrats who hate this country.

That is how we end up here.

An anonymous author who claims to be part of the Trump administration contends that the president acts like a 12-year-old in an air traffic control tower, pushing buttons, indifferent to the planes skidding across the runway.

A whistle-blower states that Trump threatened to withhold financial support from Ukraine until its president announced an investigation into a political opponent’s son.

And when witness after witness, under oath, says that is all true, it doesn’t seem to matter because millions of Americans believe the whistle-blower probably didn’t like Trump. They would like investigations launched into those who would criticize the president. Their lives should be destroyed. That is what happens now when you speak the truth in America.

This is what happens when elected officials place party over country.

This is what happens when our leaders pander to bigotry and racism.

We are not here by mistake. It took decades of preparation.

This is US.

Email: philkadner@gmail.com