The desire to humiliate: they impeached Trump in order to make him wear the scarlet “I”
I’ve noticed that many of the justifications for impeaching Trump involve some sort of gloating that now he must bear the shame of having been one of the few presidents in our history who have been impeached. In other words, they want him to wear for all time a scarlet “I”.
But did it ever occur to them that it might look to a lot of people – even including historians of the future – like a scarlet “M” for “martyred”?
If you impeach someone for trivial reasons, or based on lies, or both, how does that make the impeached person look bad?
Hadn’t you better make sure that your accusations appear to be sound? Framing someone or over-reacting to something that person has done makes you seem hysterical, mendacious, scheming, histrionic, fake. And piously intoning how sad and reluctant you are as you do it, when it’s crystal clear that’s just a pose and you are joyful, doesn’t make you look good and your target look bad, either.
George Burns once said, “If you can fake sincerity, you’ve got it made.” Well, the Democrats can’t fake sincerity, and I don’t think they’re got it made.
The impulse is the one so clearly stated by Robert de Niro, who recently said this:
“It would feel kind of good to punch him. Not hurt him. Just punch him in the face,” said [Michael] Moore. “Just cathartic.”
De Niro responded, “I’d like to see a bag of shit right in his face. Hit him right in the face like that, and let the picture go all over the world. And that would be the most humiliating thing.”
He added, “He needs to be humiliated. He needs to be confronted, and he needs to be humiliated by whoever his political opponent is.”
De Niro explained that he would like to see the 2020 Democratic candidate tear Trump down, even if it’s not in an “obviously physical way.”
“The people have to see that. For him to be humiliated,” De Niro said.
Yes, we get it: humiliated. What a primitive impulse De Niro is describing, that of the schoolyard bully. Why would we think less of Trump and more of De Niro and/or the thugs carrying out such a wish? Or even expressing such a wish? The only person De Niro is humiliating here is himself, but he can’t even see that.
And I maintain that public humiliation is a large part of the impetus behind all of this. And so far it’s just not working – except as a boomerang.
Agree totally, Neo. This is about humiliating, not removing. This is about leaving a mark. Several Democratic office holders and opinion writers have said it right up front: he now has an asterisk next to his name in the history books.
The refusal to fund the border wall — or even admit that uncontrolled illegal immigration is not good for the USA — has been another attempt to frustrate Trump and make him look bad. And like the impeachment, I think it just makes Pelosi and the Congress look bad.
Now one might make the argument that this impeachment is just payback for what the Republicans did to Bill Clinton. Maybe a little, but they did not try it with GWB, so there’s that. And one might also make the argument that having Boehner say right out loud when Obama was elected that the Republican Congress would impede his agenda was also reason enough for Pelosi doing what she did. And I for one wish that no one had ever said those words out loud when Obama took office — it is clear the opposition party will not be working to make the president look good. It has also been thus.
But we’ve become a nation of warring and vindictive political parties. Trump plays the game better than previous Republican presidents — sort of reminiscent of LBJ. But I for one don’t like the game or the people who play it. And that goes in spades for De Niro and Michael Moore.
People often forget that Republicans and conservatives were sent to Congress to promote issues close to R’s & C’s…not Obama’s. So, my reply to Boehner’s comment, had I been Obama, would have been: “Let me try to work with you” or “We’ll get a majority in the next Congress” rather than resentment.
“And one might also make the argument that having Boehner say right out loud when Obama was elected that the Republican Congress would impede his agenda was also reason enough for Pelosi doing what she did.”
It’s also to be an asterisk, as one of Blaisey-Ford’s lawyers noted. Any time Kavanagh does something the left doesn’t like, or might be pressured, or his decisions demeaned, it will be “accused rapist Kavanagh” did thus and such.And now it’s “impeached president Trump”.
Likely most lefties and MSM have macros so they don’t have to keep typing that all day long.
De Niro has played so many tough guys he thinks he’s one himself.
I find the tough talk from people like MM and De Niro amusing. What whiners and buffoons.
Off topic: Merry Christmas and Happy Chanukah to all. Our house is going to be full of people starting this evening. The teen grandchildren will be housed at night in a nearby B&B where they can spend time on their smart phones which we forbid in our house during the holiday.
Mike Smith:
Who are you quoting in that last paragraph in your comment?
Because that’s quite the “ends justifies the means” false equivalence in that paragraph- that fighting against the political agenda of the opposition party is a reason to impeach a president on false and/or insufficient grounds.
We don’t deserve Trump, Republicans don’t deserve Trump, America doesn’t deserve Trump, what kind of good Karma has America done in the past to earn us a savior like Trump to come to save America from these f**king socialist sociopath scumbags?
Looking more and more like Trump is sent by God to clean house and save America, the desperate and hysterical retaliation by these unhinged satanic evil bad actors proves it.
Mike’s quoting F neo, middle third paragraph.
sdfwrr:
I see it now. Thanks!
What a sad existence DeNiro must lead. To be consumed by that much blind hatred would eventually eat a person up mentally and physically in time I would think.
Do they not realize that by adding the “I” to Trump, they are also reminding everyone that Clinton also has an “I” by his name?
I would love to see Trump come out sometime, take off his shirt and show off his “I” tee shirt. Rub their faces in it.
Demos/leties/progs apparently like punching political opponents in the face- or variations thereof. Recall how some journalist thugs piled on the Covington kids. CNN Silent On Contributor Fantasizing About Punching Covington Boy.
I wonder how these Demos/leties/progs who advocate punching THEIR political opponents in the face – or throwing a bag of feces in the face-would feel if someone punched THEM in the face- or threw a bag of feces in THEIR faces.
Just sayin.’ 🙂
Speaking of humiliation, Twitterverse has been all atwitter over the insane ravings of one John Harwood, an American journalist who is an “editor-at-large” for CNBC. He claims that the media treats the Republicans too gently and fails to call them out on their lies.
Here is Molly Hemingway’s tweet in it…
“The problem with journalism is that it’s just too fair to the right,” sounds like a totally not insane thing to say. My goodness these people have lost all touch with reality. https://t.co/bN90UEXkze
Nearly everyone else with some sense of perspective remaining has joined in to berate and humiliate this idiot.
But, the problem with those who are shameless is that (by definition) they cannot be shamed.
Yeah, those really hurt; especially when they hit you in the wallet.
What was it that Billy Ray Valentine said to Louis Winthorp III, on that one Christmas, long ago?:
https://memes.yarn.co/yarn-clip/e2f22380-0b40-422e-8d10-754423b80b88/text
There are worthy ideas, already on the shelf, just waiting to be picked up, gift-wrapped and delivered.
Instapundit’s sage advice on how to impale the activist progs in the entertainment industry on the horns of a hypocrisy dilemma is evergreen:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonexaminer.com/sunday-reflection-repeal-the-hollywood-tax-cuts%3f_amp=true
Apple core, Baltimore bitches.
Given the emotional state of the centre-left I think this whole experience is cathartic for them. As for scarlet and asterisk, I say that Trump is indifferent to that. I am no psychologist but with the depth of Trump’s narcissism, he simply doesn’t care because he sincerely believes he is far superior to them which in turn grates the center-left and drives them insane with DeNiro being a prime example.
Re Boehner comment that the Republicans would impede Obama’s agenda. If you remember, the democrat speaker of the house, Tip O’Neal said that anything president Regan was for, he was against. The democrats didn’t help Regan. Envious people are extremely jealous of people who do things they can’t do and can find no better way to feel good about themselves than to mock and ridicule the successful.
This is of a piece as the current evangelical kerfluffle over the editor at some lefty religious rag slamming Trump for being too “immoral” to serve as President.
I’ve said it before. The anti-Trump movement is not about policies. It’s not about politics. It’s not about truth. It’s not about morality. It’s about people who think they run the world and who think they run the world because they’re better and smarter than most seeing their supposed social, moral, and intellectual superiority challenged or shattered.
Mike
Before whom will Trump now be shamed? His supporters? No. Clear and objective thinking moderates? No. Democrat true believers? All day, every day.
So what has been gained by this kabuki? Nothing, really.
physicsguy…”What a sad existence DeNiro must lead. To be consumed by that much blind hatred would eventually eat a person up mentally and physically in time I would think.”
Indeed. What is scary, though, is that I know people who I *thought* were fairly mentally healthy who are showing the same kind of Trump-hate syndrome. Usually expressed with less vulgarity, but the hate still shows.
D’Ja’know what Donald Trump likes to do? Take revenge on people who injure him, especially when he knows he’s done nothing wrong to have made them act the stupid ways they do. He relishes this, taking revenge, and fancies himself to be expert at it.
These morons have picked on the wrong guy. He will make them rue the day. And think! We all get to watch.
All that the impeachment does is remind us that DJT is the first real Republican President we’ve had in decades. The Republican Party was formed in 1854 specifically to fight the Democrats and their disgusting, anti-American policies. That’s its entire job. If Trump’s the first one in ages to make them squeal like fat pigs, that’s one of the measures of his accomplishment.
Or at least it would be, were he actually impeached. But he hasn’t been. All the D’s managed to do was vote to impeach him – but they haven’t actually done it yet, not until they do the House’s job and hand off to the Senate. Otherwise, they’re like someone deciding to land troops in northern France in June 1944 – that’s a long way from actually winning a war. And the D’s can’t win this one, so they pretend they’re going to, without actually trying.
Pelosi wants to keep her impeachment and make Trump eat it, too. Not gonna happen, and she knows it, so now she’s making statements about DJT stalling . . . which is just an admission that he’s got her in check without making a move. That hardly stains Trump with anything except good management.
In sum, there’s really no reason for anyone else to play along with the fraud. The House is rattling its little sword, but it hasn’t impeached Trump yet. And I don’t think it will.
My hope is that Trump is two and done, just two terms and than he can go play golf for the rest of his years. Having said that I think all the super lefty stuff and Dump on Trump stuff might just get those who sat the election out to show up and vote, especially in the states like CA and NY where they knew their vote did not count. The sheer level and volume of bile that is being poured forth here as we celebrate holidays might erode a lot of the Democrats support since we, both sides are getting tired of this and as each rock is turned over we discover more sleazy FBI deep state stuff, for those who pay attention.
And on that note, my wife and I are heading to the beach tomorrow to join our oldest kids and their kids so, Happy Chanukah ! Merry Christmas ! Good Solstice and anything else that trips your trigger !
“Happy Chanukah ! Merry Christmas ! Good Solstice and anything else that trips your trigger !” – OldTexan
All that, and “Happy trails to you…”
I confess my first thought was of a scarlet, gold-embroidered I worn proudly by the President and his supporters. A t-shirt is the obvious medium (h/t LYNN).
As a bonus, someone adept at photoshop could run up a “Superman” meme with Trump pulling his white shirt open to reveal his new super-costume.
Or maybe a Make Impeachment Great Again hat.
Seriously, the Democrats seem to have gone full Streisand on this, because otherwise clueless young voters are now being exposed to the sordidness that was Clinton, and the corruption that is Biden, courtesy of the Dems throwing their hissy-fits.
When Trump obliquely offered the olive branch by declining to prosecute Hillary and Put Her In Jail, the whistleblower brigade heard nothing, choosing instead to push things to the point where he could not ignore their malfeasance.
Are the D’s now officially the Party of Stupid?
impeachment is just the modern day assassination, when they can ruin your name through the press why need to kill you? Remember what they used to say about assassination and presidents? the good ones who dare to challenge the status quo or rattle the cage get their lives attempted on. this theatrics only cement Trump as one of the great ones. was Clinton good? you can’t deny he was the second best after reagan behind Trump.
De Niro has played so many tough guys he thinks he’s one himself.
Dwaz: I think you’re onto something.
After the Rolling Stones first became famous as the rough boys of rock’n’roll (as opposed to the Beatles) they were once waiting in the subway and encountered some real rough boys. Jagger started mouthing off to them like he is the tough guy he plays on stage.
Well, the other guys either didn’t know Jagger or didn’t care. The Stones had to run like hell.
…which is just an admission that he’s got her in check without making a move.
tom swift: I’d say the technical chess term is zugzwang. Trump has Pelosi in zugzwang. Any move Pelosi makes will make her position worse, so she would prefer not to move.
I used to think di niro was a good actor but now realize he is totally one dimension. Plays the same guy in all his movies, boring. Even did a movie dissing Santa, now thats a low life. I think he was guilty of publicly berating his minority wife, more trash behavior. Of course we all recall him on stage exhorting the audience to say F**k Trump. Has no class.
Huxley, I would say I played a tough guy on TV. Like De Niro. I tried to play the tough guy in real life. I played rugby from 15 to 45. I have been in bar fights from Norfolk to San Diego to Mombasa and back.
Nobody is that tough. I did the math. How many bar fights and rugby games (same thing teally; see you at the kegger) would I have to engage in before I could say I was tough.
Even if you could survive the experience you wouldn’t last those years.
I used to think di niro was a good actor but now realize he is totally one dimension.
MollyNH: He did a movie with Bill Murray, “Mad Dog & Glory,” in which they both played against type. De Niro was a shy, repressed, crime photographer, while Murray was the crime boss. I’m fond of that one,
But otherwise, yeah, De Niro plays the same guy. His current wife is black/Native American which De Niro says provides some of his animus towards Trump.
Even if you could survive the experience you wouldn’t last those years.
Steve57: Reminds me of Larry Bird, the basketball legend, who shortened his career several years by playing full-out, dive-for-the-ball-no-matter-what.
Bird admits he paid the price, but said he could not have played otherwise because that was his commitment to play each game.
The Nisei, the 442nd “Go For Broke” regimental combat team was the most highly decorated unit in the U.S. Army.
I guess maybe they felt like they something to prove.
Bobby DeNiro – The Id of the American Left.
“You talkin’ to me ?”
Classy bunch (though could it be that they’re desperately crying out for help?):
https://www.thedailybeast.com/robert-de-niro-on-the-view-id-disown-my-children-if-they-acted-like-trumps-kids
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/biden-mocks-trump-no-one-wants-their-kid-to-grow-up-like-him
https://nypost.com/2019/12/24/hunter-biden-owns-massive-home-in-swanky-hollywood-hills-court-docs-reveal/
https://nypost.com/2019/12/23/hunter-bidens-baby-mama-says-hes-linked-to-multiple-criminal-probes/
De Niro’s childish–note the position of Di Niro’s raised fists in the clip of him saying F Trump at an award show–rage and hatred is extremely unattractive.
Dementia?
Imagine going to junior high school with Robert De Niro and Angela Davis.
His parents were avant-guard painters who met in Provincetown. Some tough guy. More like Raging Narcissist.
Dementia?
Nope, just ordinary stupidity.
The Democrats have made Trump a sympathetic character.
“This is about humiliating, not removing.”
Actually, “this” is about a whole slew of things.
Primarily, though, “this” is about hiding stuff. A whole lotta stuff. (And the abject fear—the utter dread—that the cover-up will prove ineffective.)
It’s the cover-up of the cover-up of the cover-up of the cover-up….
And they have an awful lot to hide (Obama, Clinton, Biden, Brennan, DNC and all the way down the line):
https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/475463-jim-comeys-damaging-legacy-at-the-fbi-must-be-undone
H/T Powerline blog
Now whether or not all “this” makes “Trump a sympathetic character” is open to debate; but there can be no doubt that when compared to the putrifaction associated with the alternative, Trump comes up smelling relatively good, prima-donnas like De Niro and thugs like Biden notwithstanding.
Yes, Barry Meislin, this is about hiding stuff. And also about projection. On your earlier link, Biden saying no one wants their kid to grow up like Trump: Who would want a son to grow up like Hunter Biden?
Besides stupid and counter-productive, this impeachment hissy fit is guaranteeing that if something happens to Ginsburg in the coming year, she will be replaced by a Trump nominee. Democrats have no respect coming to them, having shown none.
Kate: …if something happens to Ginsburg in the coming year, she will be replaced by a Trump nominee.
That is fair game and there is precedence for it. When Scalia died, Obama wanted to replace him with Garland, a liberal judge instead of someone with views similar to Scalia. Now Trump can point to that as a reason why he doesn’t have to replace Ginsburg with a like minded judge. As for the informal Biden rule on SCOTUS nominations, supposedly it doesn’t apply if the Senate is controlled by the same party as the president according to McConnell because there is no disagreement between those two branches of the govt.
And now I’m seeing “news” articles suggesting that some Democrats want to impeach Trump again!
I guess since it seems this first time hasn’t yet stuck; they will keep doing it until they have totally remade themselves to fit their party’s icon – the “donkey.”
We’re having the most polite revolution ever.
The “elites” keep trying to rule and Trump and the majority of the rest of us keep laughing at them. Remember that the next time someone in your life starts wringing their hands and clutching their pearls (or whatever) about rude, chaotic Trump. The only people fighting in the street are random lefty losers picking fights with cars. Thank you President Trump!! Also remind them of the mother lode of rude chaos which the left spews forth on an hourly, minutely, basis.
Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah, to those celebrating.
De Niro responded, “I’d like to see a bag of shit right in his face. Hit him right in the face like that, and let the picture go all over the world. And that would be the most humiliating thing.”
At a time when “Peace On Earth, Goodwill Toward Men” used to be in people’s thoughts, we get this crap from Trump haters. I will not let them ruin the Christmas season for me. May the spirit of the season descend over us all. May we put aside our differences and be united in accepting a sense of gratitude, love, and hope.
“God rest ye merry gentlemen
Let nothing you dismay
Remember Christ our Savior
Was born on Christmas Day
To save us all from Satan’s pow’r
When we were gone astray
Oh tidings of comfort and joy
Comfort and joy
Oh tidings of comfort and joy”
It’s the reason for the season. So, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Holiday, a Kool Kwanza, and a prosperous New Year to all. (Even to Robert De Niro and Michael Moore.)
And now I’m seeing “news” articles suggesting that some Democrats want to impeach Trump again! [Charles]
So much fun! Let’s do it again! C’mon, Daddy! C’mon, do again!
Here’s an interesting idea from sundance at the Tree House:
This court filing today bolsters the unspoken background motive for delayed House Impeachment Managers. The House Judiciary Committee is using impeachment as support for their ongoing effort to gain: Don McGahn deposition, and Mueller grand jury material (6e). The goal is opposition research; impeachment is a tool to establish legal standing to obtain it. Everything else is chaff and countermeasures.
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2019/12/23/breaking-house-argues-in-court-filing-don-mcgahn-testimony-needed-for-impeachment-evidence/
The full argument is over my head legally. However, it fits my feeling that Pelosi intends the halfway-impeachment as a leverage for something besides pressuring the Senate for better terms on the trial.
Move to dismiss.
Take the vote.
Happy new year.
There may come a time when someone with accepted authority
deciphers Rene Girard’s theory of scapegoats and ritual killing using the 2019 president as the textbook model;
analyses the abortion lobby as a second model of ritual killing;
attempts an analytical survey of the loud, angry media connected self important crowd and their inability to find the roots of their hatred;
For one example, De Niro gave an interview which you can find online, diverting questions with Trump condemnations, That in itself would be odd, but odder still De Niro hates Trump for projecting. The same De Niro who after direct questions about his gay father, questions De Niro avoids, deflects, … his father didn’t talk about it… De Niro never talked to him about it… his mother told him. Anger comes from someplace inside not from politicians.
Huxley, I don’t know how to “play the game” other than going all in. Not bragging; maybe that marks me as stupid. But I was the guy who had to write the letters when I got Sailors killed. It would be an insult to other very good officers to comment further.
I wish everyone a most heartfelt Merry Christmas. And to my Jewish friends Happy Chanukkah. Thanks for teaching me Krav Maga. It works wonders in the third world .
Democrats are hate-filled, morally retarded cretins. That’s not name-calling. Their hatred can be seen every day from thousands of sources. They hate deeply. And they are morally defective. Extremely defective. They lie constantly. They slander relentlessly. They embrace policies which are both immoral and stupid.
The evidence is overwhelming.
Aww. Nancy quit when she was doing such a fine job of increasing The President’s poll numbers.