Distraction Faction 
By Hank Silverberg

Is your head spinning as you try to keep up with all the accusations against Donald Trump? Special Counsel Robert Mueller has been investigating for over a year and has not yet issued his final report,  but 33 people and three companies have been indicted and/or convicted from the investigation. And a second investigation by the U.S. Attorney in New York has netted more, including Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen. Yet, "Individual #1,"  as Mr. Trump is referred to in some 

court papers, has yet to be charged with anything. Constitutional scholars keep saying that a sitting president can’t be indicted, so we are told the only way to  remove Mr. Trump from office before the 2020 election would be Impeachment. 

Impeachment proceedings have been used three times before in U.S. history. Andrew Johnson escaped removal in 1868 by Senators who were not happy with his Reconstruction programs and the firing of the Secretary of War. He was acquitted with the tally falling just one vote short of the two-thirds needed in the Senate to remove him.  Richard Nixon resigned in 1974 during the Watergate affair, after a committee of the House of Representatives voted on Articles of Impeachment, but before it ever reached the  Senate for  trial stage. And Bill Clinton was also acquitted in a Senate trial after he was accused of lying to Congress about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky. 

Note that both Johnson and Clinton served out their terms. Nixon, always good at vote counting, resigned because he knew he did not have the votes to survive a Senate trial. Both Nixon and Clinton were in their second terms when the impeachment proceedings began.

In the Johnson case the House and Senate were both controlled by Johnson's republican party. Such is not the case now, with Democrats taking control of the House in January. But the Senate remains in GOP control.

There is no cohesion within the GOP. The Democrats may be just as fractured. House Democrats are talking about another investigation of Mr. Trump when they convene early in 2019. Senate Republicans want to revisit the 2016 investigation of Hillary Clinton’s email. 

And all this plays out with the 2020 Presidential election cycle approaching fast. A poll done this week in Iowa, the site of those infamous, early caucuses, included 12 potential Democratic candidates. Most of them are familiar names with old ideas, or people we have never heard of with no hard core political co hones.

So all this has me wondering what, if anything will not get done in the next year. 

We need an estimated 500 billion dollars to fix our crumbling roads and bridges. Health Care remains the number one issue for the public and now Obamacare faces yet another challenge in the now more conservative leaning U.S. Supreme Court.

Congress can’t even get its' act together to keep the government running with another potential money wasting,  gut wrenching government shutdown looming.

Mr. Trump seems fixated on the allegations against him while unable to work with anyone within his ever-changing inner circle. Almost everything at the White House seems to be dysfunctional except @realDonaldTrump 's Twitter account.   

The man who claims to be a master at the art of the deal can’t seem to close one. His only major accomplishment, the trade agreement with Canada and Mexico, is really just a long needed update for NAFTA under a different name. His much touted deal with North Korea over nuclear weapons was all talk with no real tactical change in that country's nuclear capability, or improved diplomatic relations. And the tax cut? The jury is still out on that. 

During Mr. Trump’s term so far, the only real winner has been Vladamir Putin, who has taken over Crimea, destabilized Ukraine and continues to sponsor hackers to disrupt U.S. politics.

While we were all talking about porn stars and crooked lawyers, the Social Security Trust Fund remains unsustainable, climate change goes unchecked, our immigration system continues to fail, the Saudis murder journalists, and China continues to build its economy while stifling ours. 

All of this is really not about Democrats, Republicans, liberal or conservatives. It’s about leadership. America does not seem to have leaders anymore. 

(Pictures courtesy of the National Archives.) 

We need a  trust-buster like Teddy Roosevelt to stand up to the Koch brothers, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos.  We need someone like Franklin Roosevelt to come up with new ideas to deal with poverty and economic crises. We need a John Kennedy to inspire us to public service and global leadership, or even a Lyndon Johnson to bully both sides of Congress to take action. The trouble is, I see no one in the public eye now, of any political ilk, who can take on that leadership role. And if someone doesn’t step forward soon, the problems we have now may seem trivial in the future.  

(Your comments and suggestions are welcome. See comment section below.) 

(My book can be ordered at Amazon.com, BN.com or hanksilverbergbooks.com. Or email me at HankSilverberg@gmail.com for instructions on how to get a signed copy at a reduced price)