United we stand, divided we fall.
I don’t think I’ve ever felt like I want to be so wrong about anything than I am about the New York campaign finance fraud case involving Trump. It feels like 2016 all over again when I knew he was going to win over Clinton. After listening to the news about the trial, and the witnesses, and the cross-examinations, I believe the verdict in this case is going to be not-guilty.
No matter the evidence provided by David Pecker, who openly talked about how his gossip rag colluded with Trump to keep harmful stories off the front page for candidate Trump. Catch and kill is not necessarily a phrase I would have ever associated with the print industry, but here we are. Pecker was forthright in what he and his company did for Trump because they wanted to do no harm in order for Trump to be elected president. All knew the stories would have, most likely, ended Trump’s political career and all of the turmoil it has wrought on our great nation.
No matter the evidence provided by Stormy Daniels, whose emotional telling of her trauma humanized her in a way we’ve not seen so far. Admittedly she had many TMI (too much information) moments during her first day of testimony worthy only in a tabloid. However, she did better the second day under cross-examination, being very clear that she was not sexually assaulted as many were inferring. She was more so the victim of her lack of confidence and in some ways her naivety of being a twenty-something-year-old.
No matter the evidence provided by Hope Hicks, one of Trump’s inner circle as a candidate and then president. What was telling from her was the fact Trump wasn’t worried about what his wife might think of the affair, but how it would affect his campaign as Election Day loomed before him.
No matter the evidence provided by the mundane of the witnesses, Rhona Graff, Keith Davidson, Gary Farro, or Jeffrey McConney, all who worked within the sphere of the Trump organization. Each of them presented evidence of how the scheme was implemented to reimburse Michael Cohen for his payment to Daniel’s to keep quiet about her one-time tryst with Trump. Even with the testimony of these people confirming the involvement of Allen Weisselberg, who is currently serving time rather than turning state’s evidence against Trump, and how meticulously records were kept of the repayment to Cohen.
No matter the evidence provided by Michael Cohen himself about how this entire hush money cover-up scheme worked. Someone with first hand knowledge of the situation and acknowledged fixer for Trump. Even though Cohen is, of course, not the best witness since he has served time already for lying to Congress, he was intimately involved and has been quite vocal about how the plan played out.
The mundane players presented very mundane evidence. Nothing about their testimony was salacious, being they are the paper pushers around Trump. To me though, their testimony, and to some degree Daniels and Hicks’ testimonies gave the most credence to the case. Pecker added a lot of context. Cohen, well, he may very well be the key to a not-guilty verdict. Over the past few years Cohen has tried to redeem himself. However, his past bad behavior and overall demeanor does not make him feel like a trustworthy witness. What he said under questioning and cross-examination makes him look like a sleazy lawyer.
The question will be, what did the jury see? How are they processing the evidence? How did they experience the testimony and court proceedings? It only takes one, a single one, to cause a hung jury or to convince all the others that the context of beyond a reasonable doubt has been met. Are they sophisticated enough to understand the nuances of the case? Will they be star struck by the mere presence of a former president and reality star? Will one be such a maga-ite they can’t see the clay feet of their hero? Will they be brave enough to keep the fear of what might happen to them if they convict, when Trump no longer is under a gag order, or by what his sycophants have been doing and saying already?
For this case in particular, the evidence is not the only thing the jurors are contemplating. If they have been paying even the most minute of attention, they know what the Trumpist’s do to people who don’t fall in line with them. If they haven’t swallowed the kool-aid, then it’s like a Jim Jones moment in which one is forced to endure the consequences.
All of this boils down to the fact that no one entity or case is going to save the country from the Trumpist’s. There is really only one way, and that one way is almost like rolling the proverbial boulder up the mountain—a huge challenge that may seem nigh on impossible to accomplish.
In sounding like a broken record, the only way the Trumpist’s, and those silently complicit, will be held accountable is to show up at the ballot box and vote every last one of the Trumpist politicians out. Kick them to the curb. Boot them out. Force them into retirement from politics and slink off to contemplate the error of their ways.
Together we can make this happen. But you’ve got to VOTE! Not think about it. Not do it if its convenient. Not stay away because these Trumpist’s have made it difficult to vote. Not vote because you are mad at Biden for not being perfect. Not just plan on voting. You MUST actually get to the polls and cast your VOTE!
It’s as simple and as complicated as that.
As always, I invite you to join me in this fight for our republic, for our democracy, by voting for Democrats up and down the ballot.
Remember Patrick Henry’s famous words from 1799, which still rings true today, “United we stand, divided we fall. Let us not split into factions which must destroy that union upon which our existence hangs.”
Personal Reflections of a Middle-Aged Man 