The movie Mr. Smith Goes to Washington frustrates me every time I watch it. It frustrates me because Mr. Smith loses, as do his supporters. His filibuster fails and the kids trying to get the truth out via his little newspaper and the people that try to march in support are assaulted and stopped cold. Public opinion is completely against him. The power of “the people” FAILS. Truth fails. The system fails. It is only because one, corrupt, powerful man, Senator Joseph Paine, at the VERY end, suddenly has a change of heart and tries to kill himself and then shouts a confession to the whole corruption scheme that Smith is supposedly vindicated – though we never see that supposed vindication.
The people lose. The entrenched men who control the media and the message, the rich men who control the money, they defeat Smith at every turn, and the power of the truth, in the hands of people, does NOT win against them.
Donald Trump has committed high crimes and misdemeanors, and continues to do so. He has betrayed the people of the USA over and over, both legally and ethically. Citizens are taken off the streets of Portland by unidentified federal agents, his agents use chemical agents against peaceful protesters (something Sadam Hussein did to Iraqis), public lands are being given to oil companies, he is becoming richer and richer in violation of the Foreign Emoluments Clause in the USA Constitution, he ignores court rulings, and families with LEGAL immigrants live in fear of speaking out, since green cards and even citizenship has been arbitrarily canceled. Children are in cages, some die, and families are separated. He undertakes actions to benefit Russia, like ordering troops out of Germany. He coddles Nazis. He has killed people and permanently disabled people through his inaction regarding the current pandemic. And no matter how many well-researched media reports reveal his corruption, no matter how often he is investigated, no matter how many times a court rules against him, he walks away, unscathed and even more empowered. Nothing has stopped him.
Our system has failed. We are supposed to have checks and balances that prevent a President from being a dictator, from rewarding himself and his friends financially, and from our country sliding into fascism. Those checks and balances have FAILED.
And we have almost six more months of this, at least… and maybe more, if the election is canceled – you saw Trump’s tweet today, right?
Our country is in a perilous situation. It absolutely will continue to get worse. And there’s no Senator Joseph Paine that is going to have a sudden, high-profile, well-publicized change of heart and save us all.
What now?
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