The impeachment and trial of Donald Trump is aimed as much at Bernie Sanders (and, to a lesser extent, Liz Warren, though she’s rapidly falling in line with the establishment) as it is at the President, if indeed it is aimed at him at all. As is often said, the Democratic Party establishment would rather lose with Trump than win with Sanders. A New Deal Democrat poses more of a bottom line threat to the corporate establishment than the fascist Trump, and the Democratic Party represents the interests of the corporate establishment no less than the Republicans and the wicked buffoon in the White House. Trump’s letter to Nancy Pelosi is chilling and politically brilliant. He is playing to his fascist base with great effect, a relatively easy thing, because the Democrats are corrupt and feckless. Nobody knows this better than Trump supporters, and nobody knows this less than “progressives.” My dear progressive friends are so obsessed with Trump that they have lost the critical distance to observe the vile machinations and total sellout (for 30 years at least) of the Democratic Party to corporate interests.
So here we are. The senate trial will be delayed as long as possible by the Republican majority, possibly until March, and will continue through the Democratic primaries. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, instead of campaigning in these critical primary states, will be holed up in the senate, in DC, as required by law, participating in the “trial,” which will result in Trump’s acquittal, generally acknowledged to be a forgone conclusion. The Democrats, and above all, Nancy Pelosi, know this very well. Why, when there were far better reasons to begin impeachment proceedings against Trump much earlier, did the multi-millionaire Speaker of the House wait until now to pull the trigger? Trump, or whoever wrote his brilliant and evil letter, knows what’s behind this Democratic Party charade. From his letter: “Each one of your members lives in fear of a socialist primary challenger – this is what is driving impeachment.” This is his way of telling them he knows what they are really up to: you know that I know that you know…that is, the one possible challenger to the neoliberal order will be effectively hogtied during the critical moments of the Democratic primary race. In the end, of course, both parties are dead set against Sanders and the relatively minor threat he poses to the profits of their corporate paymasters.
