Withdrawal into Their Caves: How Long Can It Last?

When there is danger, the most immediate reaction is often to find a safe place. For 45, that would be first, within the White House amongst sycophants; and second, on the road with his minions, who find him both entertaining with his insults and wild, non-sensical accusations and fulfilling of their pipedreams--namely, that they have gained far more relevance than before, when the purveyor of that message couldn't care less whether they have or not.

But therein lies the real danger. More than one president has, under crisis, withdrawn into their caves to find solace. When that happens, an atrophying of the mind begins. To quote a bad Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, it's what you don't know you don't know that drives you mad.

Now that impeachment has actually taken place and all that has to happen is the settling of the trial procedure--not a small issue, as we have found--45 has resorted to even more outrageous commentary. He has not only utilized his alter ego, Stephen Miller, to poison-pen a six-page list of grievances and victimization to Nancy Pelosi on the eve of the impeachment vote, he also sent it, along with Christmas cards, to each member of the U.S. Senate. Might that represent his only actual defense? Will he bother to actually send someone to the Senate to plead his case?

Then with his mindless trashing of another dead politician, this time Michigan Rep. John Dingell, because his wife, Debbie, who occupies his former seat, did the unthinkable in turning against him in voting for impeachment when he arranged for some of the funeral procedure upon his passing--as if she "owed" him something as Mr. Transactional always assumes anyone who crosses his path does--it may have cost himself the state of Michigan in next year's election. There's a far more visceral reaction to that assigning Dingell to hell, even worse than the outcry over the disgusting insults hurled toward Sen. John McCain, also undeserved if there ever were any.

When under crisis, whether self-inflicted or not, this president lashes out instead of listens. That's been his M.O. from the get-go; counterattack, counter-punch, so they don't get the headlines for long. But now former friends are turning on him:

• John Kasich, Republican ex-governor of Ohio, has kept things close to the vest for a while, but has come out favoring impeachment. 
• Christianity Today, a publication founded by Billy Graham, has made an official break with 45 and declared that he should actually be removed from office. To summarize its statement: Yes, his opponents have been out to get him from the start; we'll give you that. But he did what he did, and that can't be tolerated. Either evangelicals push away from him, or nobody will listen to them any longer. What they're doing politically no longer matches with what they say they believe religiously. Just when they think they'll be able to cash in their chips, it'll all fall in on them. Wise up and get with the program.

There will be more. They will seep slowly into the air, like a leak in a radiator that keeps trying to build restorative pressure but can't. Whether it bursts into full-fledged outpouring of reaction in disgust is anybody's guess. 

Start watching the Senate. If as one pol suggested that 30 Republican Senators, at least, are that appalled by 45, the focus of the spotlight on them now will start to bring that forward (and to start figuring out who those 30 might be). Someone else has suggested that they will either stand solid or cave all at once. 

I think the betting's about even that either could happen. You can sit on this only so long before comments blurt out. Sources will, through staff to other staff to press, rarely in person so as not to be seen together, send out trial balloons (e.g. censure instead of conviction), whether on purpose or not (as happens so often in governmental circles). When they do, 45 and/or his people will dart around the Hill, frantically trying to divert or thwart the onrush of momentum, doubling down on insisting complete exoneration. Watch the number of times he utilizes Fox and Friends, for instance, with rambling, interruptive morning calls; it's the only place he can go with a sympathetic audience, save Hannity.

This stonewalling will be of the mind. There are lots of minds to sheath, though. Senators don't think like House members do. They don't operate with caste-like blinders. And some would like to be re-elected.

If this goes as fast as Mitch McConnell wants it to and without much comment from his side of the aisle, the country is in more trouble than even we've imagined: more firewalled, more withdrawn, more dug-into their own caves. Decorum will start to break down, almost without helping it; no pressure this intense can simply dissipate. The other side knows--they know--that this is a bad man who's making us look very, very bad. It's starting to bother them.

In their book, How Democracies Die, Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt say several times that it's those on the favoring side, not the one that opposes, who need to cross over and save democracy when it's in crisis. Republican Senators didn't ask for it, but they're exactly there now. We are at that moment. They will provide the safety net or there won't be that safe place to hide any longer.

Be well. Be careful. I'll see you down the road.

Mister Mark