Ponder for a moment, this headline from Politico today:
"GOP Wagers Americans Don't Care About Trump's Conflicts"
That's quite the wager in a sea of wagers the Republican Party seems wiling to make in their post-reality Trump existence.
Unfortunately for them, the polls say they're wrong. Americans very much care about Trump's obvious conflicts of interest as he prepares to enter the (oh, I shudder to write this) White House. Yet the GOP plan to keep playing their "the American people say" game as if saying it will make it so. After all, they've played it for years. Those same Americans who they claim "don't care" that Trump will turn the country into his own personal ATM as he fills his pockets with their tax dollars and pushes policies that serve only to enrich him and his family, also "don't want" health care, clean water and air, nor do they really care to vote, among other things. Oddly, "the American people" just love Republican policies that hurt them. That's why more than two million more of them voted for Hillary Clinton instead of Donald Trump and why Democrats picked up seats in this election.
But I digress.
Getting back to that claim, why on earth would the American people not care about Trump's conflicts of interest? After all, wasn't it in part that he won after perpetuating and running on Hillary Clinton's myriad imaginary conflicts of interest? I believe "Crooked Hillary" was the moniker he used while encouraging chants to "lock her up" at his rallies. In fact, he was still at it last week.
Part of his shtick was falsely claiming the Clinton Foundation, which is actually a charitable foundation, unlike the Trump Foundation, was a scandalous conflict of interest that Hillary Clinton used to enrich herself. It wasn't anything of the sort, but his argument only served to point out that everything he says is projection.
Another argument Trump made (an idea he got from Bernie Sanders, and thanks for that too, Bernie!) was that Hillary Clinton was a puppet of Goldman Sachs and Wall Street because she visited them on the public speaking circuit. According to Bernie and Trump, we were to believe that because she made a speech at Goldman Sachs once, she would be at their beck and call were she to become President. "Drain the swamp!" Trump bleated during his ego booster rallies. Yet we Americans are now told by the Republicans that we really don't care that Trump is filling rather than draining the swamp as he stocks his future Administration with Goldman Sachs and Wall Street executives, some of the very same people who caused the economic crisis in 2008?
Yes, Republicans think you're stupid.
And speaking of creatures of the swamp, ponder also what one Newton Leroy Gingrich had to say in that Politico article:
“In a pre-Trump world dominated by left-wing ideas, anyone successful is inherently dangerous and should be punished for trying to serve the country.… I’d say to the left wing, get over it.”
More projection from Newt. "Get over it," he says, after he and his party demonized Hillary Clinton for being successful in her political career on behalf of the people who aren't millionaires and billionaires and subsequently lacking a voice in our ever eroding democracy, and who was therefore dangerous, and should be punished for trying to continue to serve her country. But Newton the professional grifter would very much like you to get over the fact that a man whose middle name is "bankruptcy" will be running the country like one of his failing businesses, and that every American will now be tantamount to a Trump University victim.
Last but not least in our chain of hypocrisy, we have GOP Rep. Jason Chaffetz, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, the man who made Hillary Clinton witch hunts his primary concern both before, and after what he thought would be her election as POTUS. Suddenly, his interest in oversight has evaporated:
Trump has argued he’s not legally required as president to deal with his conflicts, and Chaffetz repeated that assessment. “There are public perceptions that I’m sure they’re keenly aware of,” he said.
Trump’s feet will be held to the fire should his business interests become a problem, Chaffetz promised. But he also argued Democrats were going overboard by flogging an issue that remains in the theoretical.
“It is a little ridiculous to send me six letters before he’s even been sworn in to go on, essentially, fishing trips,” he said. “That’s not what we do.”
Legal requirements aside, there are Constitutional requirements involved, something else Chaffetz and Republicans claimed to hold in high regard, but as Trump prepares to set the Constitution on fire, apparently the Chairman of the Oversight Committee will now simply provide him with the gasoline and matches.
As for fishing trips not being "what we do," let's revisit what Chaffetz said back in October about investigating Hillary Clinton when he thought she was about to win:
The election is 12 days away but Republicans are already promising years of investigations and blocked nominees if Hillary Clinton wins.Rep. Jason Chaffetz, the Utah Republican who chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, says he has lined up enough material from Clinton's four years as secretary of state for two years of probes."It's a target-rich environment," Chaffetz told The Washington Post. "Even before we get to Day One, we've got two years' worth of material already lined up. She has four years of history at the State Department, and it ain't good."
"I will when there is an allegation of wrongdoing. But he hasn't even been sworn in yet," Chaffetz said Thursday in an interview. "At least let the guy actually become a federal employee before you start screaming for investigations."