“Loco” or “Corrupto?” The Case for Loco.Victor J. Massad
This whole Hillary Clinton e-mail fiasco reminds me of that great movie
The Verdict starring Paul Newman. You probably remember it. The family of a woman who died on the operating table was suing the doctors and hospital for negligence, and Newman’s character Frank Galvin finally finds the smoking gun, only to have the judge in the case render it “irrelevant.” But the jury had seen the evidence, and it was damning. So Newman delivers one of the great trial closing statements in movie history. It seems to me his summation is worth looking at in these times:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o15uqb30Fq8“You know, so much of the time we're just lost. We say, "Please, God, tell us what is right. Tell us what is true.
I mean there is no justice. The rich win; the poor are powerless. We become tired of hearing people lie. And after a time we become dead, a little dead. We think of ourselves as victims -- and we become victims. We become weak; we doubt ourselves; we doubt our beliefs; we doubt our institutions; and we doubt the law.
But today you are the law. You are the law…”
I believe that at the moment James Comey decided to reopen the investigation into the Clinton e-mail scandal, America finally got its glimpse of what is true. And that truth is the very ugly reality that one of the candidates for the presidency of the United States is a traitor to this country. I need not make that case. In the coming weeks the truth will become more and more evident as the Clinton Inc. trail of corruption is exposed.
We have seen enough already to know what is there: selling access and favors to foreign governments, destroying evidence under subpoena, lying to congress and obstructing justice at every turn. Based only on what we know now from the limited evidence we the American people have been allowed to see, I don’t think anyone doubts it will all be verified in time. I also don’t think anyone believes Hillary Clinton will ever face justice for her many crimes.
There is a deeper truth in Frank Galvin’s words. The rich win. If I vote for Donald Trump in order to deny the presidency to Hillary Clinton, I doubt anything will substantially change. Trump is no more than a charlatan who has tapped into the anger and frustration of the American people in order to market himself as an “America First” populist; but everything in the man’s history demonstrates that he is not “America First” but “Trump First.”
When it came to honoring his pledges of fidelity to his spouses or indulging his basest desires, Trump chose the latter. When it came to honoring his pledges to his investors or leaving them out in the cold and cutting and running, Trump chose the latter. Donald Trump is clearly a self-absorbed narcissist who by no stretch of the imagination deserves to be President of the United States.
If Trump wins the presidency, I imagine he will redecorate the White House to look like some outlandish New Orleans brothel. He will hold lavish parties, and all the Washington elite (including the Obamas and the Clintons) will attend, and they will pay due homage to the newly-crowned emperor, and they will marvel at his abilities, and laugh at the yahoos in flyover country who bought his snake oil.
I believe all of this to be true. And yet, come Tuesday I will cast the worst vote of my life. I will vote for Donald Trump for president. And I will do so for one reason and one reason only. When I am alone in that voting booth I will close my eyes, wish I had another choice, and then utter to myself the only words that will matter.
“Today I am the law.”
