P E R S P E C T I V E : S n i d e L i n e s
The Mad Activist Impeaches
PRESIDENT & PUBLISHER Western Culture
BY SUSIE DAY
Dear Hot-to-Impeach Congressional
Democrats,
I thought of you when
I read “Why the Ukraine
Scheme Matters,” the November 25
editorial in The New York Times. As
usual, Times syntax and grammar
are superb and the editors’ argumentation
skills fully justify the current
high tuition rates at name universities.
So, congrats, Impeacho-crats!
The Times delivered your message:
What Trump did in the Ukraine — in
his own self-interest — matters.
But I am a tired, marginal, aging,
rad-lib lesbo activist moonbat, and I
don’t care. What’s scary is, The New
York Times can sense this. I bet you
can, too.
Americans, The Times writes, now
know for sure that Donald Trump
“orchestrated a scheme”: he coerced
or quid-pro-quo’d or bribed Ukraine’s
leader — against US administration
policy — to dig up dirt on his political
opponent, so that Ukraine could
actually get the military aid that
Congress had already promised. Crucially,
Trump did this, “all for himself,
rather than in pursuit of the American
national interest.”
Here is where The Times worries
that I am not taking your impeachment
process seriously. I presumably
don’t value our Constitution or the
rule of law from which it came. I’m
distracted or glaze over at details from
impeachment hearings that “don’t
map neatly into some Americans’ idea
of wrongdoing.” My “idea of wrongdoing”?
They got that right.
See, I’ve been protesting and advocating
for human and ecological
justice — making an ass out of my
broken heart — for years. Basically,
all I want is universal dignity, equality,
and a living planet: the essence of
which you could fi nd embroidered on
a throw pillow at a PTA crafts sale.
But, although I’d love to see Trump
OUT — heaved into deep space, there
to be devoured by other killer viruses
— I really can’t follow your impeachment
proceedings. I guess I’m what
NPR commentators like to call a “civic
illiterate.” I’m too exhausted and
heartbroken to know just which of
Trump’s acts of bribery, treason, high
THE NEW YORK TIMES
The Mad Activist resists The New York Times’ effort
at teaching civic literacy.
crimes, or misdemeanors “matters.”
Like, I don’t understand why you
Democrats are so shocked that, visà
vis Ukraine, Trump placed his own
interests over those of his country,
and acted like a king, rather than an
elected offi cial. Hell, I’d be shocked if
he hadn’t. In fact, most of us here in
Mass-America, along with all three
branches of our touted democracy,
have put up with Trump acting like
King Tweet for years.
So, why have you waited, Impeachocrats?
Why didn’t you take Trump to
Subpoena-City when he was pulling
out of nuclear arms treaties or climate
accords or mutilating the Supreme
Court or gutting voting rights
or eroding queer policy protections or
implementing his anti-travel/ Muslim
ban or equating, as “very fi ne people,”
Neo-Nazis with anti-racists? Could
this possibly be because, technically,
all those things are legal?
I’ve actually done some of research,
here, to wit: the Western rule of law
grew out of the Magna Carta and the
subsequent need of England’s revolutionaries
to argue against the divine
right of kings. Over the centuries,
countless enlightened and beautifully
crafted words have been written about
civil liberties and the rule of law, a
minor example being Declaration-of-
Independence signer Samuel Adams
saying: “There shall be one rule of
Justice for the rich and the poor.” I
also visited a US Government website
on Courts — which Trump doesn’t
seem to have wrecked yet — and saw
that there are four rule-of-law principles,
one being that laws should be
“consistent with international human
rights.”
So here’s what I don’t get, Impeacho
crats. How was Trump not acting
like a king when he ordered ICE to
tear children away from their parents,
to throw innocent people — fl eeing
violence and poverty caused largely
by the US — into detention camps,
and hold them indefi nitely in lethally
wretched conditions? How are these
camps not “high crimes,” and why are
they not mentioned as examples of
“wrongdoing” in your hearings, which
we’re now supposed to take seriously?
But maybe that’s just me being
civically stupid. I know there’s some
rule-of-law explanation. Like, legally,
the president is allowed to build that
border wall and destroy non-white
immigrant lives because you fi gure
that someday a Democratic president
would want to do the same thing?
I know your congressional investigations
aren’t only about the Ukraine,
Impeacho-crats. There are also several
House committees exploring
other issues, such as Trump’s obstructing
the Mueller investigation;
his business profi ts while in offi ce;
tax returns; campaign fi nance/ hush
money; yadda yadda. But, to me,
these focus more on power, fi nance,
and bad boardroom behavior than on
liberty and justice for all.
I also recognize that your legal
strategy is basically de rigueur. Fortyfi
ve years ago, the House chose to hit
Richard Nixon with impeachment articles
concerning the Watergate breakin,
and not Nixon’s secret bombing of
Cambodia or his collusion with the
FBI to bring down SDS and the Black
Panther Party. I guess I’ll have to trust
that you are now well within correct
legal parameters.
After all, are we not all backed up
by that wise rule of law, which, for all
its enlightenment, permitted a reality
like slavery to stand for centuries as
an essential component of a good and
just society? So, what you are doing
probably makes sense. The 21st century
takeaway from this is that, legally,
genocide is not an impeachable
offense.
Good luck with this, Impeachocrats.
I had wanted something more.
I’m too tired to remember what it was.
But I hope you can see why I’m just
not that into you.
Victoria Schneps-Yunis
CEO & CO-PUBLISHER
Joshua Schneps
FOUNDING EDITOR IN-CHIEF
& ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER
Paul Schindler
editor@gaycitynews.com
DIGITAL EDITOR
Matt Tracy
matt@gaycitynews.com
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Duncan Osborne
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Donna Aceto (Photography)
Christopher Byrne (Theater)
Susie Day (Perspective)
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Kelly Jean Cogswell, Andres Duque,
Steve Erickson, Andy Humm,
Eli Jacobson, David Kennerley,
Gary M. Kramer, Arthur S. Leonard,
Michael T. Luongo, Lawrence D. Mass,
Brian McCormick, Eileen McDermott,
Mick Meenan, Tim Miller,
Donna Minkowitz, Christopher Murray,
David Noh, Sam Oglesby,
Nathan Riley, David Shengold,
Ed Sikov, Yoav Sivan, Gus Solomons Jr.,
Tim Teeman, Kathleen Warnock,
Benjamin Weinthal, Dean P. Wrzeszcz
ART DIRECTOR
Marcos Ramos
ADVERTISING
Ralph D’Onofrio
718-260-2524
rdonofrio@schnepsmedia.com
ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES
Gayle Greenberg
Andrew Mark
Jim Steele
Julio Tumbaco
Miriam Nieto
Jay Pelc
Laura Cangiano
Kathy Wenk
Jeannie Eisenhardt
Lenny Vigliotti
Elizabeth Polly
CO-FOUNDERS EMERITUS
Troy Masters
John Sutter
Please call 212-229-1890 for
advertising rates and availability.
NATIONAL DISPLAY ADVERTISING
Rivendell Media / 212.242.6863
Gay City News, The Newspaper Serving Gay, Lesbian,
Bisexual, and Transgender NYC, is published
by Schneps Media. Send all inquiries to: Gay City
News, One Metrotech North, 10th Floor, Brooklyn,
NY 11201. Phone: 212.229.1890 Written permission
of the publisher must be obtained before any of
the contents of this paper, in part or whole, can be
reproduced or redistributed.
All contents © 2019 Schneps Media
Gay City News is a registered trademark
of Schneps Media
Fax: 212-229-2790
© 2019 Schneps Media
All rights reserved.
FOUNDING MEMBER
December 5 - December 1 20 8, 2019 | GayCityNews.com
/GayCityNews.com
link
link
link
link
link
link
