Let The Retrospectives Begin!

Between now and New Years Day, expect to be inundated by looks back at 2017 -- a.k.a., the anno horriblis.  Let's take a look at retrospectives from a few of our favorites. (As always, please go to the links for the full horriblis.)

Eugene Robinson on the biggest villains and what needs to be done:

We knew that Trump was narcissistic and shallow, but on Inauguration Day it was possible to at least hope he was self-aware enough to understand the weight that now rested on his shoulders, and perhaps grow into the job. He did not. If anything, he has gotten worse. [snip] 

The president’s Republican allies in Congress, who have the power to restrain an out-of-control executive, have rolled over in passive submission. Many see clearly Trump’s unfitness but continue to support him because they fear the wrath of his hardcore base and see the chance to enact a conservative agenda. History will remember this craven opportunism and judge it harshly. [snip] 

So Godspeed to the Mueller investigation, but let him worry about that. The rest of us — Democrats, independents, patriotic Republicans — should work toward the November election. Our duty is to elect a Congress that will bring this runaway train under control.

Paul Krugman sounds a similar note:

Donald Trump has been every bit as horrible as one might have expected; he continues, day after day, to prove himself utterly unfit for office, morally and intellectually. And the Republican Party — including so-called moderates — turns out, if anything, to be even worse than one might have expected. At this point it’s evidently composed entirely of cynical apparatchiks, willing to sell out every principle — and every shred of their own dignity — as long as their donors get big tax cuts. 

Meanwhile, conservative media have given up even the pretense of doing real reporting, and become blatant organs of ruling-party propaganda. [snip]

Let’s be clear: America as we know it is still in mortal danger. Republicans still control all the levers of federal power, and never in the course of our nation’s history have we been ruled by people less trustworthy. [snip]

.. we can’t count on the consciences of Republicans to protect us. In particular, we need to be realistic about the likely results of Robert Mueller’s investigation. The best bet is that no matter what Mueller finds, no matter how damning and no matter what Trump does — even if it involves blatant obstruction of justice — Republican majorities in Congress will back up their president and continue to sing his praises. 

In other words, as long as Republicans control Congress, constitutional checks and balances are effectively a dead letter. 

So it’s going to be up to the American people. They may once again have to make themselves heard in the streets. They’ll certainly have to make their weight felt at the ballot box. 

The Salt Lake Tribune looks at one of the Senate's worst as its "Man of the Year:" The reasons for giving Sen. Orrin "Nut" Hatch that title?

o  Hatch’s part in the dramatic dismantling of the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments. 

o  His role as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee in passing a major overhaul of the nation’s tax code. 

o  His utter lack of integrity that rises from his unquenchable thirst for power. [snip]

... Over the years, Hatch stared down a generation or two of highly qualified political leaders who were fully qualified to take his place, Hatch is now moving to run for another term — it would be his eighth — in the Senate. Once again, Hatch has moved to freeze the field to make it nigh unto impossible for any number of would-be senators to so much as mount a credible challenge. That’s not only not fair to all of those who were passed over. It is basically a theft from the Utah electorate. 

It would be good for Utah if Hatch, having finally caught the Great White Whale of tax reform, were to call it a career. If he doesn’t, the voters should end it for him. 

Voters should end a lot of Republican weasels' careers next November.