Mueller report offers Democrats pivot opportunity

By Robert Meyer

Now that the Mueller report has been released, and it revealed exactly the verdict that was expected for months, we have to make an analysis of how we go forward. Mueller indicated that while there was no evidence of either collusion nor conclusive obstruction of justice, he suggested that the report didn't entirely exonerate Trump either. Of course, this is dangling a carrot out in front of democrat ideologues, who need something to seize and pivot off of. Mueller's apparent ambivalence here is a text book example of much to do about nothing. Mueller could have been investigating me and made the same remarks.

In every trial where someone is accused of a crime, they are adjudicated either to be "guilty" or "not guilty." There is no declaration of "innocent," since that would require omniscience to determine. Likewise, to suggest that Trump was not entirely exonerated goes beyond the preview of what investigators determine.

For the past two years evangelical Christians, who supported Trump in large numbers, were relentlessly questioned regarding how they could justify support for him despite his moral deficits and belligerent behavior. In a turning of the tables, it seems equally reasonable to ask what moral repercussions should accrue to the media and the left-wing political movement for deceiving people into thinking that a finding of collusion with the Russians and/or obstruction of justice against the Trump administration was a slam dunk. Too few people are asking that question.

In the realm of urban legend, when polls are taken regarding the least credible occupations, used car salesmen were often found to be prominent on the list. For much of my adult life, media journalists have occupied a descending status on the credibility ledger My current observation is that placing them on the rung with used car salespersons is an insult to people making their living selling used cars.

For the past two years, I have been involved in dialogues with people who swore up and down that each new development in the ongoing investigation was going to bring Trump down. It always appeared to me that they were slaves captivated by hatred for Trump, rather than truth seekers. An old bromide suggest that..."When people come to see snakes, but none appear, they will claim to have seen them anyway." This describes the people in denial that now demand to see the full Mueller report. When that proves useless to their narrative , they will move the goal posts yet again.

I was equally certain that the Trump-haters would be proven wrong. I had sources of information that the investigation was entirely politically motivated, concocted to defame Trump. I take claims and counterclaims with a grain of salt. What convinced me that Trump was not guilty of these allegations, was the way the investigation fit in with all the other things that happened right after the election in an effort to discredit Trump.

The late senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan suggested that each person is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own set of facts. But today we live in a post rational world where all facts get reinterpreted in order to fit with a ideology or narrative. Democrats who are either surprised or upset with the outcome of this investigation should blame the media and political pundits who mislead them, rather than doubling down on their vitriol toward Trump.

Of course democrats in congress and their constituents aren't going to accept this result because it doesn't fit their narrative or fulfill their objectives, but I suspect that further investigation will cost them political capital. By March 18th , some polls showed that people were growing more cynical of Mueller's investigation, with about half of Americans agreeing with Trump's contention that the investigation has become, or always was, a witch hunt. Further investigations against Trump would be essentially flogging a dead horse. One begins to see the relentless threats of investigation much the same way as the gold medal basketball game between the U.S.A. and U.S.S.R. in the 1972 Olympic games. They get however many opportunities are necessary to achieve the desired outcome. Democrats will automatically get 40% of the next presidential vote, even if they were to run Donald Duck for president. What they will lose is more independents who grow weary of the nonsense.

If any investigation needs to happen, it should be directed at discovering exactly what rationale served as justification for triggering this series of events to begin with. Fortunately Senator Lindsey Graham is pursuing that angle.

Some suggest that if the best thing we can say about this investigation, is that the president wasn't a traitor, we have problems.

Don't we have a real problem already when we've got a media and political movement, that for two years insisted that the "smoking gun was in the bushes right around the corner," yet there never was a smoking gun?

It reminds me of the old test to discover a witch. Hang a millstone around the neck of the accused and throw her in the pond. If she comes back up she was definitely a witch.

So for the people who ask the question about why so many people supported Trump, I submit the following question. Suppose we go through a series of investigations, but come up with nothing. What does it then say about all the people, including our news media, that told us otherwise for the past two years? And these people influence public perception and vote. Scary consideration.

© Robert Meyer