Unbridled hypocrisy

Let us assume that US president Donald Trump did call his Ukrainian counterpart and virtually held him over the pickle barrel if he refused to initiate a probe into Joe Biden's son who Trump suspects of corruption while serving on the board of a Ukrainian company. Biden, a former US vice president, is a leading Democratic challenger to Trump in 2020. Does that then constitute an impeachable offense that the Democrat-led House is now initiating?

Democrats and other Trump bashers point to this alleged incident as the second time Trump allowed a foreign country to help influence American elections. The first was in 2016 when Trump allegedly benefitted from Russian-sponsored political ads placed in American media. Does that also help nail Trump to an impeachment cross?

Unless one is an unbridled hypocrite, neither act, even if perpetuated by or in conjunction with foreign leaders or governments, would constitute a real impeachable offense. Before everything became clear, I thought at first that the noise about Russian meddling in US elections in 2016 was about tampering with the results. That would have made Russian president Vladimir Putin a very bad, bad boy.

But nothing of the sort happened. All that Russia did was take out ads in the US media. Now the media is one great American institution whose exercise of various freedoms is the subject of very stringent constitutional guarantees. What is wrong with Russia using a great American tradition to help put a friendlier leader at the White House? Would Americans rather that Russia did actually tamper with the results, which it could if it wanted?

Russia did nothing wrong there. It merely tapped into what was there, what was openly available all the time to everyone. Had the ads been about Russian toothpaste, Americans would have applauded the investment. Only the Democrats, Liberals, and other Trump bashers like CNN who continue to bristle at how they got it so horribly wrong in 2016 would see wrong where there is none.

As to the second incident allegedly involving a call to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, again what is wrong with calling another world leader to ask for help in an investigation? That is what world leaders do. If apple pickers in Washington call their folks in Guatemala, why cannot presidents? And if a call is to ask for help, isn't that just great?

Between a call for help and a call to proceed with a murder, I would rather have the former anytime. By the way, speaking of murder, Americans should not be so onion-skinned about political games. For all their belly-aching, America is the number one intervener in global politics and elections. It wheedles, squeezes, dictates. It mounts coups, it assassinates. And it cries over ads or calls for help in an investigation? What unbridled hypocrites.

Okay, Trump will benefit if corruption allegations against Biden's son are investigated. So what? Will it benefit him enough to win reelection? I do not think so. Trump needs more than Biden's son's misfortunes to win another term. On the other hand, would Americans rather look the other way and let the allegations pass lest they benefit Trump? How low America has sunk. No wonder Trump vs. Biden is like instant noodles vs. instant pablum.