Thirty years ago, and not long after I got into reading vigorously, I bought a book entitled, "The Art of the Deal." A biography by Donald Trump. Which turned out to be neither a biography in the sense that a life was not nearly fully lived yet so it didn't measure up to the traditional notion of biography, nor was it written by Donald Trump.
I lost interest in Donald Trump after a run of bankruptcies and ugly divorces, but not before I bought his board game, "The Art of the Deal." That was 25 years ago, but though I say I lost interest in the man, I continued a casual continuation of following his escapades.
After Donald Trump won the Presidency, I read "The Big Agenda" which is billed as "Trump's Plan to Save America." Unfortunately it was neither a big agenda, nor can I say that it has much to do with a plan to save America, unless you really buy into that kooky and paranoid world of conservative talk radio, but it is a small book, and more of a polemic by David Horowitz than an agenda.
If like me, you've read both of the above books, maybe like me, you'd be interested to know about another little book titled, "The Case for Impeachment" by Allan J. Lichtman.
Like the previous two books, this too has a title barely suited to the contents it provides. Although Lichtman's book does provide a learned opinion and well documented narrative on how an impeachment of Donald Trump could very well come to pass, a more suited title to this book would be, "Donald Trump, a Biography" for it really does more to tell the reader who Trump is via his own lived life, than the biography from the 1980s. I thought I had a notion of who Trump was, as a man, by just reading the papers and reports I came across, gosh was I wrong -- he is so much worse than my imagination.
"The Case for Impeachment" is 290 pages long, with 50 pages of notes. I thought of counting all the instances of Trumps life that the author thought could imperil his presidency with impeachment, but I thought it nearly impossible to discern how many victims of fraud there are out there, or how many instances of Trump speak enabled Donald to slide through litigation. Even more significant, as both the book and my tally would necessarily end on the specific date of print, every new day Trump has an opportunity to inflate the tally some more.
I would be remiss to not point out that it is his wealth that enables him to commit so many questionable activities, I dare say anyone I reach with this column has no chance to repeat offending like Donald Trump before landing in jail....
Making it this far into my polemic might mean, like me, you value information over bull shit. It seems to me that reading 240 pages about a topic that is destined to be a big issue is a very minor investment.
I've heard from self titled constitutionalists, populists, conservatives, liberals, and I read my share of memes, articles, and comments, but I'll consider my time spent inside this small book as more valuable if the events around the President spiral toward his impeachment -- I'll have a better understanding why.
Hours invested in talk radio isn't going to match the 240 pages here, and hysterical claims of "fake news" or reactionary echos of Trump himself only serve to diminish one's esteem to lend it to a man who neither deserves it or values it.
Read the book -- its Trump's real life story, unlike the "Art of the Deal" and its exposes a real liberal agenda, unlike "The Big Agenda."
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