Joe Henderson: Joy to the World? Irony abounds in joyless Trump impeachment fight

The impeachment of President Donald Trump is happening while choirs around the country sing “Joy To The World.” That’s some big-time irony right there.

True joy is on backorder and has been throughout this process. There is nothing joyful about what’s going on in Washington. That’s true whether you love or loathe Trump.

Trump, no doubt, believes it when he says (well, bellows) that he did nothing wrong when he went full-godfather and “asked” the President of Ukraine for a little favor.

That favor, as we know, was for Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden and his son, Hunter. At stake was nearly $400 million in congressional-approved military aid. If it looks, walks, and acts like extortion, it’s extortion. You can bet if Barack Obama made that call instead of Trump, Republicans would scream for his arrest, charged with treason.

Let’s not get sidetracked, though.

I don’t know what’s worse – the act itself, or Trump going, “What? What’d I do?” He really believes he did nothing amiss. In his world, that type of transaction is a regular part of business. For him, it’s inconceivable to face global humiliation through impeachment for doing what comes naturally.

That’s the real problem here. When it comes to preserving, protecting, and defending the Constitution, Trump doesn’t know right from wrong. And he never is going to learn.

Republicans accused Democrats of wanting Trump impeached from the moment he took the oath of office. I’m sure some of them did, but it wouldn’t have happened if Trump believed all the rules apply to him, too.

A dear friend told me the other day that he believes Trump is the greatest thing to happen to America. I’ve sparred with this friend for the last three years over Trump. Every time we do, I wind up laughing, shaking my head, and saying he is hopeless.

This time it felt different, though. There was sadness in his voice, mixed with fear that it will be a catastrophe unless Trump finishes this term and gets one more. It’s almost as if he was saying that people like me don’t get it.

Well, I think I do.

The genius of Trump is that a billionaire philanderer with a checkered past convinced working people that he was all for them. He told them what they wanted to hear, even if it had no chance of happening.

He promised coal miners that he alone could return their industry to the days of yore. But Fortune magazine reported in October that the amount of coal produced by a U.S. miner is at its lowest rate in eight years. Productivity is down 11 percent this year.

“It’s highly likely there will be more layoffs,” Phil Smith, a spokesman for the United Mine Workers of America union, told Fortune. “I don’t think there’s any question.”

Industry Week reported the auto industry is slashing jobs at the highest rate since the Great Recession.

The gap between the rich and working poor in America is the highest since the U.S. Census Bureau began to track that data five decades ago.

So, um… how is any of that the greatest thing to happen to America?

But impeachment has nothing to do with that. It has everything to do with Trump’s ignorance of the rules.

It would have easy, and maybe politically prudent, for Democrats to let the Ukraine shakedown slide and bank on beating Trump next November. But after listening to arguments on both sides, it’s clear that waiting would have been a dereliction of an oath to uphold the Constitution.

That’s true, even if, speaking of dereliction, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is coordinating with the White House about strategy for the forthcoming trial. That’s odd behavior for a juror, wouldn’t you say?

So why put the nation through the exercise of impeachment? Trump won’t be removed from office.

The reason is simple. Somebody had to show this President he is accountable.

It goes with the job. No joy in this, just duty.