Dear Progressive Reader,
The impeachment trial of Donald Trump continues in the United States Senate. As of yet, there does not seem to have been any divergence from party positions by either Democrats or Republicans. In an interesting historical coincidence, the proceedings began at almost exactly the same moment as, thirty-nine years earlier, U.S. hostages from the embassy in Tehran, Iran were released. Many have long believed that this was the result of actions taken by the campaign of presidential candidate Ronald Reagan to secure the White House by defeating President Jimmy Carter through a secret deal to delay the release of these hostages. New evidence for this view surfaced last month when a trove of documents from Republican activist Joseph V. Reed Jr., the chief of staff to Chase Bank president David Rockefeller, was made public.
According to the documents, Reed, on Rockefeller’s behalf, worked with Henry Kissinger, former CIA director Richard Helms, and others, to support the former Shah of Iran, and eventually bring him to the United States. The New York Times reported on December 29, “The Chase team helped the Reagan campaign gather and spread rumors about possible payoffs [by then-President Carter] to win the release, a propaganda effort that Carter administration officials have said impeded talks to free the captives.” As a reward, Reed was later made Reagan’s ambassador to Morocco. According to Gary Sick, a former Carter Administration official, the activities of the Reagan campaign to get assistance from a foreign government to win the election went much deeper. “[I]t implies a willingness to pursue private, high-risk foreign policy adventures out of sight of the electorate,” wrote Sick in an April 1991 Times op-ed. “That may be realpolitik. Its practitioners may indeed win big. But it is profoundly antidemocratic.”
Today in the Senate, the case against impeachment is being presented by Trump’s lawyers. As cartoonist Mark Fiore illustrates, allegiance to Trump is a key qualification for that team. It is, of course, highly unlikely that Trump will be called as a witness in his own defense, but Bill Blum offers the reasons that he should be called. “It’s time to hold Donald John Trump to account in the most aggressive manner permitted by law,” he writes. This is echoed by Debra Gore-Mann, who writes in an op-ed for our Progressive Media Project this week, “It is time to hold the president accountable.” The whole process has been a lesson in civics and history for many people in this country. In an interview following the release of his January 2017 book on the Trump campaign, journalist Matt Taibbi told me, “Americans have had the luxury of not having to think about politics for so long because our system worked relatively well without having to be paid attention to. But now, with Trump in office, we actually have to worry and pay attention and fight, and it’s a scary time.”
Also this week, Ed Rampell gives a preview of the Academy Awards, noting “The Motion Picture Academy has come under attack again for the lack of diversity in its annual Oscar nominations. . . . To make matters worse, the ninety-second Academy Awards are also overlooking most of the year’s progressive pictures.” Michelle Chen reports on efforts by Honduran workers to organize a union. And Kevin Powell remembers the legacy of the advocacy of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. for economic equality (a story also beautifully chronicled in a recent book by French cultural historian Sylvie Laurent). “We cannot continue to ignore King’s appeal to challenge economic justice and economic opportunity for all in our America,” Powell writes. “We must figure out practical solutions to address poverty, to address homelessness, or we will continue to be a nation that is spiraling dangerously out of control, morally and spiritually.”
Keep reading, and we will keep bringing you important articles on these and other issues of our time. And, for the new year, don’t forget to click here to order your 2020 Hidden History of the United States calendar from The Progressive!
Sincerely,
Norman Stockwell
Publisher
P.S. – Thank you so much to everyone who generously contributed to The Progressive in 2019. We truly could not keep doing this work without your support! 2020 promises to be a busy year with many new opportunities. We look forward to traveling that road together with you, our readers and supporters, as we move forward in this new year.
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