While Trump is trying to discover who the whistleblower is, his quest seems irrelevant. The parade of people testifying to the House Intelligence Committee have far more firsthand information about the Ukraine controversy than the whistleblower. One would think that Trump would forget trying to get to the whistleblower. Nevertheless, Trump still voices his belief, “Like every American, I deserve to meet my accuser, especially when this accuser, the so-called Whistleblower, represented a perfect conversation with a foreign leader in a totally inaccurate and fraudulent way.”

Additionally, our paranoid president should be far more concerned about his nemesis, John Bolton, who is lurking in the wings. Bolton was Trump’s national security adviser for less than a year and a half. He was upset about Giuliani’s dealing with Ukraine. Also, Bolton had issues with Trump’s withholding military weapons in general from Ukraine.

However, before the quid pro quo issue regarding Ukraine arose, Bolton’s career started with supporting Goldwater in 1964 presidential campaign. He was also an intern for Spiro Agnew, he worked on the Iran-Contra mess, he claimed that Cuba had a biological weapons program, he wasn’t helpful to Secretary of State Colin Powell, he was a recess appointment as UN ambassador, and the list goes on and on.

Trump appointed Bolton as his national security adviser on April 9, 2018. However, Trump dissed Bolton’s issues about regime change in Iran and North Korea’s violation of the UN resolutions regarding their missile testing. By September 9, 2019, Trump fired Bolton.

In addition, Bolton has dissed many who call him a neocon (neoconservative). He would prefer being called an unmodified conservative. Okay, I’ll call him a unmodcon (unmodified conservative). Regardless, I can’t think of a single issue about which Bolton and I would agree. None. That being said, he will testify before the House Intelligence Committee this week. Therefore, one would wonder why this unmodcon would even consider testifying about the Ukraine issue.

Apparently, Bolton has some ethical feelings about doing what is morally correct. Even though he is far to the right of where I am, the one single thing upon which we agree is addressing ethical problems. That solitary issue, upon which we agree, raises the question why. Why would this unmodcon be interested in ethical issues like Trump’s unethical quid pro quo dilemma?

Bolton seems to have some concerns.

I mentioned that Bolton prefers the term, unmodified conservativism. One of Bolton’s mentors was Edmund Burke. Burke was a member of the British Parliament from 1766 to 1794. Burke was opposed to the manner that Britain was dealing with the American colonies related to issues like taxation.

Edmund Burke

Burke was attempting to get some sort of ethical or moral compass for the British government. He maintained that desire when dealing with parliament and in his life in general. For example, he supported the impeachment of Warren Hastings. And who was Warren Hastings?

Warren Hastings

Hastings was the Governor-General of India from 1774-1787. His actual title was Governor of the Presidency of Fort William and the Supreme Council of Bengal. Nonetheless, he was impeached by the House of Commons for the execution of an Indian tax collector. Burke charged Hastings with crimes and misdemeanors. When Burke read the charges or counts against Hastings, it took him two days to read them all to the House of Commons.

While Bolton and I can’t agree on a long litany of issues, we can agree upon Burke’s moral compass. Burke was a social activist in England during the 18th century. There is a trilogy of Burke’s one-liners for us in the 21st century.

“The hottest fires in hell are reserved for those who remain neutral in times of moral crisis.” Would someone please tell the republicans in the House his comment to them. The republicans in the Senate should listen to his next warning, “The Fate of good men who refuse to become involved in politics is to be ruled by evil men.” Burke final one-liner is to all of us, “Evil prevails when good men fail to act.”

Let’s hear it for Edmund Burke!

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