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Former Secretary of Labor for Bill Clinton Robert Reich has spent decades in Washington DC and has made a lot of friends on both sides of the aisle along the way. Occasionally, he shares some of the insights he learns on his Facebook page. Sometimes these insights are amusing, sometimes they're alarming. Today's is jaw-dropping:

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Robert Reich is many things but a liar is not one of them. Even if this is not a word for word accounting of the conversation, the overall theme and gist will be accurate. This means that Republicans are seriously discussing removing Trump after the Mueller report comes out and House Democrats are forced to impeach.

Reich is correct that the base would revolt but his Republican friend is also correct that the base does not pay the bills. With all signs pointing to a recession, having the erratic and economically ignorant Trump in charge could well turn a recession into a depression (ala Herbert Hoover). If you were Wall Street and the corporate billionaires that fund the GOP, you'd want a much steadier hand on the tiller.

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The one thing I would dispute is Reich's friend's contention that their won't be a civil war because Trump's approval will collapse. I agree there won't be an actual civil war with entire states trying to separate from the Union. However, we've seen a rapid escalation of violence from the right over the last several years and a very sharp escalation in the last two.

This cannot be emphasized enough: When Trump's white nationalist base thought it was winning, they ramped up the violence because they believed this was their chance to strike back at all of the people they hate. If Trump is actually removed from office, the same people who imagined they were going to ethnically cleanse America will see their dreams go up in smoke (Mike Pence is a religious fanatic but not much of a white nationalist), and they will take up arms. It won't be a civil war but their will be an explosion (forgive the phrasing) of domestic terrorism.

Will it be worth it? Almost certainly. Reich's friend is correct that Trump is a dangerous menace and two more full years (or dog forbid, six) will incur damage we may never recover from. The best thing for the country is to remove Trump from the presidency because even though he will still spew his hate at rallies, craving the approval of the crowd like a junkie, once he can no longer enact policy, he's just another talking head and the crowd will rapidly lose interest. Trump was only ever important to his base when he could inflict pain on brown people and make liberals cry. Bereft of that power, he'll fade away and become a laughing stock just like Sarah Palin.

Robert Reich's post is just hearsay. For now. But Reich is not known for flights of fancy and we can only hope that the GOP's fear of their donors outweighs their fear of their base. If that turns out to be the case, their may finally be a light at the end of the tunnel.

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