O’Donnell Loses It: U.S. Civilization Is in ‘Decline’ Due to Trump; Constitution Will Save Us!

November 11th, 2016 12:19 PM

Just when you thought MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell was finished on Wednesday night in fawning over President Barack Obama as “the most noble man” to ever be President (above supposedly genocidal racists George Washington), the Last Word host was just getting started as he charted Election Day as the moment marking a decline in American civilization thanks to Donald Trump’s election.

Even then, O’Donnell hadn’t completed his epic meltdown as he lamented at the idea that America’s college students and children were somehow uniformly upset with Trump winning and cried late into the night but should be hopeful that Senate Democrats will be firm obstructionists in stopping Trump and the Republicans.

“For 240 years, American government and American civilization has been steadily moving up, slowly but surely improving, rising higher and higher and higher and then last night, we turned down. That's what you're feeling. That's what the decline of a civilization feels like. The question tonight is how long will we decline,” O’Donnell wondered.

Making evident his pipe dreams that ultra-liberal heroes Elizabeth Warren and/or Kamala Harris would stop Trump in2020, O’Donnell resurrected a line of thought from early Wednesday morning not long after Trump was declared President-elect about much of America crying themselves to sleep:

Millions of people, men, women, and children who are feeling this decline of the civilization have been crying over these last 24 hours. That's how the big watch party Wellesley College ended last night, in tears. Wellesley is the women college that Hillary Clinton graduated from in....Imagine the enormity of that disappointment and that wasn't the only college campus where tears were shed. It was happening on campuses all across the country[.]

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The pathetic meltdown was only getting started as he added that not only were college students almost uniformly in tears, but young children were as well because they were “watching their first election night with high hopes for Hillary Clinton” but were left “wiping away tears when they to bed last night.”

Moving to what these poor wallflowers should do going forward, O’Donnell redeployed his Ferris Wheel analogy by predicting that it “will go back up thanks to the Constitution” and things like law-making power being given not to the president but to Congress and the advise and consent power of the Senate (i.e. things liberals haven’t been all that concerned about in the last eight years).

He also made sure viewers came away with the impression that obstructionism would be the way forward as he stated with glee that incoming-Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer “is already well-schooled the obstructionist parliamentary tools that have been very deliberately granted to the minority in the Senate to slow things down, to stop the ruling party from getting carried away.”

O’Donnell’s nearly-15-minute meltdown was capped off on a truly absurd note as he claimed that it will be Senate Democrats who will save American civilization from Trump and the Republican Party:

If Paul Ryan's House of Representatives gets carried away with any of Donald Trump’s crazier ideas, Senate Democrats will be able to make most of those things disappear, using the filibuster rules of the senate. Sanity in Washington and to some extent the world is now up to the United States Senate. The Democratic minority in the United States Senate. They now have the most difficult job to do that any senators ever have to do. They are the only people who can save the country from rampant, out-of-control Trumpism. The Trump presidency will have its victories, but all, all of its defeats will be at the hands of the Democrats in the United States Senate.

The relevant portions of the transcript from MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell on November 9 can be found below.

MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell
November 9, 2016
10:07 p.m. Eastern

LAWRENCE O’DONNELL: For 240 years, American government and American civilization has been steadily moving up, slowly but surely improving, rising higher and higher and higher and then last night, we turned down. That's what you're feeling. That's what the decline of a civilization feels like. The question tonight is how long will we decline? When will the Ferris Wheel go back up? Will Senator Elizabeth Warren crush President Donald Trump in his reelection campaign four years from now? Will California's new Senator Kamala Harris do that? How long is this ride? Four years? Eight years? Millions of people, men, women, and children who are feeling this decline of the civilization have been crying over these last 24 hours. That's how the big watch party Wellesley College ended last night, in tears. Wellesley is the women college that Hillary Clinton graduated from in 1969. Students and alumni from around the world gathered at Wellesley last night to watch a distinguished Wellesley graduate give her first speech as president-elect, the first woman to deliver a speech. Imagine the enormity of that disappointment and that wasn't the only college campus where tears were shed. It was happening on campuses all across the country and little boys and little girls around the country watching their first election night with high hopes for Hillary Clinton were wiping away tears when they to bed last night. The kids whose parents don't have legal documentation to be in this country worried about what would happen to them and would happen to their parents. 

Millions of families in this country are living with that fear tonight. Will they be arrested? Will they be deported? Will their children lose their parents. And then there is the stench of the Trumpian vulgarity in the air now. Half the country is reeling under the hard to accept realization that they're going be hearing that voice every day for four years. That voice that so often fails in attempts to speak simple English. That voice we've all heard lying. That voice we've all heard bragging about his favorite methods of sexual assault. In what kind of society, in what kind of civilization can that be the voice of the president? But millions of people love that voice. Millions of American women love that voice. Voted for that voice. Millions of Americans are thrilled about this election. Millions think it's funny and even more think it doesn't matter. 46.9 percent of eligible voters did not vote. 25.6 percent of eligible voters voted for Hillary Clinton. 25.5 percent eligible voted for Donald Trump. So the biggest category of voters were the ones who didn't care whether Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump became the next president. That's the way it is in the decline of the civilization. Some people don't care. Some people can feel what's happening and others can't. Others feel the opposite. They celebrate what is happening. Every declining civilization has had their cheerleaders on their way down. 

(....)

10:11 p.m. Eastern

O’DONNELL: This Ferris Wheel will go back up thanks to the Constitution. No other civilization in decline has ever had the United States Constitution to save it, to turn it around, to send it back up. The Constitution gives the president a fixed four-year term. The Constitution gives all of the real governing powers not to the president, but to the Congress. The only absolute power the president has is the power to grant pardons. That’s it. The Congress ca control everything else. Everything else. The Senate controls all of the president's important appointments to the cabinet and the courts, to the Senate confirmation process and the Democrats in the Senate will have two more senators next year than they have this year. New York Senator Chuck Schumer will take over from Harry Reid as Senate Minority Leader. Senator Schumer is already well-schooled the obstructionist parliamentary tools that have been very deliberately granted to the minority in the Senate to slow things down, to stop the ruling party from getting carried away. If Paul Ryan's House of Representatives gets carried away with any of Donald Trump’s crazier ideas, Senate Democrats will be able to make most of those things disappear., using the filibuster rules of the senate. Sanity in Washington and to some extent the world is now up to the United States Senate. The Democratic minority in the United States Senate. They now have the most difficult job to do that any senators have ever to do. They are the only people who can save the country from rampant, out-of-control Trumpism. The Trump presidency will have its victories, but all, all of its defeats will be at the hands of the Democrats in the United States Senate.