Hillary, Donald, and the Stanley Crouch Flip Test

The first time I heard Stanley Crouch explain the Flip Test, was during the O.J. Simpson murder trial.

Flip it around, said Stanley. If you flip it around, and you still like the outcome, you are operating from a position of honest integrity.

What if Woody Allen were accused of murdering Mia Farrow and a friend, and the cop who searched Allen's apartment turned out to be a rabid anti-Semitic who had said he'd plant evidence on a New York Jew if he had half a chance. At trial, the prosecution portrays the cop -- its star witness -- as Captain Whitebread, but Allen's lawyer learns of his attitude towards Jews and uses it. Would he be accused of waving the bloody shirt of Anti-Semitism? I'm sorry, but the case would go down! And when the nine Jews on the jury voted to acquit, it wouldn't be because they were crazy, it would be because the prosecution embraced a scumbag and got caught!

Crouch notes that the "Flip Test" works in both directions:

Black kids who dress like gangsters complain that they get bad service at restaurants and stores. They say, 'Hey, we aren't thugs, we just dress that way.' Well, let's flip it over. Let's say a white guy comes into a store wearing a K.K.K. outfit, and everybody is horrified. And he says, 'I'm not really a Klansman, I just like the look.' Now, with ninety-nine percent of those black kids it is only style, but we just don't have time to go around interviewing them. 'Excuse me, young man, are you actually carrying a 9-mm pistol or is your outfit just a cultural signifier.'

The OJ example has not weathered well, but the Stanley Crouch Flip Test has, and I still use it today.

I mention this because Naval War College professor Tom Nichols suggests we all play a little game of Alternate Universe when it comes to the current craziness in Washington, and it's a variation of the Flip Test:

It's 2017, and President Hillary Clinton is facing charges that Chelsea met with Russians who offered opposition research and information on Trump. Chelsea didn't call the FBI; and Clinton national security adviser Jake Sullivan lied to the FBI about talking to the Russians.

Sullivan is perp-walked into Federal court and pleads to a felony. Chelsea spends hours with congressional investigators and then mugs for the cameras with a cake that looks like Trump.

Meanwhile, Hillary, who has shady ties through various organizations to tons of Russian money and mobsters, refuses to release her tax records and refers to "existential" threats to her presidency from the crooked FBI

In fact, in her first year in office, Hillary asks the FBI director to "let it go" on Jake Sullivan, and when he doesn't, she fires him. Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates appoints a Special Counsel, a lifelong Democrat. Hillary mulls firing him.

Then, at least three other Clinton campaign officials end up indicted. All of them are tied in some way to a hostile foreign power. Robby Mook is confined to his home with an ankle monitor.

As the 2018 midterms approach, Hillary publicly mentions how the FCC should crack down on broadcasters who lie, and maybe yank FOX's license. She also notes her warm relations with Nicholas Maduro and calls him to say hi.

I'm sure... totally sure... that stalwarts of the GOP would say: Look, this is a nothingburger, you can't define "collusion," it's just "the coffee boy," and on and on.

Let's cut the nonsense. The GOP would be in full impeachment mode, even without the completion of the special counsel investigation. This is not a partisan point; it's a common-sense point. I don't mind having arguments, but I'd prefer to keep them here on Planet Earth.