On the momentous occasion of the impeachment of president Trump by the House of Representatives tonight, I wanted to write down a few thoughts about it.
First, I want to say that the House had no choice but to do this. Not if they took their oaths of office seriously. The Constitution charges them with oversight and with the power of impeachment. The Constitution does not give an exception for unfavorable political fallout, nor is there an “unlikely to succeed” clause to give them an out. It had to be done. The president’s transgressions were in plain sight, admitted to, and easy to understand. There were those who wanted to impeach him years ago, yes. There were also those who weren’t up to then convinced. But after the Ukraine story broke, their Constitutional duty was clear.
It should be understood that the Founding Fathers debated the idea of impeachment fiercely. Some wanted it in the Constitution, others thought it unnecessary. The nay-sayers suggested that we already had a remedy for corrupt presidents: elections. Then they were asked what if the nature of the president’s corruption had to do with cheating in elections? What then? And that, friends, is why we have impeachment in the Constitution. And it is also why this particular case is literally textbook impeachment material. Cheating in an election is precisely what Trump was up to.
Which brings us to the charges themselves. The abuse of power is pretty clear. While it isn’t necessary that the president commit a crime to be impeached for his conduct, Trump clearly did commit some. Soliciting a thing of value from a foreign government to help you win an election is a violation of campaign finance law. In addition, I’m not a lawyer but I’m pretty sure the shakedown of the Ukrainian president was either soliciting a bribe or extortion.
I also want to address the Republican congressional opposition to this impeachment…but where to start? A lot has been made tonight on TV about how none of the Republican House members disputed the facts of the case, nor did they defend the behavior or character of the president. That may be so. But they did, each and every one of them, rise to emphatically reject these articles.
My guess is that some of them are old men who watch Fox News and who don’t think outside that right-wing bubble. Others I assume know better but are simply afraid of their voter base. And they probably should be afraid of them. We’re talking about people who have been systematically lied to by Republican politicians and right-wing media for decades. They do not know the truth and they aren’t about to be educated now. Doing the right thing right today is a death sentence, at least to your GOP political aspirations.
That’s another thing I wanted to mention. It’s the fact that one of the parties in our two party system has for almost my entire lifetime been rooted in divisiveness and falsehoods. Willie Horton. Welfare “queens.” “Right to work.” There’s the ever-popular “paying you more money is actually going to be bad for you” thing. There’s the “tax cuts for the wealthy are necessary lest you all lose your jobs” idea. And of course, the cherry on top, “climate change is a hoax.”
I have watched this for decades with the air of a man watching Wile E. Coyote continue running long after he has cleared the edge of the cliff. Is he ever going to fall? What is holding him up? How long can this go on?
It’s still going on. I thought it might end when there were no WMDs. But the coyote kept on running and running in mid-air. I never ever thought it would be continuing on today, or in these absurd and extreme circumstances, but here were are. Waiting for the coyote to fall to the bottom of the canyon.
Or maybe he never does. I just don’t know anymore.