Thursday, December 26, 2019

Unimpeachable Grounds for Impeachment?

Yes, the President has been impeached. On December 18, 2019, President Donald John Trump was impeached for the abuse of power and for the obstruction of Congress. But were there unimpeachable grounds for that historic action by the United States House of Representatives?
Two Different Worlds
Here is an online dictionary definition: 
­ Were the grounds for the impeachment of DJT of such a nature?
According to the congressional Democrats, they were. On December 13, all 23 of the Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee voted to recommend impeachment. In the historic house vote on Dec. 18, over 98% of the Democrats voted Yes and the impeachment of the President became a reality.
In his opening statement, Rules Committee Chairman Jim McGovern (D-MA) said,
The President of the United States endangered our national security. The President undermined our democracy. And the President . . .  betrayed his oath to preserve, protect and defend the constitution of the United States. These aren't opinions. These are uncontested facts.
Even The Economist, the British-based news magazine, stated in its lead story for the Dec. 14-20 issue, “The main facts are not in dispute.”
But there are two different worlds existing simultaneously in the U.S., the Democratic world and the Republican world—or, we might say, the world of Trump opponents and the world of Trump supporters.
As was aptly stated in an online 12/18 WaPo article on impeachment night, “The intensity and polarization of the debate on the House floor vividly illustrated the extent to which leaders of the two parties now believe entirely different accounts of what occurred and are motivated by different concerns. At times they sounded almost as if they were representing different countries.”
The votes, though, did not represent just two different opinions. They represented two different parties—or two different worlds. Of the votes on the two articles of impeachment, all the Yes votes were by Democrats and one Independent; all the No votes were by Republicans.
Almost unanimously the Democrats thought there were impeccable grounds for impeachment. But after about eight hours of debate in the closing argument for the Republicans, Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), the House Minority Leader, declared, “There are no grounds for impeachment.”
For the Republicans, not only were the grounds for impeachment not unimpeachable, they were non-existent.
DJT’s supporters and his opponents seem, indeed, to live in two different worlds.
Where Do We Go from Here?
It is within the realm of possibility that DJT will be the first President to be impeached and then win re-election to another four years in the White House.
Don’t think that DJT’s re-election is inconceivable. I was one of a multitude who thought it was inconceivable that he would be nominated for the presidency by the Republicans. But he was.
An even larger multitude thought it inconceivable that he would be elected President. But he was.
After his impeachment in 1998/99, President Clinton’s approval greatly increased—to a whopping 73%. Yes, I think it is inconceivable that DJT’s rate will climb that high—but it might climb high enough for him to be reelected.
But now one of the biggest worries is that DJT’s almost certain acquittal in the Senate will allow other abuses of power and election tampering with no feasible way to counter those abuses.
As Dana Milbank wrote in a 12/19 op-ed for the WaPo:
It was all a triumph for alternative facts, for Russian dezinformatsiya, for Fox News and for social media toxicity. The losers aren’t the Democrats . . .  but democracy. Just as after the Mueller report, Trump will only grow more emboldened in breaking the legal constraints on his presidency.
So then, inconceivably, DJT might also become the first President to be impeached twice. If there is unimpeachable evidence that he profited from foreign influence in the 2020 election, as he most likely did in 2016, a second impeachment would again loom as a distinct possibility.

11 comments:

  1. The foundation is probably now laid for every President to be impeached. This all looks DC partisan to me, except I hear the same thing from partisans around my multi-state territory. The country is at a divide. Partisans will never change. It would be a shame is only one Party did.

    Thankfully, there are still many across the Nation who are truly centrist or independent like me, at vote across multiple lines for the best (or lesser of evil)candidate - I wish there was a viable 3rd Party.

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    1. Over the past couple of weeks I have heard some right-wing talk radio commentators suggest the possibility that all future presidents will be impeached, but I seriously doubt that that will be the case.

      There certainly might be some talk about impeachment of future presidents, as there was for Pres. Obama and Pres. G.W. Bush in the immediate past, but I can't believe that most future presidents will commit "high crimes and misdemeanors" that would elicit a majority vote for impeachment in the House. And I am hopeful that the 2020 elections will start a movement toward less divisive partisanship in U.S. politics.

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    2. I see no hope, only deeper schism within American politics and Christendom. All are righteous in their own eyes, and blind to their own evil. Better that, than for one side to capitulate to the evil of the other.

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  2. About six hours ago I received these comments from Thinking Friend, and a former Southern Baptist pastor, Truett Baker in Arizona:

    "Thanks for another thought-provoking blog. This is a sad time for our country. I hope we can survive Donald Trump. The support he receives from the American people is mind-boggling. I do not, and have never supported him because of his lack of character, his rudeness, his go-it-alone mentality and so many other personal issues. He makes his own reality, rules and authority. Unfortunately, these are not impeachable crimes until they effect national security and his ability to effectively govern--and I believe he has crossed this line. He is a laughing-stock among world leaders and has further disgraced America in the eyes of the world. Yes, the economy has approved, but at what cost? America is more than just our economy.

    "The Fundamentalists have stolen our convention and now the Trump Grinch has stolen our beloved country. God help us!"

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  3. Thinking Friend Michael Olmsted in Springfield, Mo., sent these powerful comments late this morning:

    "As a committed Christian and a retired pastor I have been greatly burdened by the
    slavish way many Christians have described Trump as 'God's man for this hour' while they overlook his lifestyle of adultery, dishonesty, pandering to racist groups, degrading comments about women, treatment of immigrants as immoral and unworthy to enter the United States (read about his grandfather and father), and his open ignorance of the gracious God who is our source of life and hope. I am particularly embarrassed by the Baptist preachers who seem to have no understanding or even knowledge of the crusade early Baptists led for the separation of church and state.

    "The record of the current resident of the White House is comparable to a poorly written cheap novel that no decent person would waste time reading. I pray for God's help with this tragedy … but I am aware that our nation voted this man into office and so we are responsible for making the right decisions at the ballot box."

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    1. Thanks, Michael, for your comments. -- I have said several times since 2017 that I am not as worried about the man now in the White House (he will be gone, sooner or later) as I am about the people who voted to put him there--and who will vote for him again in 2020 in spite of everything he has said and done.

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  4. Not long before noon I received the following comments from local Thinking Friend Bob Leeper:

    "Thanks for summarizing the very scary scene we all face. Just last week, I had to conclude that I should Recuse myself, inasmuch as I was a Never Trumper; then a Dump-Trump advocate. Facts or not, no amount of evidence either way would sway me from my belief that he is an evil weight on our country.

    "My dislike for him started way way before he came down that escalator to announce. He was an obtuse TV program personality; a Birther on Obama. I can make no pretense at objectivity, no matter what evidence for or against him.

    "I appreciate you doing all the essential academic study to summarize these subjects each week, prompting our reflection and response. Interestingly, some personality on TV said last week that Trump should be thankful and appreciative for the idea of IMPEACHMENT, when compared to the beheading which had been common in governments prior to ours...giving Trump a much-less-gruesome outcome for the disgrace he had instilled on our country."

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  5. Truth is an acquired taste. Frequently truth is drowned out by advertising, group think, and power-mongering. Think about the half-forgotten dogma debates (and wars) of Christianity's past. Now we often wonder what the fuss was all about. In the lifetimes of many of us we have witnessed the auto industry buying up and shutting down community mass transit systems, tobacco companies fighting ferociously to delay the day cigarettes were publicly declared the death threats that they are (only to reopen the war with new e-cigarettes), fossil fuel companies discovering and then covering up anthropogenic global warming, and drug companies brazenly profiting from price gouging in general and the opioid epidemic in particular. No wonder billionaires are looking to buy old missile silos in Kansas, build bunkers in New Zealand, and fly away to Mars.

    You would think people who made so much money selling snake oil would be smart enough not to turn around and buy it. My Bible reading leads me to suspect that if we manage to outright kill the Tree of Life, I doubt God has a Planet B waiting for us. (And back in Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, the Tree of Life did get shot up pretty badly.) But maybe I am wrong. Perhaps God told Elon Musk to build his Mars rocket out of gopher wood. Like I said, truth is an acquired taste. Or, as Jesus put it, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Oh, well, we life in Donald Trump's America. The truth died somewhere back in Vietnam, and has rarely been welcome since.

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  6. This morning I received these comments from Thinking Friend Eric Dollard in Chicago:

    "Thanks, Leroy, for your observations about the impeachment drama.

    "If Mr. Trump had admitted that he had erred in his actions with respect to Ukraine and that he would not do so again, he might have avoided impeachment, although I think he is guilty of other offenses. But Mr. Trump seems to be completely incapable of any contrition.

    "The Senate will not convict Mr. Trump, unless something incredibly damaging emerges, and then Mr. Trump will claim that he has been exonerated. How that resonates with the American people remains to be seen, but these are nonetheless sad times for America."

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  7. I just read a fascinating article by Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, "True Religious Faith Demands an Unwavering Rebuke of Trumpism" at this link:

    https://www.thenation.com/article/religion-faith-rebuke-trumpism/

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