O Say Can You Please Entry 18

 O Say Can You Please Entry 18: Just Peachy

So, how far along is the impeachment process into President Trump? Well, the only thing that hasn’t happened yet is the full House vote, so it’s pretty far along. The House vote will be on two articles of impeachment that would charge Trump with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress if they pass the vote. These relate to the mess with Ukraine that I’ve covered in previous issues, but I’ll go over it again. Basically, Trump and his lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, tried to extort information relating to Joe Biden from the Ukrainian government in what was widely called a quid pro quo. The Democrats in the House launched an inquiry, and now, we are nearing the likely culmination of the process. However, that culmination will not be Trump’s removal from office. The Republicans in both branches of Congress won’t destroy the reputations of their party and their Dear Leader, and even some moderate Democrats are skiddish about the matter, although one of these folks is likely switching parties. Also, the Democrats’ leadership probably rushed the process, not accounting for decisions on whether their subpoenas were valid or not going to the courts. Basically, the idea was solid, but the execution of the plan has been worse than that of the Wet Bandits in Home Alone.

    However, the Dems aren’t the only offenders here. In fact, The Republicans are doing all they can to protect Trump. For example, the Senate GOP is “preparing” for a “trial” through some questionable measures, such as holding an impeachment trial without witnesses. Even if Trump’s impeachment is completely frivolous, witnesses would be helpful to establishing that case, so the GOP strategy here is officially terrible. If there are no witnesses, how can a fair trial even be held? The answer is that the Republicans don’t want one if it goes against the Dear Leader’s “best” interests, which it obviously does. There are many gross analogies that I could use here, but frankly, I don’t want to get too carried away.

    I’ve already talked about the Dems rushing the process and the GOP rigging it, but what does this fiasco mean for our country? For one thing, the very rule of law is in serious jeopardy. If Trump gets away with this, it sends a disturbing message that a President can do whatever he or she wants if his/her party controls at least one branch of Congress. That creates a good chance that any future President could effectively be above the law. This is how dictators rise, people. It could also sell this country out to the highest bidder, whether it is a personal business or a foreign adversary. If the former occurs, we are right back to the Gilded Age, where big businesses and monopolies controlled just about everything. If the latter occurs, we are doomed to lose our way of life as authoritarian adversaries consume more and more of our government. This nation is in dire straits, and removing Trump one way or another is the best way to ensure America doesn’t destroy itself.

    The best way to prove that removing Trump from office is vital is by listening to the man himself. Just today, he sent a 6-page letter to Nancy Pelosi in Attempt #1376 to discredit the idea of him being impeached. The White House published the letter online, and I am using this as an opportunity to strike at the core of Trump’s arguments, which are proving harder to kill than Rasputin. This is an analysis, but it really should be an autopsy.

    Trump begins this letter by stating that his impeachment is “an unprecedented and unconstitutional abuse of power by Democrat Lawmakers.” In fact, history has judged Bill Clinton’s impeachment to be in this vein, but with the parties flipped. Also, Article 2, Section 4 of the Constitution discusses impeachment explicitly. As it says according to USLegal.com, “The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.” I don’t see any reason why preventing Congress from effectively performing its Constitutional duty to investigate suspected wrongdoing is not a high crime or misdemeanor.

    Moving on, Trump calls his impeachment an “election-nullification scheme” and says that this whole matter is “offending the Founding Fathers.” I don’t think they can be offended when they have all been dead for 200 years. On top of that, it is worth noting that they put this process in the Constitution when it was first being written, so they’d be proud seeing a potential future tyrant like Trump be shoved aside like this if anything. This is especially true considering what Thomas Jefferson, and many others, had to say about tyrants back in their days.

    Trump then spouts contrived drivel about the charges being false, with the gem here being him saying that when Ukraine was asked for a favor during that infamous call, the favor was to the people, not to him. This is some Stalin-esque rewriting of history here, because any analysis of Trump’s character makes the conclusion that he’s only in it for himself the most logical one. To drive home the Stalin comparison, Trump then suggests looking into his rivals the way he’s being looked into right now, essentially asking our law enforcement agencies to treat Biden how Stalin treated Trotsky. The rest is just uncouth ranting that I am not giving any attention to. As a result, I have left a link to the letter earlier in the article. To sum up all of this right now…

Thank you, and have a great day!