Refraining from Impeachment won't promote "Healing" any more than Appeasement promotes Peace

[Tom Rinaldo]

Every sign of weakness emboldens those who WANT additional unrest. Sure they will be "angered" if Trump is impeached, but is there anyone who seriously believes that they will be "mollified" if he is not? When militias stormed the Michigan State Capital and occupied that legislature without encountering significant opposition and serious negative repercussions, they were emboldened. They were emboldened enough that the most violent among them went forward with plans to kidnap and execute the Governor of Michigan. When the thwarting of that plot to execute Michigan's Governor was not immediately followed up on by a prolonged national "Red Alert" to crush far right domestic terrorism, pursued at the highest levels of the U.S. Government with the same sense of focus, purpose, and wide scale appeals for help from the public that went into the coordinated fight against al-Qaeda, domestic terrorists again felt emboldened. Some of them followed up by attacking the U.S. Capital with the intent to assassinate our leaders.

If Donald J. Trump is not impeached, what happens then? If we are lucky enough to escape wide scale violence before Joe Biden becomes President, what happens when Ex-President Trump is indicted for one or more of any number of crimes? What happens when he is put on trial? What happens when he is convicted? Or do those who advocate refraining from impeaching Trump now, in order "to promote healing", similarly argue that Trump should not be legally held accountable for any of the crimes that he has committed, "in order to promote healing?"

We can not run away from pending conflict with far right extremists. We can't let them get away with crimes because we fear the consequences of actually holding them accountable for their actions. When we do they only get stronger.

[BusyBeingBest]

1. Yes. It was important to impeach last January, so that Presidents

can't collude with foreign countries and adversaries to tamper with our elections--shades of treason. It's doubly important to impeach NOW to show that Presidents can't OVERTLY commit treason with violent mobs. The fact that there's any debate whatsoever is making me sick.

[Clearly fogged in]

3. Keeping track of them is tricky

With the current lot they are trumpers of some type. Now, with no trump, they become any number of something else(s). Trying to put a label on them has consequences, as does asking the public to report on others. Our chance to exert influence over them has changed overnight.

[Tom Rinaldo]

4. The public can be asked to help identify anyone who has threatened to use terrorism against America

No need to label them further in advance. As you seem to suggest, doing so could be counter productive, but acknowledging that there is a heightened risk of terrorist behavior now seems to be in order, since there actually is.

[Clearly fogged in]

5. Yes, of course

It's too bad there was so much obstruction, especially in the Senate, for so long. But that's an old horse.

[Tom Rinaldo]

6. BTW, I hadn't thought much about the implications of Trump not being the public organizing principle

galvanizing the far right. Having Trump as their figure head helped advance their networking, and it also encouraged them to go public. There is danger in the latter of course, but if they instead recede now back to the shadows post Trump, that makes identifying and tracking them harder also. Thanks for the food for thought.

[fishwax]

7. agreed -- you *treat* an injury to heal it ... you don't just pretend it doesn't exist

Healing is not simply a passive process. It involves treatment.

If you severely cut your hand, you don't just say "time to heal" and then ignore it and move on. You clean the wound and spend a few weeks applying ointment and keeping it in a sterile bandage. That's how you take time to heal properly.

If you break your arm, you don't just say "time to heal" and then ignore it and move on. You stop any bleeding, immobilize the arm, set the bones, and keep it in a cast for a while. That's how you take time to heal properly.

If you receive a puncture wound in your democracy, you don't just say "time to heal" and then ignore it and move on. You deal with the threat, address the infection, and so on.

[Tom Rinaldo]

8. "Clean the wound", "disinfect". Very apt metaphor. Exactly n/t