IMPEACHED!

For only the third time in the history of our republic, a President of the United States has been impeached. In my opinion, no previous President has been more deserving of this dubious honor. Donald J. Trump earned it, and he earned it in spades.

It can not be acceptable for a President of the United States to solicit and encourage interference in our electoral processes. It can not be acceptable for the executive branch to stonewall the legislative branch and completely deny that the legislative branch has any right to conduct oversight of the executive. In our republic, the executive is not a monarch. He (or she) may not refuse to cooperate with a legislative branch investigation. The executive serves as the AGENT of the people, and he or she is subject to the oversight of the people as defined in the Article I LEGISLATIVE BRANCH of our government, i.e. Congress.

I wish to express my deepest respect and sincere appreciation for Speaker Pelosi, Chairman Schiff, Chairman Nadler, and all the other courageous members of Congress who stood up for the Constitution today. As Democrats, we can hold our heads high, now, and say that we did all that we could, and that we did what was right, in defense of our republic. Furthermore, we did so without regard for the outcome in our cowardly Senate which will, in all likelihood, rubber-stamp the authoritarian, repugnant, and unconstitutional behavior of our current President. I am proud of us.

Cheers, and Happy Impeachment Day!

-Laelth

The Democratic Party is FINALLY (once again) a LIBERAL political party.

Having watched two nights of debates between twenty people who seek to represent our party as President of the United States, I must admit that I wept tears of joy seeing how far our party has come since I first began following politics in 1980 when James Earl Carter, Jr. was running against Ronald Reagan for the presidency. We are now (once again) a truly liberal party. For years I told people that I was a Democrat, but that I voted for democrats only because the other alternative was more abhorrent. Today, I do not feel that way. With only a couple of exceptions (whom I will not name), I would be proud to have any one of the people I just saw debate represent me as President of the United States. They are all liberal.

Here's what I heard:

(1) Kamala Harris described climate change as an existential threat to the planet and to the human race. Nobody disagreed.

(2) Several candidates discussed the need to do something about the humanitarian crisis that the Trump administration has created on our Mexican border. Nobody disagreed.

(3) Several candidates re-dedicated themselves, publicly, to the concept that all people are equal under the law. Nobody disagreed.

(4) A couple of candidates had plans to address the student loan debt crisis that has economically crippled two generations of Americans. While the various candidates who addressed this issue had different plans to deal with the problem, nobody disagreed that it was a serious problem that had to be addressed by the Federal Government.

(5) Nobody questioned the legitimacy of Roe v. Wade. We ARE the pro-choice party, and we are now universally pro-choice. This has not always been the case.

(6) Andrew Yang advocated a "trickle-up" economy. He would like to just "give money" to the people, directly from the Federal Government, to churn our economy. If the poorest among us have more money, they will spend it, and we will all become richer, he thinks. This makes sense to me, and while I don't see such a bill passing Congress in the near future, it's clear that the "trickle-down" economy that Republicans have been advocating for the past forty years has been a complete disaster. It has enriched the already-rich and further impoverished the already-poor. The point I want to make here, however, is that none of our candidates disagreed with Andrew Yang or even challenged him on his proposal. We are now, universally, as a party, the party of economic justice. Trust me. When I first encountered American politics in 1980, this was not the case. Our party has changed, and it has changed for the better.

(7) Bernie Sanders reminded us that if we are to achieve our goals we must have the courage and the strength to take on the moneyed interests in our country and fight for the people (and not just the rich ones). This is a tricky problem, but what I noticed, in particular, is that nobody disagreed with him or contradicted him on this subject.

(8) John Hickenlooper, perhaps the most conservative candidate on the stage, could point to the longest list of actual, real, liberal, legislative achievements of any candidate with whom he was debating--including the legalization of marijuana, and he is our most conservative candidate. Nobody argued against the legalization of marijuana or any of the other liberal achievements of John Hickenlooper while he was Governor.

(9) An utterly eloquent and obviously intelligent gay and married man was featured, center-stage, with the other party-heavyweights in the second debate (Biden and Sanders). Nobody had a problem with this, and I would vote for Mayor Pete in a heartbeat in a general election. Again, this is very different from the Democratic Party I first became involved with in 1980.

(10) On foreign policy, every single candidate on the stage--both nights--advocated for a strong global presence and expanded cooperation with our allies. All condemned wars of choice, and all condemned the Trump administration's coddling of dictators. There is not an isolationist among us. We are unified on this subject.

And that's my main point. I have never seen the Democratic Party so unified on so many issues. Everybody running for President agrees on almost all the important issues. The most severe intra-party conflicts in these debates centered on Joe Biden's long legislative record, but even Joe agrees with the party mainstream as it exists now. All Kamala Harris could do was ask Joe why he didn't agree with us 20 or 40 years ago. I say, who cares? He agrees with us now, and that is enough. I have never seen the party so unified.

And we are liberal--finally, and at last.

Please give me a k&r. Let us celebrate this day. I am astounded and amazed by what I have seen from the excellent people we have running for President in this cycle, and I am thrilled to have a unified, liberal party--at last.

Today, I am PROUD to be a Democrat.

-Laelth

Now we see an attempt to turn Democrats against Jay Inslee. WTF?

Dude, the more you pit Democrats against other Democrats--the more you attempt to turn us against one another--the more transparent you become. Jay Inslee is not a one issue candidate, and, even if he is, I suspect my children would appreciate his reminding the Democratic Party that climate change is the #1 threat to our entire species. Why attack him? Why bring this issue to our attention in the way you did in this OP? I have my suspicions about your motives, to be sure. After all, you and I have been reading one another's work (on multiple fora) for a long, long time.

Someone. Please alert on this post. I have had enough of MineralMan (one of the greatest concern trolls I have ever encountered on the internet), and I would be thrilled to have a jury consider this question. His latest OP, I posit, is a concern troll post, as is nearly everything else that MineralMan has ever posted on Democratic Underground.

So is this: https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1287&pid=145229

I could go on and on ...

-Laelth

This is why we should IMPEACH!

Just IMPEACH HIM already and get it over with.

There's plenty of evidence to support the impeachment of President Donald Trump AS IS. If you consider that one of the Articles of Impeachment against Richard Nixon was "lying to the American people," it's clear that Trump is utterly impeachable and that he becomes more impeachable every day. Add that to the ten counts of obstruction of justice that Robert Meuller described, and it's clear that we need no further investigations. I say, just get it done. Then it's Mitch McConnell's problem, and Democrats can say with a straight face that they did their Constitutional duty. Instead of talking about Trump, Democrats can then focus on the issues that matter to the American people. I suspect that Speaker Pelosi could punt this ball to the Senate (by passing Articles of Impeachment) within 30 days if she wanted to. I would much rather have the Senate responsible for resolving this mess than to continue to talk about Donald Trump's petulant, childish, and privileged criminality.

I hate seeing all these House committees focusing on investigating a person that the American people already know is a lying scoundrel. Just impeach him, already, and then get on with the business of the people. Whether or not Trump is convicted by the Senate is irrelevant. That should be Mitch McConnell's problem. I am sick and tired of talking about the President's criminality. I think it would be wise, strategically, to force the Republicans to talk about it instead. If we impeach Trump in the House (the only Constitutional power the Democratic Party currently has), then Democrats can be done with it all and focus on other issues that matter more to the American people.

-Laelth

Bernie Sanders is running for President. Everyone else ...

... in the field of Democratic candidates allegedly running for President are actually running for Vice-President, with one exception, and that's ...



For better or for worse, JOE BIDEN will, almost certainly, be our 2020 nominee, and, at this point, everyone else in the field is running for Vice President, with the notable exception of Bernie Sanders, as I mentioned, above.

Discuss.

-Laelth

Impeach ... NOW!

In his report, Robert Meuller handed us ten, separate counts of obstruction of justice and said, in effect, “If I could say that these were NOT criminal offenses, I would say so,” yet he refused to deny that these were criminal offenses. In other words, in Meuller’s opinion, at least ten of President Trump’s actions WERE criminal offenses, but because the Justice Department can not indict a sitting President, Meuller placed the matter squarely in the hands of the House of Representatives to proceed with Articles of Impeachment. Only Nancy Pelosi can make this call, and I will respect her decision on the subject, regardless, but I think that we should use the power that we have (control of the House) to impeach President Donald Trump. Here’s why:

1) We want to stand for the rule of law.
We have a President who has demonstrated, time and again, that he considers himself above the law. Allowing this philosophy of executive power to stand without challenge would make us complicit in the erosion of our democratic republic’s foundation—government by rule of law, as opposed to government by the whims and “divine inspiration” of the monarch (precisely what Trump perceives himself to be, just as any corporate CEO might imagine). I want my party to be on the right side of history on this subject. We have an opportunity to call out a gross display of “supreme executive power by divine right,” and I think that we have a duty to do so.

2) We need to punt the ball.
Currently, we have three committee chairs investigating these matters (Cummings, Nadler, and Schiff). My sense is that the American people are sick of talking about this. They generally concede that Trump is a scum-bucket, but they are more concerned about whether or not they can pay their bills next month. The more we investigate this matter, the more we play into Trump’s “witch hunt” narrative. So, I say IMPEACH, and do it quickly. Do it quickly, and then drop it, entirely. Make this Mitch McConnell’s problem. Let the Senate deal with it. Democrats will have done their Constitutional duty once the House of Representatives has impeached the President. We can then just abandon our investigations and start focusing on the things that matter to Americans—health care, student loan debt (Thank you, Elizabeth Warren.), climate change, and the increasing wealth gap in our society.

3) Impeachment improves our chances of taking control of the Senate in 2020.
I want all the Republican senators who are up for re-election in 2020 on the record, here. I want a YES or a NO from them on Trump’s guilt. If they say “YES,” they lose their base. We win. If they say “NO,” they lose credibility and lose the center because most Americans are convinced that Trump is, clearly, guilty as sin. Again, we win. This is why it is so important to pass Articles of Impeachment QUICKLY. McConnell can delay, and save his members an embarrassing vote, if Democrats delay the process by insisting upon further investigations. What Mueller has given us is PLENTY to proceed with Articles of Impeachment. If you recall that one of the Articles filed against Nixon was "lying to the American people," it is obvious that we have plenty of grounds to impeach President Trump ... NOW. No more investigation is needed.

4) There's very little down-side.
In the unlikely event that we end up with a President Pence, for a short time, the nation will be safer, and history indicates that Pence will not be elected President in 2020–just ask Gerald Ford and Al Gore. Again, we win.

It is indeed rare, in politics, when doing the right thing is highly likely to result in an excellent outcome with very little risk of a negative outcome, but I think that this is one of those occasions.

Speaker Pelosi, I implore you ...

Impeach ... NOW!