Impeach ... NOW! [View all]

[Laelth]

Last edited Mon Apr 22, 2019, 07:57 PM - Edit history (19)

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!