Impeachment is a political procedure, but that does not mean that it should be used for partisan political purposes. The Democrats are doing exactly that. They are impeaching Trump and the reasons they are giving stem from their political differences with him and his policies. The Democrats in the House are misusing the power of impeachment. In doing so, they are making a political calculation that impeachment will benefit them and their party in 2020 and beyond.
The Democrats are not calculating that impeachment will benefit the country and Americans at large. We know this for many reasons.
(1) The election is only 13 months away, so that Americans can decide upon their next president without impeachment. There’s no need for impeachment and a trial. If there were clear, serious and obvious presidential crimes, we’d have to conclude otherwise; but the struggle of Democrats to find and articulate such grounds, indeed their abject failure to do so, prove that there is no need for impeachment.
(2) A Senate trial is highly unlikely to convict Trump, so why put the country through this ordeal unless for political reasons?
(3) The impeachment proceedings will overlap an election year and interfere with the election. By design, the Democrats hope that the negative publicity will stain Trump and dissuade voters from re-electing him.
(4) The Democrats have been pursuing the removal of Trump for 3 years, while making all sorts of outrageous accusations against him. They’ve even considered using the 25th Amendment to remove him from office. Seen in that context, impeachment is a continuation of those politically-motivated efforts.
(5) When it comes to benefiting the country and upholding the Constitution and the justice system, Democrats have not pursued impeachment or even thorough investigations when evidence arose of the grave misdeeds of members of their own party.
(6) Trump has not committed Treason. “Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.” Trump has certainly not levied or waged war against any State in the 50-states that make up the United States. He has not adhered to their Enemies, or aided them or allied with them, or joined them in any way. Can Democrats seriously make this charge and prove it? Years of concocted investigation of collusion have failed to prove this in the case of Russia. In fact, Trump has advocated a national resurgence that Democrats have opposed at every step. His attempts to bring peace are in our interest, not in the interest of the globalist warmongers.
(7) Trump hasn’t bribed anyone, but he will surely be accused of this crime. Some press sources already accuse him of this. A classic instance of bribery is to pay some judge or official to make a decision in one’s favor. Trump hasn’t done this or anything like it. When presidents and Congresses employ aid and weapons sales to influence the decisions of foreign governments, this is akin to bribery and even may be termed bribery or a form of bribery. If so, every American government is guilty of constant and pervasive bribery, even of its own citizens. Democrats surely can’t be aiming to indict the activities of American governments in general.
(8) High crimes and misdemeanors present an undefined set of activities. No one can provide a definitive account of what’s included and what’s not. It cannot benefit the country to impeach Trump in order to debate the meaning of this phrase or attempt to discover its meaning by an actual impeachment process. How can the country be benefited by putting us through the ordeal of impeachment by Democrats in Congress invoking vague or ill-defined accusations concerning separation of powers, failure to administer the laws, and maladministration? How can we be benefited from an obvious attempt by Congress to throttle a president’s administration, when that administration does no more than utilize and invoke powers that have been used by previous presidents for decades? Presidents and other high officials have conversed with their counterparts in foreign countries for thousands of years while pursuing the interests of their own nations and courting cooperation and common interests. How can it benefit America to claim that such ordinary communications and pursuits are high crimes and misdemeanors?
If by impeaching Trump, the Democrats are not out to benefit us Americans; if they are out to make political gains for themselves; then they stand guilty of misusing the power to impeach for partisan political purposes. All logic and evidence point in that direction.
Impeachment is a most serious power, a check upon the Executive that’s in the hands of the Congress. It should never be used for narrow political gain. It should never be used to thwart the implementation of the programs of political opponents. It should only be used in a serious case such as Treason, the first reason that the Constitution mentions. Unless a crime rises to a similarly high status, such as the bribing of a judge, impeachment should be a dormant power. The fact that the Constitution uses the adjective “high” in the phrase “Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors” indicates that the intention of impeachment is to deal only with the most serious offenses, and not with political differences. The Democrats are misusing the impeachment power.
9:11 am on September 27, 2019
