Democrats aren’t doing impeachment right.
Impeachment is a political process. It requires a broad base of support to succeed; there’s no way to get to 67 votes in the Senate without overwhelming support from voters of both parties.
The only way you get to the high threshold of popular support necessary to impeach in the House and convict in the Senate is by impeaching based on counts that are clearly proven and undeniable, and that a lot of Americans, not just members of the impeaching party, care about.
The impeachment of Donald Trump should have been based on issues that nobody could deny and that everybody, regardless of which party they belonged to, could see was a major problem.
Most Republicans do not care about Ukraine. Neither do many Democrats! Besides, the issue of intent is far from proven. It’s not a unifying issue for Americans.
I would have gone after him for his bad temperament. Everyone agrees a president should be calm and deliberate. Andrew Johnson was impeached partly because of his nasty disposition, and came one vote from conviction in the Senate. No one would argue that Trump’s personality is presidential.
Child separation would have been powerful. Not even Republicans approve of stealing kids and then losing them.
Emoluments would have worked too. Lining your pockets as president is frowned upon by everyone.
I would have started this process in 2017 so as not to have this current rush job prior to an election campaign. I would have used the courts to compel recalcitrant administration officials to testify; starting in 2017 would have allowed that process to occur.
This impeachment is too little too late. Democrats will regret it.
11 Comments.
If–I mean when–the dems lose this, for the reasons Ted has already articulated, they will pretty much have handed the 2020 election to Trump. Especially if they run a moderate. Although I still think Sanders can win the general, I don’t know that he can also defeat deliberate cheating by the dem leadership to anoint Elizabeth Warren as Hillary 2.0.
I can only hope that someone shakes Pelosi’s mummified husk hard enough to knock some sense into her. When Trump beats the impeachment (it won’t even be close), he’s going to double down. Maybe he’ll appoint three or four more Justices (there’s nothing in the rulebook about nine being an upper limit).
Who’ll stop him? Very smart Pelosi who thinks she’s the sharpest one in the room will be the Loser Pelosi after the vote. Loser Pelosi and Crooked Hillary. Trump will do anything he wants, and the Dems won’t be able to stop any of it.
«Who’ll stop him [i e, Mr Trump]? Very smart Pelosi who thinks she’s the sharpest one in the room will be the Loser Pelosi after the vote. Loser Pelosi and Crooked Hillary. Trump will do anything he wants, and the Dems won’t be able to stop any of it.» But Alex, not being able to stop Mr Trump is a very small price to pay for the ability – vital if the system is to endure – to stop Mr Sanders…. 😉
Henri
Impeachment is a done deal. The Democrats promised to give it as a Christmas present to themselves. It will be for trying to besmirch Biden in the Ukraine, after a certain tape of Biden bragging that he got the prosecutor going after his son fired for $1 billion from US taxpayers, a tape that Google will no longer find (thanks, Alphabet).
Trump is unbelievably guilty of violating the emoluments clause (unless he lets foreign diplomats and royals stay for free at his hotels). But no one cares.
I’ve heard people say the Constitution says one must prove the president is guilty of a High Crime or Misdemeanour, akin to treason, but heck, most Democrats believe Trump is Putin’s puppet, giving aid and comfort to the Russians (in spite of massive evidence to the contrary, but nothing could convince them that narrative is false).
Ultimately, it’s just a majority vote in the House, and the votes are there.
To the Democrats, giving “aid and comfort” to Russia/Putin is falling any more than one femtometer short of constant provocation of Russia/Putin into WWIII.
@michaelwme
It’s more than just carrying out an impeachment trial; they have to get the Senate to vote “yes” and that is a heavily-Republican territory. They won’t….the hearing run by Nadler yesterday (Dec. 9th) was turned into a circus of endless idiotic demands by the Republicans and many of them didn’t show up, so they never won a vote. At the most the House could censure Trump, but nobody in the White House will tell the Orange Mafioso that he has gone beyond the pale because he isn’t a politician and he has nowhere else to go.
It dawned on me a few minutes ago that we could have a four-way election.
1. Although it’s pretty much unpossible, Trump could actually be successfully thrown out of office. His last moment “I’ll be back” play would be to leave office before the vote, which would allow him to run for office again as an independent.
2. With Trump out of the way, Hillary the War Criminal will emerge and announce her run for office. This will cause the Sanders side of the democratic base to simply leave in disgust.
3. End result? A Republican candidate, Hillary, Trump, and Sanders all running in the general election.
Of course, we could also have a similar situation even if Hillary stays home. A three-way election with Trump, the Republicans and the democrats could quite possibly result in no one candidate getting a majority of Electoral College votes.
We’ll see. …
The entry of Michael Bloomberg (the male Hillary Clinton – tied heavily to NYC, and paying for his own campaign because he is just that rich) last month put an end to Hillary’s chances. That Pete Buttigieg and Yang and “Orbs” Marianne Williamson are still running points to just how much of this primary has been an overloaded clown car and that they are trying to bury the Bernie threat. It isn’t working and Bernie will be there to the bloody end, but they are trying.
Too many of the really impeachable offenses of Trump — war crimes, for example — are off the table because the Democrats are fully complicit in them.
As they – and the Republicans – were in the war crimes of his predecessor in office….
Henri
Yup, and the one before that, and the one before that and … it’s pretty much war criminals all the way down.
Indeed. Noblesse oblige ; if one is to rule the world, a few (constant) war crimes are a small price to pay….
Henri