Trump Impeachment — Not a political issue but a constitutional crisis.
The United States House of Representatives have impeached a total of 19 people since the inception of the constitution. Most people are not aware that the most recent impeachment happened in 2010 when the house impeached Judge G. Thomas Porteous, Jr. of the eastern district of Louisiana. He was impeached for accepting bribery among a litany of crimes committed. Impeachments happen and they are not always front page headlines. The founders purposely made impeachment difficult but also gave the House of Representatives the authority to begin proceedings when conduct of a public official is unbecoming of the office they hold. Impeachment should not be political but instead should be utilized as the framers of the constitution intended it to be.
The Trump admin’s impeachment bluff
This whole Trump impeachment fiasco plays like a game of poker in which the Trump administration and House Democrat leaders are trying to bluff one another. Before the now infamous Ukrainian call, the Trump administration was openly baiting Speaker Pelosi, Representatives Schiff and Nadler into starting the impeachment process. My guess is the reason behind this was that the GOP and Trump’s inner circle believed that the Mueller report exonerated him. It did not. That result (or perceived results by the administration) of the report emboldened the Trump administration. He commissioned his goons to go on a world-wide expedition to find some wrongdoing by the democrats in regard to the origins of the Mueller report. It is baffling that Trump’s inner circle truly believe they did not do anything wrong. They act like bank robbers who get caught on camera robbing a bank, and then demand an investigation on why they were on camera in the first place.
Democratic leadership governs from a position of fear.
The democrats for their part were too cautious about starting the impeachment inquiry. A testament of the over-the-top influence that rural states have on American policy making, the house leadership rejected the notion of an impeachment out of fear of losing a handful of the so-called purple districts. This fear of losing the purple districts is fueled primarily by pundits and figureheads who have taken it upon themselves to speak for millions of people in those districts. When the group of former intelligence and military officers, now congresspeople, went home for break they quickly learned that even in purple districts people are fed up with this administration and its blatant disregard for the rule of law and constitutional checks and balances. Since Trump’s election the Democrats have been governing from a position of fear. The fear of losing purple districts have prevented them from doing their job, which is to put a check on the executive branch.
Trump admin resorts to its normal tactic — stalling in the courts.
Trump is a man who has always played the bluffing game to his advantage but perhaps it might have backfired this time. There are many words that can describe this administration but I would sum it up in one word, arrogance. I can understand why Trump is so arrogant: the man has gotten away with literally everything his entire life. He got away with ripping off contractors. He got away with stealing an election and he is getting away with using the office of the presidency to enrich his family and friends. To his credit, the media and politicians have allowed him to get away with it. The media’s obsession with him has helped elevate him to the presidency. The Ukrainian call was his achilles heel.
Him and his stooges understand now that you cannot go around the world asking for information that will harm your rival’s political campaign. Why they felt it was not wrong in the first place is beyond me but I go back to the arrogance argument. Now that their bluff has been called, the administration is resorting to the same tactics they employed during the Mueller investigation. They simple will not cooperate. It worked for them in the Mueller investigation. By not cooperating, Mueller was not able to definitively say that Trump broke the law. That is all his other henchman, Barr, needed to fully exonerate Trump. The media for their part did not a get a bombshell conclusion and decided to accept Barr’s conclusion and move on.
They are doing the same with the impeachment inquiry. Their strategy is to stonewall the inquiry and allow the courts to deal with it. They understand or feel that the courts have sided with Trump on many issues. With unfettered assistance from #MoscowMitch he is appointing partisan judges at a rate never seen before. He believes the courts are on his side. The administration also understand that the courts move at a snail pace. Their hope is that they can stall long enough to make it past next year’s elections. This is a working strategy because until the courts make a decision, they will just say that the democrats are trying to undue the 2016 elections. A message that rings well with his base and those on the fence.
The House and contempt of congress.
The house is too polite and too restrained in its response to Trump and his obstruction of the House’s investigation. When Corey Lewandowski testified, he basically gave the committee a middle finger. He invoked executive privilege when it did not apply to him at all and brazenly tweeted during a break about how much he was helping Trump. In other words he used the testimony to promote his senate campaign in New Hampshire for 2020.
If the democrats want the Trump administration to take this inquiry seriously they need to start holding people in contempt of congress. The charge may be a symbolic one but it is necessary. A high profile and public arrest of senior administration officials by the House’s sergeant at arms will send a message to the administration that the House and Americans will not put up with this obstruction for long. Not to mention a public arrest broadcasted on CNN and FOX News will make skeptics understand the seriousness of the this inquiry and the corruptness of this administration.
