We currently should be impeaching Attorney General Bill Barr for outright lying under oath to Congress, something he was caught red handed doing. We probably should be having some level of House investigation into Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, after a brazen donation from a Russian oligarch to Kentucky exposed his compromised state. And Trump? Trump should've been gone in the first weeks of his term with the Trump University scandal. If Hillary Clinton or former President Barack Obama would've had a scandal 1/20th as damning as that, Republicans, and about half of the Democrats, would've removed them from office within a month.
I watched in 2006 as Democrats promised a full investigation (with charges!) if it was determined the Iraq War was started under false circumstances. All we had to do to ensure justice was to elect them to take control of the House and Senate. The Democrats won. I then watched in horror as many of the same Democratic leaders of today, when presented with undeniable proof the W. Bush White House (namely Dick Cheney and his staff) did indeed lie us into a war, shrugged their shoulders and did nothing to hold them accountable. The Democrats including Pelosi were the ones who stated [paraphrasing] "let's let bygones be bygones," and insisted their stern wagging finger was punishment enough for the people responsible for thousands of needless US soldier deaths, tens of thousands of permanently injured US soldiers, and hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqis.
I watched in 2008 as Democrats promised a full investigation into the banking crisis. All they asked in return was that we returned them to power with President Obama, and they'd clean up Wall Street. They won again. All they had to do was call the Chief Financial Officers from each one of the failed banks into Congress, demand to see their incoming and outgoing numbers, and when they couldn't produce them because they were playing the markets with monopoly money, slap the cuffs on them and haul them away to serve life for defrauding the world of billions. Nope! Not one CFO was called and barely anyone was held accountable. We had a bunch of Democrats once again deciding sternly wagging their fingers was punishment enough for intentionally defrauding the world of billions of dollars just to ensure banking executives Christmas bonuses got paid.
There were multiple reasons Democrats didn't show up in 2010. These two failed promises are a large percentage of that election's disinterest.
Why is it imperative to impeach Trump? Trump has been given the greatest mulligan of all time. At any other time in this country's history, a sitting president would've been removed from office for 1/100th of the lunacy Trump has produced, yet with a (likely compromised) Republican Party and Senate, they've turned a blind eye to the most incompetent man to ever reside in the White House.
But the Mueller Report changes everything. From his own words, "if he could've said the President wasn't guilty of a crime, he would've." He's saying he can't prosecute Trump because of DOJ rules, but the Congress has a Constitutional remedy for this. They can impeach him, hold a trial in the Senate, which McConnell can't stop, and force everyone involved in this mess to go on the record as to what they think of Trump's guilt.
Is there any guarantee Trump would be thrown out of office? Of course not, but impeaching Trump does two very important things beyond potentially removing him from office. First, Democrats would make it plain and simple; If you commit a crime in the White House, you will be impeached! The Democrats shouldn't look at whether Republicans would come on board to back them up. Find your spines and impeach the bastard! He's guilty, Robert Mueller basically said so, and so for Pelosi and the Democrats to wait for focus groups to tell them what to do is embarrassing. I'd rather be the person impeaching Trump and not removing him from office than be the person too scared to do the right thing. And for all those saying Trump supporters will be emboldened, Trump supporters were never going to vote Democrat anyway! They were always going to vote Trump regardless of what Democrats do, so ignore their threats and do the right thing, DAMN IT!
The second thing the Democrats would do is prevent Republicans from weaseling away from their blind support of Trump. If you don't impeach Trump, when it finally does comes out how crooked Trump really was (and it will eventually come out), all Republicans will say the same thing; "If the Democrats would've impeached him and brought this evidence to light, of course I would've voted Trump out of office. But since the Democrats were the ones who decided to not impeach Trump, there is nothing I could do." You create a valid excuse for Republicans ignoring Trump's antics. If Pelosi does nothing, it gives Republicans the best of both worlds.
Speaker Pelosi and all Democrats, if you do nothing, Democrats will lose big time in 2020. People want to be inspired. Not impeaching Trump would only give a glimmer of hope to people who'll never vote Democrat anyway.
I see Nancy Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schemer and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer all sitting in the burned out husk of the Congress, the remnants of the once majestic building smoldering and blackened, charred embers, a complete loss. The three of them turn to each other and say, "I think it's time to call the fire department!"
If the Democrats do nothing to hold this Administration accountable, the stereotype which has emerged about the left in this country will be proven true; all we are is a bunch off wimps, easily pushed around and manipulated.
I agree 100%
ReplyDelete