I recently had a conversation with
someone who said the election is over and we should accept the
results. But the investigation of Russia's meddling in our Presidential election
is not an investigation of the results of that election or an attempt
to overturn the election. Most people realize that no one has come
up with a way to determine what the results would have been but for
Russia's meddling. Which means there is no reasonable way to dispute
the results. The question of whether there was collusion between
Trump's campaign and Russia is therefore a question of criminality that is separate and apart form any questions regarding the legitimacy of the election. But our inability establish a causal relationship between the results of
the election and Russia's meddling does not mean that we can or should ignore the
fact that Russia's acts were an attack on this country. That attack
by a foreign power and anyone who aided and abetted the attacker pose
a serious threat to our democracy and the very foundation of our
political system.
Lets apply a bit of logic here. The
question of whether Trump should be impeached is not partisan because
the Democrats have nothing to gain by removing him. Granted that
Trump is a horrible President, but he has no real ideology or agenda.
It is Paul Ryan and other Republicans in the House of Representative
that are trying to repeal Obama care and deprive millions of people
of health insurance. It is Paul Ryan and other members of congress
who have the desire and power to eliminate the safeguards provided by Dodd Frank and
restore “too big to fail.” Even in regard to enriching the rich
at the expense of the poor and the middle class, it is Republican
members of congress who want it. Trump merely wants to further
enrich the rich; he does not care whether the tax breaks he wants to
give to himself and other rich people are paid for or not. I will
grant you that Trump is a dangerous demagogue who panders to the fear
and loathing of the xenophobic reactionaries, but he has no idea of
how to get anything done in Washington. That is why he is more than
willing to go along with what the Republican leadership wants even
when it breaks some of his campaign promises. He just wants to take
the credit for what is done and to pass along the blame when what is
done turns out to be unpopular. As Ted, the Canadian Texas turd, Cruz would have said during the primaries, "Some outsider, eh!"
Unfortunately here is what will happen
if we impeach and remove Trump from office. Mike Pence, a right wing
Republican, will succeed Trump. Right now Trump is mired in scandal
and controversy, and his ineptitude combined with his penchant for
demonstrating how unsuited he is to govern makes it almost impossible
for him to get any legislation through congress. Mike Pence, on the
other hand, is a competent politician who can get things done. The
one trait he shares with Trump is that the things Mr. Pence favors
doing are things that will ream the people who voted for Trump
along with the rest of us! What I find so frustrating about that is
that we still need to impeach Trump because he abuses his power, puts
his own financial gain ahead of the best interests of this nation,
and acts like Putin's man ho! To put it simply, Trump poses a
serious threat to this country and its democracy because he acts more
like the ruler of a banana republic rather than the elected leader of
the Great Republic.
I sincerely believe Trump will be
removed from office before the end of his term. I will take no joy
in that. It is an extreme but necessary remedy. My greatest hope
is that the American people will learn from this debacle, and that
they will give the Democrats control of congress so that the
Republicans cannot cause another economic crash and erase all of the
progress we have made under President Obama.
No comments:
Post a Comment