IMPEACHMENT’S COMING: IT WILL HURT US ALL

Hank Rishel
Nov 4 · 4 min read

We are in for some really difficult times and those times are going to be difficult for everybody. Donald Trump has clearly violated his oath to uphold the Constitution. There is plenty of evidence that the president is guilty and everybody knows it. Both his supporters and his political opponents face an embarrassing richness of evidence which the president seems determined to continue to augment. By doing so, Donald Trump is creating a problem not just for himself but for every one of us.

The legal remedy for a president who violates his oath of office is impeachment. Impeachment had a long history in English law before our Constitution was written. At the Constitutional Convention in 1787 the delegates, borrowing language from the English, allowed impeachment for “high crimes and misdemeanors”. High crimes and misdemeanors implied acts which could only be done by high officials. That is why they are “high”. Trump’s pressuring the president of Ukraine to aid his electoral chances could hardly have been done by an ordinary citizen.

Impeachment in England, going back to the thirteen hundreds, was used by parliament to counter the monarch’s power by removing his officials (kings, who could claim to be appointed by God, were not subject to impeachment). At that convention the Founders assigned the drawing up of articles of impeachment to the House of Representatives. The president could only actually be removed if two thirds of the Senators, sitting as a jury, agreed that he should be removed. That meant that there would be a way to prevent what the delegates really feared, the president morphing into a king.

Donald Trump does seem to think and act like a king. That may be because of his celebrated narcissism (he is always the center of the universe). He may not be capable of operating in any other way. It would be reasonable to suspect that his narcissism was enhanced by long years during which, thanks to the equivalent of four hundred million dollars from his father, he could live high in his own gold tower and, protected by his lawyers, do pretty much as he pleased. He has molded the presidency in a way that allows him to continue to function as he had before.

It may also be that he simply is not patient or dedicated enough to really understand the government over which he presides. He may really think that Republican Senators are supposed to be part of a team that he has every right to manipulate and to bully. Donald Trump is terribly energetic but he is hardly a political Einstein. He may simply not understand how the system is supposed to work. And, because they fear him and his famous temper, the people around him avoid trying to make him understand.

His political supporters in Congress have to assume that he has violated his oath. If they talk about the charges against him, they lose. So, they can’t discuss real evidence. Instead up till now they have attacked the process. They argue that the process is somehow unfair to Republicans even though the Republicans are in every hearing, secret or otherwise. They have spent weeks arguing that the House hasn’t really officially voted to impeach (there is nothing in the Constitution about such a vote). They demand to identify the “whistle blower” whose identity is legally protected. They loudly talk of political plots against the president.

One argument from the president’s defenders that will increasingly emerge is that the president may have made embarrassing phone calls, may have supported dictators over traditional allies, may have encouraged the spending of money at properties he owns (the tax payers have paid out well over a hundred million dollars so that the president can play golf at his own resorts). He may have done those things but they are not crimes. That is true but irrelevant. Impeachment amounts to a political decision about whether a president has indulged in behavior that should prevent his continuing in office. It in no way requires him to have broken the criminal law.

Those defenders too are suffering. They know he is guilty but he is, after all, the President and the leader of their party. In the beginning members of Congress could argue that Trump, once in office, would change. He would grow. Even if he did not, the serious people around him would be “the adults in the room”. He would be constrained, pressured into being responsible. That didn’t happen. Little by little the man from the Gold Tower returned. Now Republicans face a dilemma, trapped whatever they do.

The Congressional Republicans are like the crew of the Titanic. Do they follow their leader and go down with the ship? Do they try to save themselves? How do they save themselves after three years of pretending that nothing was wrong? Even the ones who are least morally sensitive know they have failed the voters who elected them. It is hard to work in the Capitol surrounded by all that marble and not compare yourself to all those champions of justice painted on the walls.

And, ordinary citizens will suffer anguish too. The presidency is a unique office in this country. The president is often the only elected official many really know about (they probably can’t name their congressman). They want the president to do well. They want to feel confident that their country and its economy are in good hands. When a president really fails to live up to the image of the office they carry in their heads, if he is even faced with removal, it causes real psychological discomfort.

We face a period that will be profoundly upsetting. The president will be impeached but that impeachment will probably fail (Republicans have a majority in the Senate; it takes a two thirds vote to impeach). Then, unless President Trump chooses to resign, we face an election of a candidate who has just been put on trial. There is nothing about Donald Trump’s past history to suggest that he will go quietly. It is going to be very difficult for year for everybody.

H.J. Rishel

11/03/2019

Hank Rishel

Written by

Retired political science professor of 40+ years. Educated at Olivet, UofM, MSU, Northwestern, & Harvard. Hoping to make politics a fun & exciting topic for all

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