I am a lifelong Democrat, believe Nixon, Reagan and Bush all had terrible policies and that Trump is a disaster. But I also believe that struggles over broad political and ideological issues need to be played out through fair and honest democratic elections, not through congressional investigations, special prosecutors, impeachment procedures or politically-motivated or precedent-shattering Supreme Court decisions. We are already entering “Banana Republic” territory.
Whenever too many lawyers are involved, popular democracy is at risk. And whenever legalistic procedures are used to essentially overturn the results of popular elections, we enter the dangerous realm of the coup d'etat, legal or otherwise.
Both of our major political parties have shown themselves perfectly willing to resort to undemocratic means to win or retain political power without doing the hard work of honestly winning the support of a majority of the citizenry. Watergate was one example. The disgracefully partisan decision on by the Republican majority on the Supreme Court in Bush v. Gore in 2000 is another. Both did tremendous damage to the legitimacy of our democracy and this current push to impeach Trump is doing the same.
Clinton supporters were rightly horrified when Trump led chants of “Lock her up!” at his campaign rallies, calling it an authoritarian break from American political norms. How is what they are doing now cheering on the Mueller investigation any different? Do they imagine this is strengthening our already strained democratic traditions?
Political parties and political leaders in democracies must do the hard work of honestly winning willing support for their policies from a majority of the people they seek to govern. No shortcuts. Make your case. No cheating. No technicalities. No excuses. It’s not a game. Get serious. We’re depending on you.
