Thread by @asymmetricinfo

Okay, let's talk anonymous op-eds about Trump's behavior. And my column on same. washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-par…

Particularly let's talk about the argument for removing him, either via the 25th amendment or impeachment.

People who are advocating a 25th amendment solution don't seem to have read the amendment too closely. As soon as the cabinet certifies he's incompetent, he gets to write back to congress saying "Am not!" At which point, congress has to vote.

It takes a 2/3 majority to certify.

Of both houses.

If there were a majority for this, it would be easier to impeach him. This is a solution for a president in a coma, or otherwise so cognitively impaired that he's unaware of what's happened.

Whatever you think of Trump, he's not that cognitively impaired.

So. No 25th amendment

I have already said that if Democrats take the House and Senate, impeachment is very likely. The base is dying for it. Conservatives got very mad, interpreting this prediction as a normative prescription. It's not. It's just my assessment (possibly wrong) of the politics.

The important question is: should he be impeached and removed?

My views on this are somewhat complicated.

I think he's shredding international alliances to no national gain, hacking away at our civic fabric, & otherwise the worst president we've elected in at least the past 100 years. His behavior is so far beneath the dignity of his office--again, to no gain--as to defy description

And for the folks who are about to accuse me of being in "the Cathedral", I think that many of his policy prescriptions are within the scope of legitimate democratic politics. My concern is with the fact that he is ignorant, dangerously erratic, and pointlessly provocative.

And also that his management skills would be underwhelming for a mid-sized McDonalds. The rampant leaking and overt court politics in the West Wing are his fault. They happen because he can't hire, or lead.

Or at least, chooses to put vanishingly little effort into those vital tasks.

All this sounds like a recipe for removal. Except. His public behavior is little different from the behavior that elected him. If he had *started* acting this way after his election, the choice would be clear, and I think not even controversial among Republicans.

But this is what his voters pulled the lever for. And there is something deeply uncomfortable about the other party removing him, or the elites of his own party doing so, even though on a policy level, I think that's clearly better for the country.

It would be interpreted--not unfairly--as a coup by educated elites against his voters. That's an enormous problem for the democratic legitimacy of the system.

Nor, if he were removed for basically being a bad president, would this be the last time.

Normalizing Trump is bad. Normalizing impeaching and possibly removing presidents whenever congress changes hand would be worse.

I think that changes if support for impeaching him rises. If it hits the 66% that chased Nixon out of office, there's a good case.

But now? No.

Trump is a crisis for our democracy. But it will not be the last crisis, and we have to think beyond the next two or six years.

We've shredded too many norms already. We can't afford to lose any more.

The argument that Trump is shredding norms so the rest of us need to fight fire with fire is exactly backwards. Escalating the norm destruction is how you get more Trumps.

And for those arguing that he was elected by a minority of voters: he was elected under the rules we had. If we say "that doesn't count" and start constructing alternate metrics, we won't stop with just this once. If you ever want GOP to accept a Dem president as legitimate, stop

Which brings me to the end of my tweetstorm. Thanks for reading! Column is here, and have a lovely weekend:

washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-par…