(Thread 1/15) Some thoughts on today’s #impeachment news, which I wrote about @yesmagazine here: yesmagazine.org/opinion/2019/1…
Start with the basics: the House will likely vote to impeach Trump and the Senate will vote to acquit. Is there a point to this process? I argue yes, for two reasons. (2/15)
One: moral. The impeachment clause in the Constitution was created by the framers to avoid an entirely foreseeable consequence: a ruler who is corrupt, criminal, and/or subject to foreign influence. (3/15)
That may seem an apt description of Trump, but it was also based on a real-world example: English Kings Charles I and II, who were supported by France and sought to suppress the powers of Parliament. They fought a war over this. (4/15) h/t @Lawfareblog lawfareblog.com/three-lessons-…
That experience happened just a bit more than 100 years before the American Revolution (and, by the way, closer in time than the Revolution is to today). The framers knew what they were doing. (5/15)
The whole experience of the past three years of Trump’s lawlessness raises the question: If we don’t impeach Trump, then what good is the power of impeachment? Someone like Trump is what they had in mind when they wrote the clause into the Constitution. (6/15)
The second reason: political. This isn’t just about impeaching the president and making the Republicans own the result of sweeping them under the rug in a show of fealty to their dear leader. Though that’s important too. (7/15)
A better reason is for those on the progressive left who have found the Trump administration to be a rallying cry for their causes. This has yielded results in the 2018 midterms, in the off-year local elections this year. (8/15)
The inevitable acquittal of Donald Trump should be an even stronger rallying cause for progressives. It’s not as if he’s going to stop being lawless once he’s impeached. Trump is beyond shaming. Nixon was a paragon of morality by comparison. (9/15)
I’d hope the Democrats have the spine to impeach him again if he continues to commit crimes or if new evidence comes to light, but I’m not holding my breath. They cannot let up the pressure, even if he wins re-election. And yes, he just might. (10/15)
By keeping the focus in the articles of impeachment narrow (only on Ukraine, not on the Mueller report or emoluments clause violations or anything else), the House Democrats are signaling their intent to go with the slam-dunk, as it were. (11/15)
There may be more articles to come, but abuse of power and obstruction of Congress are easily proven to any casual observer willing to consider evidence. It also makes it harder for Republicans to cry "fake news," and their cover-up all that more shameless. (12/15)
All this should help focus progressives on the big picture: not necessarily removing Trump from office via impeachment, but voting Trump *and Trumpist enablers* out of office up and down the ballot in November 2020—less than a year from now. (13/15)
That battle moves into the statehouses in 2021, which are just as important going forward, and an arena Republicans have dominated for decades. This is where progressives really need to up their game if they want to not just win, but sustain those wins over the long-term. (14/15)
That’s what we’re really up against. Trump’s #impeachment is a battle we may well lose, but for the left to win the war, we need to make sure this loss is going to cost the right dearly. Here's my column: yesmagazine.org/opinion/2019/1…
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