In an era of highly polarized parties — which the Founders didn't predict, because they believed America would resist political parties altogether — this argument nullifies the very legitimacy of the impeachment power so long as the President's party can maintain discipline.
It's a closed loop of partisan tautology: No Republican can or should vote for impeachment because no Republican is voting for impeachment.
When this is used as an argument for why a Republican Senator is voting *even against witnesses,* it strikes at the heart of the system.
When this is used as an argument for why a Republican Senator is voting *even against witnesses,* it strikes at the heart of the system.
The Founding Fathers didn't believe we'd have partisan impeachments because they didn't believe we'd have political parties. But we do.
It is our job, in our time, to make our constitutional structure work amidst them, or modify it until it does.
It is our job, in our time, to make our constitutional structure work amidst them, or modify it until it does.
That requires members of the Senate, in moments like this, to act as if party is irrelevant.
In explicitly arguing that part of why he can't vote for witnesses is that the Republican Party opposes impeachment, Alexander is doing the opposite.
In explicitly arguing that part of why he can't vote for witnesses is that the Republican Party opposes impeachment, Alexander is doing the opposite.
Bipartisanship isn't a condition external to Alexander's decisions. It is a condition that will be decided by Alexander's decisions. He is making impeachment more partisan on the grounds that others made the same decision before him. It's maddening.
In "Why We're Polarized," I argue that the polarized parties do not, themselves, threaten political systems. It's the interaction between polarized parties and our unusual system, which was designed to resist parties, but is now dominated by them.
amazon.com/Why-Were-Polar…
amazon.com/Why-Were-Polar…
Crucial aspects of our constitutional structure fail under this condition. We're seeing that here, and now.
As a kicker, too, this is darkly perfect. Alexander is voting for a shallower, more hurried impeachment trial partly on the grounds that the process has been...shallow and hurried.
