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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsNew Yorker: Another look at impeachment, after a long hot summer
https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/another-look-at-impeachment-at-the-end-of-a-long-summerA few months ago, when the question of the impeachment of the President began to be raised seriously, the arguments for and against it seemed to align themselves along a relatively neat axis of principles and prudence. The prudential argument, against impeachment, which House Speaker Nancy Pelosi seemed to favor then and seems to favor still, is that the crucial thing for those who resist Donald Trump—stipulating in advance that he’s an autocrat at daily war with the basic premises of liberal democracy—is to win elections in 2020. The only meaningful defeat is a political defeat.
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The prudential case against impeachment and for democratic reform is all the Porta Potties on Staten Island soccer fields, multiplied by a a thousand other soccer fields in a hundred other places. Victory for the big cause depends on small successes, not one big failure.
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The principled case, now and then, is summed up in three words: Trump’s a crook. If the phrase deliberately left open by the Founders to be defined as “high crimes and misdemeanors” does not apply to the evidence of Trump’s conduct over the past three years, then it would seem to have no meaning at all. Any one of half a dozen scandals that would have been the immediate cause of an impeachment inquiry into—and, before that happened, of universal cries for the resignation of—any previous President are still open. His former personal lawyer is serving a three-year prison sentence for crimes including campaign-finance violations that involved paying off two women, reportedly with Trump’s knowledge, to remain silent about their relationships with him; Trump himself continues to profit while and through holding public office. Above all stands his record of open engagement with foreign autocrats against American interests and against democracy itself, and, with it, a record of attempting to obstruct justice to obscure inquiry into any such engagement. Looking at this record, and remembering Bill Clinton’s impeachment for lying about a consensual sexual encounter, or the attacks on Jimmy Carter for supposedly not keeping his peanut warehouse sufficiently sealed off from the Presidency, and one can almost despair for the country.
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empedocles
(15,751 posts)as MERELY [emphasis supplied] a political problem . . . ]
in his argument for impeachment now . . .
. . . [methinks the author here might be missing something . . . that perhaps the Speaker, and the Founding Fathers have 'considered' with more depth]
Laura PourMeADrink
(42,770 posts)the Constitution more closely by not impeaching than by impeaching?
empedocles
(15,751 posts)remedy more subject to the passions, corruptions, shortsightedness, etc. of a given time.
The Constitution was grounded in strong historical reasons by an exceptional group - who 'merely' designed the most long lasting working democracy in history. The purpose of the Constitution - is to preserve the Republic.
traitortrump greatly favors impeachment now, or like yesterday. trump advisors have long known that trump's prospects have been better off the sooner it would occur. 2017 would have been great. An early 2017 'formal impeachment inquiry' would've fantastically improved trump's ability to get all these 'complaints' over with and brushed off. No Mueller.
Some trumpsters could only dream if the continuous trump exposure by information inundation would never have happened.
A premature impeachment now would also have provided great cover for any 'sore loser' complaints against trump.
Since 2017 trump's position has weakened steadily, now weekly. As the many trump investigations continue, the trump weakening may become daily.
The Speaker's formal impeachment timing position, is historically and politically very well grounded - strengthened and justified over the 2 years and 8 months that Pelosi has out maneuvered trump against very tough odds. [And some of those tough odds have been caused by some Dem supporters]
Laura PourMeADrink
(42,770 posts)That articles of impeachment are always political (think blowjob) It makes it sound like one believes that everything trump has done is just because we view it as bad because we are in the opposition party.
In my mind, it is pure conjecture that trump wants to be impeached and that people will turn against us in droves if we did. You can make the argument that people will look to us and day"thank you! Glad someone is standing up against blatant malfeasance." Couldn't you?
Wow..72% of Dems favor Impeachment?? That's back up close to the 80% last December! Haven't seen this Monmouth poll...but that's what it sounds like.
spanone
(135,832 posts)Laura PourMeADrink
(42,770 posts)spanone
(135,832 posts)
abqtommy
(14,118 posts)Laura PourMeADrink
(42,770 posts)Snip
It’s hard to get a straight answer out of Democrats. During a press conference on July 26, days after Robert Mueller’s congressional testimony, Jerrold Nadler, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said for the first time that his panel was “in effect” conducting an impeachment inquiry. In court documents filed that day, the committee wrote that articles of impeachment “are under consideration.” About two weeks later, Nadler seemed to break news again when he declared in a CNN interview that “formal impeachment proceedings” were under way. But his exact rhetoric was cagey. No formal vote has been taken by the House. Nadler said he hoped to “vote to vote articles of impeachment to the House floor” by the end of the year. “Or we won’t,” he added. “That’s a decision that we’ll have to make. But that’s exactly the process we’re in right now.”
The key to deciphering Nadler’s rhetorical mumbo jumbo is to understand the political quandary facing Democrats. For Speaker Pelosi, the top priority in 2020 is maintaining her Democratic majority—and that means doing whatever it takes to protect so-called majority makers or frontline Democrats who either flipped Republican seats or won districts that swung for Trump in 2016. “The public isn’t there on impeachment,” she argued during a conference call with her caucus last Friday, according to a congressional source. The numbers back her up: A recent Monmouth University poll found that 72% of Democrats support impeaching Trump, but only 35% of respondents feel the same.
More at link
empedocles
(15,751 posts)Laura PourMeADrink
(42,770 posts)empedocles
(15,751 posts)Laura PourMeADrink
(42,770 posts)smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)