Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
By the time this column publishes, President Donald Trump will, in all likelihood, be impeached.
In other words, formal charges will be filed against him by the U.S. House of Representatives to be tried in the U.S. Senate.
The probability that the Senate will remove Trump is a few points below negligible.
I am left with two questions.
The first I share with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who reluctantly agreed to proceed with impeachment inquiries.
What will impeachment accomplish?
The short answer: Very little and it could backfire catastrophically.
It might be a moral imperative to try to remove our history’s least presidential president, who has treated the office as if he were a kid who got his wish to be president and the boss of everything, and who, I would wager, has learned less on the job than any of his predecessors.
He even said Article II of the U.S. Constitution allows him to do whatever he wants. (Ridiculous, even with Attorney General William Barr nodding behind him.)
Impeachment, however could backfire for a couple of reasons.
For one, Americans have the political memory of a flock of sparrows, and a year is plenty of time for voters to forget the events that led to an impeachment squelched instantly by the Senate.
Meanwhile, Fox News commentators will continue to exalt Trump as an American saint to his adoring followers.
It could backfire, too, because the Democrats are now warring against each other as fiercely as the unified Trump machine excoriates Democrats in general.
There are still 15 bickering Democratic presidential candidates in a field that should already be narrowed to three or four. Democrats, too, are infected by “no compromise” politics.
My second question is addressed to Republican senators and representatives.
How, in good conscience, can you continue to aid and abet Trump?
The authoritative testimony in the House’s investigations clearly indicates that Trump solicited the Ukraine’s government to investigate a Trump rival to improve his personal chances of being re-elected. The knowledgeable witnesses testified Trump made that investigation a condition for receiving Congress-approved military aid and an official White House visit.
Yes, I know the Ukraine got the money and the red-herring investigation never started, but the president said, in effect, to the Ukraine’s new president, “If your country helps me by investigating my rival, my country will help your country.”
That is bribery: “Quid” for the Ukraine conditioned on a “pro quo” for Trump. Not the country. Trump. (Yes, Donald, there is a difference.)
Trump just got caught too early to carry it out.
The president then ordered subordinates to shun legitimate Congressional investigations. That’s obstruction of justice.
You, Republican elected officials, know it’s true no matter how big a megaphone you use to deny it or how often you recite fairy-tale conspiracy theories.
The Republican case would not convince a neutral jury.
But the jury in this case is a Senate whose majority is chained to Trump’s base.
To restate my second question, how many lines must Trump cross, knowledgeable Republicans, before you find the courage to oppose him and get your country back?
Steve Hansen writes about our life and times from his perspective of a semi-retired Tucumcari journalist. Contact him at: