The dam is filling up with Trump detractors. But will it burst? It turns out more Republicans are getting bold in the statements that they are making about the president’s legitimacy.
We know there have been rank & file real Conservative Republicans pushing back at the president pre and post his presidency. Politicians present a different story. They are petrified to go against the president because of the perceived cultish behavior of their base. Many believe Donald Trump owns the party.
I speak to a lot of Republicans from all socioeconomic backgrounds. It is true that these folks are no Liberals, Progressives, or Democrats. They will stay with Trump until a reliable alternative shows up.
Recently Representative Justin Amash (R-MI) did just that. In a series of tweets, he made the case for impeachment.
Former GOP Rep. Tom Coleman (R-MO) made the case but took it further. He wants both Donald Trump and Mike Pence impeached. In an article titled “Former GOP Rep. Tom Coleman: Trump, Pence are illegitimate. Impeach them,” he specifies why.
According to the redacted Mueller report, candidate Donald Trump, along with members of his team, on multiple occasions welcomed Russian interference on his behalf during the 2016 presidential campaign. For example, the report details a meeting between the Trump campaign chairman and a Russian intelligence asset where polling information and campaign strategy were shared.
While Mueller did not find sufficient evidence that Trump or his campaign had violated a criminal statute, the net effect was that the Trump campaign encouraged a foreign adversary to use and misrepresent stolen information on social media platforms to defraud U.S. voters. Because the presidency was won in this way, the president’s election victory brought forth nothing less than an illegitimate presidency.
Mueller presents a strong case that in addition to receiving campaign help from Russian operatives, the president obstructed justice — a crime in itself. Mueller declined to charge the sitting president because of current Department of Justice regulations that prohibit it. That policy is wrong in my opinion, and must be changed in the future when reason and rationality return to our politics.
This article acknowledges that the Speaker of the House would become the President if Congress impeaches both the President and Vice President, which makes it that more compelling.
In addition to these constitutional provisions, the Presidential Succession Act of 1947 sets the order of officials who are in line to succeed a president, regardless of the reason. The first three officials listed are the vice president, the speaker of the House and the president pro tempore of the Senate. If the vice president were unable to ascend to the presidency for whatever reason — for example resignation or impeachment — then the speaker would become president. Today that individual is Rep. Nancy Pelosi. It is unknown whether she would agree to serve as president or that the majority of the House would want her to do so.
The Constitution does not require the speaker of the House actually to be a member of the House of Representatives. Under these circumstances, with the specter of a national crisis looming over the vacancy of the presidency and vice presidency simultaneously, consideration should be given by House members to draft a nationally-known individual for speaker who would appeal to the vast majority of Americans. That person, after being sworn in as speaker, would ascend to the highest office in the land. Under the provisions of the 25th Amendment, the new president would nominate a vice president, who would take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both chambers of Congress.
Coleman then admonished the Democrats to act providing the cost for not moving forward to remove this illegitimate president.
What if House Democrats decide not to embark on impeachment? If that were the case, I believe the public would conclude Democrats are no better than the Republicans who have enabled Trump for the past two years, putting party above country. It could hand Trump a second term. Failure to pursue impeachment is to condone wrongdoing. To condone wrongdoing is to encourage more of it. To encourage wrongdoing is to give up on the rule of law and our democracy. To give up on the rule of law and democracy invites autocracy and eventually dictatorship. History has taught us this outcome. In my lifetime, it has occurred in other places including the Soviet Union and Germany, as well as in Russia and Venezuela today.
For some time I have been advising that Democrats engage the citizenry on bread and butter issues. I was not advising against investigating but I did not want Democrats and Progressives to fall into an obsession with impeaching a corrupt president at the expense of taking care of the people.
Now that the preliminary investigation is over and makes a compelling case for impeachment, it is clear to me now that a quick impeachment is in order.
Democrats continue their timidity. Joy-Ann Reid provided a great perspective of the fallacy that has them more fearful of Donald Trump’s base than their own.
Whether the Senate convicts or not is immaterial as Congress would have done its constitutional job. The Presidential campaign must continue on poor and middle-class centric issues.