The closing arguments on
impeachment articles are done. The vote
to acquit looms large. Even with the
excellent closings by each of the House managers (especially Adam Schiff) the
vote is hardly in doubt. So, along with other commentaries on outcomes and takeaways,
here are some of my thoughts:
1)
President Trump
has acquired powers that can make him a dictator—an “elected Monarch” someone has suggested
a.
Trump believes Article
II of the Constitution gives him the power to “do whatever I want to do” -- now
totally supported by DOJ, Presidential Counsels and Republican Senators;
b.
He has been given
even greater authority by refusal of the Senate to subpoena additional
witnesses and documents during an impeachment trial;
c.
Such a precedent has
eaten a huge hole in the power of the Congress to perform any check on
presidential behavior
2)
Congress (Senate
mostly) has ceded its powers & checks on the Executive
a.
The sole power of
impeachment has been misused by the House Democrats in that they failed to do
all they could do to
i.
set forth a
“pattern” of abuse of office rather than one incident that was easily diminished
by defendant insistence on its inability to rise to the level of high crimes
ii.
to prove that
criminal behavior and actual breaking of laws was this President’s M.O. from
the very beginning (and before) of his tenure; (although such is not required) doing
so would prove this man’s intent and motive to undermine this form of
government rather than to (Article II, Sec. 3) “…take care that the laws be
faithfully executed…”
b.
The power to hold
a trial on the impeachment articles by the Senate has been undermined by voting
not to call witnesses and not to allow introduction of any new evidence; the
precedent has now been set by the Republican-controlled Senate that:
i.
abuse of office
(or one’s oath of office) does not rise to the level of high crimes and misdemeanors;
ii.
obstruction of
subpoenas from Congress (or worse, absolute rejection of such) is not only acceptable
but is included in the powers of the president to claim “Executive privilege”
iii.
oversight
activity is also limited now that investigation of the Executive is being
questioned
3)
Impeachment for ‘high
crimes & misdemeanors’ is ill-defined and probably dead
a.
unless Congress
passes legislation, new rules of order, and/or new amendments to the
impeachment clauses of the Constitution, the impeachment power is now
undermined and
b.
threatened with
irrelevancy
4)
Money allowed by
Citizens United has produced a Monster
a.
There is more behind
Trump behavior approval and behind the undermining of this congressional check
and balance
b.
Behind Trump’s
ability to capture and control the Senate Republicans is a small cadre of
billionaires who meet together, plan together and distribute their dirty money
together unchecked, unacknowledged and unknown through secretive 3rd
party super PACS that the SCOTUS has allowed as their “right to free speech”
c.
Any Republican
Senator (or congressperson) who dares go against Leader Trump can expect an
immediate flood of negative ads, smears and dumps on their subsequent run for
office
5)
Term Limits are a
must (two terms for Senators; 6(?) for Congressmen)
a.
It is now
abundantly clear that term limits are necessary as a check on:
i.
one-Party rule,
ii.
representatives
who seek a career more than public service,
iii.
entrenched thinking,
along with
b.
Overturning of
Citizens United
6)
The People are
the victims of non-representation
a.
Sorry
constituents, your opinion doesn’t matter even though you are the victims of
abuse of power by government officeholders because you are the governed
b.
Voters had little
input to the trial; polls were ignored
c.
Career civil
servants were victimized if they did testify about Trump behavior
7)
The Voters are part
of the Problem and part of the Solution
a.
People are responsible
for putting this dangerous man in office where he can destroy our Republic because
they voted for someone who is:
--a liar, a con man, a racist white
nationalist;
-- someone with no compunction about attacking and denigrating
people (especially minorities, women and Muslims);
--someone
who believes in punishing political enemies or those who simply show disloyalty
to him;
--someone who threatens the national security for
personal gain;
--someone who will throw anyone under the bus, and
--one
who is dedicated to using every tool of politics, government and institutions to
capture absolute power for himself
b.
However, the
People are also the ones who can change the results of putting this wannabe
dictator in office; what’s more, it is
the People who will need to act to prevent this narcissist from declaring a
national emergency to keep the presidency in his hands even if he loses the
election
8)
Our Democracy has
now changed fundamentally because the Congress has forfeited its powers of
oversight, subpoena and impeachment allowing the Executive carte blanche in all
future issues involving conflict between the branches. The next section will deal with some of those
possible outcomes
9)
Two political
parties are antithetical to our democracy (see my most recent previous Blog
post)
10) Forgotten is the constitutional responsibility of the President
who “shall faithfully execute the laws of the land”
This President exaggerates his powers (“I
can do anything I want”) while ignoring his responsibilities, such as seeing
that the laws are faithfully executed.
It is his responsibility, not to decide to do what he desires, but to
carry out the laws passed by Congress and signed by him. Thus, taking action to get around laws, such
as withholding foreign aid funds passed by the Congress, clearly violates this
constitutional obligation and amounts to an impeachable ‘high crime’
11) “High Crimes and Misdemeanors” represents one more
failure of the Founders to compromise instead of defining certain terms; a new
Congress needs to change that as soon as possible
12) Principles evidently have little place in this Congress
a.
Representatives
flit from one opinion to exactly the opposite depending on what or who is
demanding (and/or paying them for) their loyalty
b.
Those principles
that do survive are usually so fraught with extremism or questionable partisan
ideology that they garner little common cause
13) The Rule of Law has been abrogated, watch your back
now that Trumpism is the Law of the Land – you have lost your inalienable
rights, freedoms, and justice. You are
now at the mercy of an out-of-control Trumpism that will leave you vulnerable
to every scam, every cheat, every con; every injustice, every example of
unfairness; every lie, every scenario that puts you at a disadvantage – unless
you swear absolute loyalty to the new despotic cult leader – Donald John Trump and his henchmen and women. If you think you aren’t in danger just wait
until you must deal with governmental (or fascist militia) punishment for
denigrating Trump in a public forum.
So, what can we now
expect? Will our democracy really begin
to fall apart because of the lack of a search for Truth? Does this (expected) acquittal of Donald J.
Trump have a greater meaning than a verdict on removal from office? Of course. Here are just a few examples of
outcomes we can expect that will fundamentally change the character of our government.
1)
YOUR VOTE
WILL COUNT FOR LITTLE
2)
YOUR STATE
MAY COUNT FOR LESS, and
3)
YOUR OPINIONS
WON’T MATTER MUCH
If you live
in states like New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, California, Illinois, Colorado,
Hawaii (possibly Arizona and Nevada), you may soon find that voting for
Democrats and not Republicans will lead to greater forms of retribution from a
President who doesn’t care as long as he wins and Democrats don’t. How many
more deductions on federal taxes will disappear?
How many
more registered Democrats will be taken off the voter rolls for no substantive reason,
or how many will find their districts gerrymandered so they count little in the
final electoral vote?
How often
might his FEMA agency refuse direct aid after a natural disaster? Could other funds be diverted to other states,
like for education, or job training or for government contracts?
And what
happens when your state goes all out to phone senators, to petition Congress or
to testify before a congressional committee?
Nothing. And how about those Dems
you keep sending to Congress – are they experiencing the same obstruction when
they get there? You bet they are -- and
now it can all only get worse!
4)
GOVERNMENT
GETS SMALLER and YOU GET FORGOTTEN: How’s your health care assurance doing? That’s right “assurance” not just
insurance. Do you think your access to
affordable health care is going to improve under a president who will do only
what Big Pharm and Big Insurance request?
His loyalty is to profit, and he will make sure that those big companies
that support him get the profit margin.
Taxes will continue to favor the richest among us and you will pay the
price as the standard deduction reduces and more personal deductions are
restricted or lost. And, whatever happened to that infrastructure money that
your State used to receive from the Federal budget? Gone to Red States – too bad!
5)
WE WILL CONTNUE
TO GET WHAT A CRIMINAL MINDSET DELIVERS: One of the most important outcomes of Donald
Trump’s acquittal is that you and I will reap the whirlwind of a mindset that is
“self-centered, and oblivious to the needs of others and living by the simple
motto of “me, me, me.” Essentially, Trump’s claim that he has the right to
commit any acts he desires will be exacerbated by his acquittal. He will proclaim his absolute belief that life
is all about him – all the time -- and will attempt enforcement of that belief
in everything he does.
Thus, just
as he did the day after the Mueller report did not indict him, Trump will
embark on questionable behavior almost immediately after his acquittal on
articles of impeachment.
Why? it is characteristic that a criminal mindset
cannot exercise self-control and must act to take revenge, to blame someone
other than self for bad behavior, and to take advantage of proclaiming another
victory over those (‘weaklings’) who have been unable to call him to
account. He will attack Democrats as uncaring,
witch hunters and do-nothings while reviling GOP Senators who were what he
considers ‘disloyal’ and calling for investigations of the Biden’s (or whoever
is leading for the Democratic nomination).
He will embark on more damaging ways to assure his election in 2020, and
he will find ways to control all possible ramps toward victory including
inviting more foreign countries to help him.
And here
is the scariest part of this mindset:
People like
Trump tend to look at other people and situations as a power struggle.
Essentially, each encounter becomes a battle between strong and weak. Once a perpetrator
like Trump has decided he holds the strength, he will exploit the weaker
opponent. I believe Trump will
demonstrate that combativeness in his State of the Union address. Combined with
a newly inflated sense of invincibility – translated to “I’ll never get caught”
- Trump will proceed down a dangerous path believing that because a certain
strategy worked in the past, it will continue to prove to be successful for
him.
Those
attitudes and characteristics spell a potential disaster for you and me and for
democracy as we have known it. That is
because we now have a man who exhibits the characteristics of a criminal mind
seeking re-election to the highest office in this Land. If he is uncertain about the continued
support of his base of voters, he will seek to “fix” the 2020 election. If he loses that election, his mindset could
push him to attempt a forceful takeover of that office. Such an action is compatible with his mindset
and with that of his followers who have said they are not put off by what he
does or says as long as he defeats the establishment that they believe has
failed them. Some have even expressed a
threat of armed intervention if Trump loses.
Trump’s
acquittal will turn out to be the capstone of his career and of his worst
tendencies. His re-election would turn
out to be the end of our unique experiment in democratic government!
