Impeachment (a blog post without partisanship)

Impeachment will now be in the news for a long, long time.  The problem is the usual–very few of the people actually know what the heck is going on.  Sadly, this includes the president who has actually said that this is a coup attempt.  There are others on the other side of the spectrum that don’t realize that if successful, it’s not going to be a political sea-change.  Mike Pence will become president and he is ideologically much more conservative than Trump ever has been.

So…the real question is–did Trump do something against the interests of the United States?  This could be something from the Mueller Report, it could be the recent stories of dealings with the Ukraine.  It could be a cover-up of personal financial gains while acting as president.  Did he do something illegal?

You may think he did.  The other side will argue it is a witchhunt and he has done nothing wrong.  Neither side knows for sure.  While Congress has asked to interview people, asked for documents to be turned over, the President’s administration has actively resisted this, tying up almost everything in the court system–a place where it could take well past the next election to sort things out.  This is where impeachment comes in.

With impeachment, the House of Representatives is carrying out a real investigation with a specific purpose.  It can ask for any/everything as evidence–and after the Supreme Court ruling during the Nixon investigation–MUST be turned over to the House.  There are NO exceptions possible to this.

Every shred of evidence will then be seen by the appropriate investigating House personnel.  There will be no doubt remaining what President Trump did or did not do.

If the House thinks it meets the criteria for high crimes and misdemeanors, they will vote to impeach the President and send it to the Senate–where the Senate will serve as jury and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court serves as presiding judge.  The House provides the prosecutors while the president provides his own counsel.  Handled just like a trial, when it is done, the Senate votes guilty or not guilty.

The question of guilt is a big one because there is only one penalty that comes with a guilty verdict: removal from office.  There’s no censure, there’s no suspension–the president is immediately gone with no appeal.

There have been two other actual impeachments previously, Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton.  Both were moved forward for blatantly political reasons.  In both cases, the president was acquitted (Johnson by a single vote) in votes generally along party/faction lines.  The most famous ‘impeachment’ never was.  That’s Nixon.  Rather than face impeachment, Nixon resigned from office when the Supreme Court ruled he was required to turn documents over to Congress.  Nixon’s investigation is testament to the integrity of both parties of that era–it was not handled in partisan fashion.  All members of Congress were concerned about the breaking of the law by Nixon’s associates and the cover-up of the criminal activity.

So–whether you support President Trump or oppose him, you should stand in favor of the impeachment process moving forward.  American government is supposed to be accountable to the people’s representatives–and those are the men/women of Congress.  Let the sun shine in on events, let the evidence be weighed and then hope that the members of both parties vote their conscience rather than their partisan affiliation.