https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trump-king-impeachment-founders-ukraine-922935/
Trump is hardly the first president to
make full use of the frighteningly expansive power of the presidency.
That bipartisan tradition dates back decades. More recently, we saw it
in the vast executive theory used by George W. Bush to justify torture
and wage endless wars. We saw it Barack Obama’s expansion of the war on
terror, use of a secret drone-strike kill list, and wielding of
executive authority to put in place hundreds of new regulations.
But Trump exists in a different realm. He thinks he is
the law, an untouchable and all-knowing sovereign. Reality bends to his
will. He stands in front of the American people and tells them to
believe the opposite of what they see and hear, tells them that he alone can fix what’s broken in American politics.
This is the behavior of a president who believes he’s a king.
Founding Fathers fears unfounded. My wishful thinking aside, Donald Trump is nothing more than a President.
ReplyDeleteProof: not one one Republican is going to vote for impeachment. Do you really want to convince me that ALL the Republican Senators want a Mad King Trump to stay in office?!
I will say this: if the answer is "yes" then the Constitution is thoroughly flawed and should be discarded for failing to predict a Mad King Senate.
Furthermore, there was a "method to his madness." Let's agree that the whole scheme of holding onto Ukrainian aid was the way of madness. What might have been behind it? Political motives? Let's say "yes", at least in part. And that's fine, and is incorporated into how the system work.
ReplyDeleteIt is the stated purpose of democratic government that different, sometimes opposing, factions vie for and hold power. For example, a Republican is President right now, while Democrats control the House of Representatives. For political and pure motives, Democrat Congressmen investigated Republican President Trump.
The President had decided to investigate Democrat Joe Biden. His motivations were political and pure. In a perfect world, the President would have consulted with Congressional leaders from both parties and said: "Either you invistigate former VP Joe Biden, or I'm going to."
The problem with that approach was three-fold:
-The Republican held Senate was not going to investigate one of their own. Biden is a former Senator.
-The Democrat led house was not going to investigate one of their own. Biden is a Democrat.
-If the President openly investigated Biden, as deserving as Biden was and is of investigation, the media and the Democrats in the House would have worked tirelessly to impeach the President for doing what his job dictates!
So, the President had little choice but to operate secretly.
I make several assumptions in the above analysis. My basic point: nobody is above the law. But Joe Biden had been given a major pass. Senator Lindsey Graham has made this point, too.