Is Trump a Threat to the Constitution?
Even long before special counsel Robert Mueller declared Trump not not-guilty after a two-year investigation, many Democratic House members believed Trump was guilty of impeachable crimes and said so. As the 2020 election inches closer every day and the window of time in which to conduct an impeachment hearing narrows, those voices are becoming more shrill.Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has had to use rhetoric like a tight-rope walker uses a balancing rod to please both the radical and moderate poles of her party. Unfortunately, she doesn’t seem to be pleased, either.
Nonetheless, is there or is there not a tyrant, a criminal, in the White House? What does it say about the pro-impeachment House Democrats if they permit a person to remain in office whom they believe is a threat to the Constitution they swore to defend? If they let such a person keep his office a day longer than absolutely necessary, they don’t deserve to keep their own.
Of course, politics involves compromise and cooperation, and there is a longer political game that is always at stake. Impeachment hearings can backfire. In this case, political parties are contending for majorities in both the House and the Senate in the 2020 election. Democrats and Republicans alike must tread carefully.
Honesty Is the Best Policy
It’s possible, though, that pro-impeachment Democrats don’t actually believe that Trump is guilty of any “treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.” And branding Trump as worthy of impeachment and, therefore, unworthy of the office of president is great marketing for the 2020 campaign, regardless of whether it’s true.Fake news wasn’t invented in 2016. Ancient Athens had its tasteless demagogues and vulgar comic poets, too. But these days, every political statement said in public or in private is potential viral food for the consuming hordes on social media, again, regardless of whether it’s true. Citizens and politicians alike—from both parties—exploit these new media modes with sarcasm and spectacle. Call it the art of the squeal.
So, though dishonest, maintaining a lie about the president committing bags full of impeachable offenses can be an effective political strategy. Appearance—in the form of sound bites and well-framed memes—is often reality, politically speaking at least. And if you make that lie simple and keep repeating it often enough, eventually people will believe it, or else it will become an incessant media talking point, which is nearly the same thing, politically speaking at least.
We call that sort of thing gaslighting today. Here also, then, pro-impeachment Democrats put the interests of their party before those of the American people.
This is the essence of Trump derangement syndrome, having such passionate hatred for Donald Trump that one would rather the whole country suffer if it means bringing him down. Cutting off the nose to spite the face may help Democrats in the short-term increase voter turnout in the primary, but it will hurt them in the general election and hurt the country in the long-term.
Pro-impeachment House Democrats either need to put their money where their mouth is and start an impeachment hearing, or they need to put the impeachment rhetoric to bed. Otherwise, the American people should call them out as either cowards or liars.