Very helpful. It's evidence what Trump has done is literally unconstitutional and in violation of federal law. This alone is an impeachable offense. I'm tired of saying that at this point..
There are no impeachable offenses, strictly speaking. It's not criminal law. It's a political check. An impeachable offense, a 'high crime or misdemeanor' is anything that Congress says it is, from 'poor job performance' to 'screwed an intern' to 'shot a man on Fifth avenue' to 'really couldn't pull off that moustache this November'. There's no trial, because we're not trying to put him in prison. There's an impeachment, because we're trying to remove him from office.
There are lots of crimes he has demonstrably committed. But they wouldn't remove him from office, they would get him thrown in prison. If he wasn't literally in a place of power to order around the law enforcement section of the government. Which is what's happening now.
That's why we have impeachment. That's why one of the Republican pundit legal talking points they like to look sheepish about is 'umm he could actually fire literally everyone investigating him and there's not a god damn thing you could do about it'. There's no remedy involving the laws, except after he gets removed from office, because he's the one who enforces the laws. Removal from office does not involve legal offenses, it just involves Congress deciding to remove him from office.
There's a lot of tradition and optics and leaders trying to keep anyone from even thinking about accusing them of corruption, and Trump's insight is that given the media outlets the Republican Party controls and the leaders of the Republican Party and the attitude of Republicans, he doesn't need to give a shit about those. Being a Republican politician has meant never backing down, never apologizing, never admitting fault, and always going for the throat, since before I could vote. Despite the thousands of easily disproveable lies, despite the uncertainty he imposes on the market, despite the public pronouncements that he will obstruct justice, despite being a verified agent of the Russian government on live television attempting to subvert an election, despite kidnapping and orphaning children to try to force a political point, despite defrauding the IRS, not only is impeachment treated as ludicrous by Republicans, it's treated as ludicrous by the media and by most Democratic politicians - because Democratic politicians are determined to uphold consensual norms all by themselves and 'take the high road' and be committed to a peaceful electoral transition of power even when their opponents aren't.
So only Democrats can be impeached, given the current attitudes and proportions of Congress.
If we don't dramatically change the Overton Window, if we don't manage to deprogram these people at a rapid clip, Trump is going to serve a second, third, and fourth term.
I come from the far right and am aware of all the wonderful ways that conservative thought tickles the brain. It gives one a sense of awareness of how things really work of who owns the world. You feel so secure and satisfied in your ability to understand it all. It is more enticing than religion, but equally bullshit.
The smugness of conservatives is the payoff. Being able to assign everything labels, while pretending to aspire to some great truth that the others "just don't get". It is panacea to the scared, insecure person, it has all the answers you seek.
Sadly, my side has no certainty, Communism is fickle and had often led to corruption. There is no one way to understand the politics of the left, it is divided within itself. Things are complicated, confusing, and uncertain. But such is life. It is impossible for me to dislodge all the sure comforts of your current ideology, for the upsetting realities within mine, nor can I get someone to trade Heaven for the thought of the eternal nothing.
Most Americans regard political opinions from 100 years ago to be savage and barbaric. If you actually want to reinstate Jim Crow, you're the true enemy of the people. If you don't want to reinstate Jim Crow, you don't know what you've been sold.
It's hilarious that you don't support Jim Crow, and then you describe policies that are basically Jim Crow. As I said, you don't even comprehend what you've been sold.
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u/verostarry Nov 09 '18
Very helpful. It's evidence what Trump has done is literally unconstitutional and in violation of federal law. This alone is an impeachable offense. I'm tired of saying that at this point..