Trump and impeachment

[pbrower2a]

In view of the involvement with the Russian intelligence agencies and perhaps Russian-American crime syndicates, he should be impeached for campaign-law violations. This would be for deeds while not President.

[pbrower2a]

We now have a weakened and ineffective President. Congress becomes more powerful in such a time as the system becomes a parliamentary system by default.   

[pbrower2a]

We now have a weakened and ineffective President. Congress becomes more powerful in such a time as the system becomes a parliamentary system by default.   

This will only be true if the Republicans in Congress stop enabling Trump, which seems unlikely to happen.

In view of the Russian tampering with the 2016 Presidential election, one can only imagine the effect upon the Senate election of 2016.

[pbrower2a]

Republican Senators elected or re-elected in 2016 and not up for re-election until 2022 will support this President, and that will be enough to make removal practically impossible. Several of those know that they would not have won election except with the Russian aid to Trump in the general election.

[pbrower2a]

At the least the President needs to be put on notice.

Bad as the state of mental health was with Ronald Reagan with his Alzheimer's disease, at least he was able to act with a semblance of principle, and he had good people around him whom he could trust. Donald Trump has surrounded himself with yes-men. There is no George Shultz or Casper Weinberger to say no to him. Unlike Reagan, who could at least follow a script and seem normal, Trump is utterly uncoachable. We are in the worst Constitutional Crisis since the Civil War.

If our Republican politicians cannot see the danger of a President even whose legitimacy of election  is suspect who is so out of touch with reality that he must be impeached, then we need incapacity to remove him.  I certainly want the nuclear football out of his hands.

Legitimacy? It is hard to estimate how much help came from Russian intelligence services and how much was necessary for the difference between a Trump and a Clinton victory. There were severe and extensive violations of campaign finance laws whose effect may have been in excess of 1% in the electoral result for President.

Because of the nature of the Presidential election, Mike Pence is also tainted.

It may be up to elected Republicans in the Senate to show whether they will enable the worst behavior of a President. Donald Trump is a fighter; he does not concede in the face of defeat of any kind. In this he is far more dangerous than Richard Nixon was. Nixon had the capacity for shame -- something completely lacking in Trump. 

 

[pbrower2a]

If Democrats press impeachment in the House, and get it, we can be certain that the Senate majority will quash a conviction or removal. Most Republican Senators have connected to the Trump personality and agenda on regulation and taxes. The hazard to the Senate is that 2014 winners get connected with Trump foibles for defending a terribly-flawed President who can at the most charitable be considered a dupe of political forces that he does not fully understand.

Democrats have the House back, and dare not risk that. The second task is to replace Donald Trump, and if they oust him we end up with Mike Pence, a believer in absolute plutocracy with the worthless promises of fundamentalist Christianity as a reward for toil done in suffering bur with forced smiles. So we replace one amoral sexist pig who believes in class privilege as the dream for all with a moralizing sexist pig who believes in class privilege as the dream for all.

The third task is to get the Senate back, and you can expect the plutocrats who fully controlled American politics in the first two years of the ultra-plutocratic Trump administration to seek even more crushing control of American politics.  They have what counts in American politics most of the time -- campaign funds and support of corporate lobbyists who pull the strings on 'conservative' politicians.

[pbrower2a]

The third task is to get the Senate back, and you can expect the plutocrats who fully controlled American politics in the first two years of the ultra-plutocratic Trump administration to seek even more crushing control of American politics.  They have what counts in American politics most of the time -- campaign funds and support of corporate lobbyists who pull the strings on 'conservative' politicians.

The moderates: Ernst, SMC and Collins and Murkowski aren't moderates since Murkowski voted for Gorsuch and Collins voted for Kavanaugh.  They, along with Mitt Romney voted to block Trump's emergency declaration.

Aside from Romney, no one will remove Trump. Plus, Elaine Chao, McConnell's wife is working withing Transportation, and knows if Trump is removed, risk his pension

And whatever benefit he may gain from Russian oligarchs investing in Kentucky.

Those oligarchs are investing in real estate in New York City and San Francisco -- not Detroit or St. Louis.

[pbrower2a]

The Democrats are committing political suicide. They may even lose the House next election.

We Democrats are not asking for a revolution or even an unconstitutional snap election, let alone a military coup. We are waiting for the 2020 election, and we are already preparing for it.

Many of us have read the non-partisan Mueller report in full (to the extent that it is not redacted) or in part, and for many of us it makes President Trump even more objectionable. But we still believe in the Constitution, due process, and the rule of law. We also believe in rational processes and the value of education, as a pattern. That is more than anyone can say of Donald Trump.

"I grab 'em by their (kitty-cats)".
"I love low-information voters".
"Russia -- if you have those (hacked) e-mails I want them".
"There are good people on both sides (of the divide between neo-Nazis and everyone else)"
"I prefer heroes who haven't been captured by the Enemy".

This is by the current successor of a man who said this:

"Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth onto this continent a new Nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal... that government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth"

and one who told us

"We have nothing to fear -- but Fear itself!"

Our greatness has always been a consequence of our goodness as a nation. Regrettably the current President brings out the worst in many of us. We who recognize his gross inadequacy already resist in ways that the Constitution allots us so that we will need no revolution, coup, or liberation by foreign powers to deliver us from the evil that Donald Trump represents. Remember that Donald Trump is not the evil itself; he is but a symptom.

It will take liberals and conservatives alike to undo the harm that Trump has brought upon America. We may need institutional change -- maybe even to have a parliamentary system with the powerful and swift vote of no confidence. Our Founding Fathers held the British parliament in contempt because it was full of the King's flunkies. Canada does well enough -- probably because it saw the British parliament after it became responsible and representative.

Donald Trump would not have metaphorically survived a vote of no confidence

[pbrower2a]

The Democrats are committing political suicide. They may even lose the House next election.

LOL.

That's what you all said about Trump winning in 2016. You all really thought Hillary would have won.

The Democrats don't get it.

The critical voters in the middle, the true swing voters, are NOT on board with impeachment.  This is not to say they're on board with Trump, but they are not convinced that impeachment is valid.

We do not need impeachment; we need only have a free, fair, and competitive election. We have usually taken such for granted. We Democrats have the responsibility to demand an investigation of the real and imagined misconduct of this President -- and to compel Senate and Congressional Republicans, should such misconduct prove real, to either renounce the President or to go down with him. An impeachment might fail to take down this President -- but it can expose him  for the slimeball that he is.

The demographic trends are not with the GOP; the 2018 election shows that. The youngest cohorts of voters -- those under 40 -- are much more liberal than America as a whole, and you can imagine what politics will be like when such people start running for and winning high office.

For now, the 2018 election looks like a portent of future elections. Midterm elections are usually more R-leaning than the preceding and following Presidential elections due to lesser participation by voters. Millennial voters voted unusually heavily for young voters this time.

A 2010- or 2014-style electorate obviously gets Trump re-elected, gives the Republicans the House, and protects the Republican Senate majority. A 2012-stylye or 2016-style electorate makes predictions dicey for everyone. An electorate like those of 2006, 2008, or 2018 is a disaster for the current GOP.  Just imagine what happens if the 2020 electorate is more D than that of 2018.

Current GOP, that is. The current GOP has sunk into demagoguery, economic elitism, and institutional corruption. Democrats will need a strong GOP to keep them honest -- an honest GOP that has respect for due process, the rule of law, and Constitutional norms. If the GOP should fail at that, then we will need a new conservative party as a check on radicalism.     

[pbrower2a]

The Democrats are committing political suicide. They may even lose the House next election.

LOL.

That's what you all said about Trump winning in 2016. You all really thought Hillary would have won.

And do you remember how many blue-avatars were saying that they didn't believe they would lose the House in 2018? How bad of a licking did the GOP take here?

Wasn't on here for 2012, but all the partisan Republicans I know in real life were 100% convinced Romney was going to completely cream Obama right up to the election. Unlike in the case of Clinton there was no justification for having that opinion. They just think Republicans are going to win YUUUUGEEEE every single election, obviously sometimes Republicans are going to win so sometimes they'll be right. But that doesn't mean they're geniuses with supernatural powers of prediction as they now all think they are.

I looked at the polling data. I thought Obama extremely vulnerable in 2011, bit I also saw him doing what was necessary to get re-elected. The polls showed Trump opportunities closing during the summer of 2012. Unlike Trump, Romney did not debase the political process by so soiling it as making his opponents question whether they wanted to participate.

At this point I cannot see a successful impeachment and removal of Donald Trump. In 1974 the Republicans still had some sticklers for political decency in the Senate; this time the GOP seems to be mostly fanatical, spineless boot-lickers who will defend President Trump at any cost., including electoral defeat. They simply cannot see  electoral defeat as a prospect.

OK. Trump is in a worse spot for re-election than was Obama at this time. trump needs to be gaining significantly in approval ratings and chipping away at disapproval ratings -- and he fails at such. Maybe his base intensifies its belief in him -- but his counter-base is getting firmer, and it is beyond the critical 50%.

OK, Trump can win re-election if he gets bare majorities in almost all swing states of 2016 while Democrats simply run up the popular vote in a few states (California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts,  New Jersey, New York, and Washington). While Republicans themselves pose as nice guys, Republican front groups can hammer Democrats in both Houses of Congress. hold the Senate, and take back a House majority and establish the Christian and Corporate State of their dreams -- cheap labor facing monopoly prices and unable to challenge the power of economic elites  who believe that no human suffering can be in excess so long as it serves those elites and can enforce such. But will that work?

Democrats will be wise to have a thorough investigation of the misdeeds of the President and compel Republicans to either ditch him or go down with him. By stopping impeachment in the summer of 2020, Republicans will achieve a Pyrrhic victory.