I've generally refrained from writing about the president in the last year or so, because there's little I can say that hasn't been already. And while the man is unquestionably immoral, my real frustration is with the tribalism, which I distill down to an equivalent sports rivalry, that causes people to accept behavior from the leader of the free world that would get any of us fired from the simplest McJob.
As the Ukraine scandal seems to get worse by the hour, first with the clear ask of a foreign government to investigate a political foe (the quid pro quo implication doesn't even matter at that point), then the allegations of covering up the call, it's mostly forced the hand of House Democratic leaders to start the impeachment ball rolling. I've felt all along that it was a horrible idea to go down that road unless there was something that was clearly illegal, but this is it. This is the responsibility written into the Constitution. The nonsense about Democrats just being butthurt about the election three years ago is insane. This is actual collusion to affect the next election. Can you imagine if Obama did something like that when facing Romney?
So while some are cheering with "finally!" on the Internet, I would argue that it's not a reason to celebrate. Impeachment, successful or not, is a last ditch effort to correct where democracy has otherwise failed. The election of Donald Trump is not really about him, or Hillary Clinton, or any other figure. It's not unfair to consider him the disease that has brought racism out of the shadows. I do think that he's set us back a few decades. I hope we can jump back ahead once he's gone, but there's real damage there. Still, I believe that he's the symptom of a number of problems, not so much the disease itself. A relative minority, mostly white people who feel disadvantaged and seek scapegoats for their state, got this guy elected while a larger majority let it happen. He didn't have the popular vote, and only 27% of eligible voters actually voted for him. That small percentage of Americans voted for a reality TV personality who had never held a public office, sexually assaulted women in his own words, disparaged veterans and their families, mocked people with disabilities... all before he was even elected. That's the real failure.
Unless this keeps getting worse, and who knows, maybe it might, I don't see a world where the Senate would vote to remove the guy from office. Although, it doesn't hurt to get Senators on record. This will all shake out while the planet keeps burning, Americans go without healthcare and prescription drugs, we accept mass shootings as routine, and the federal deficit and national debt keeps getting worse.
Nobody wins. We get the government we deserve.
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