If one wanted evidence of how degraded the US political system has become, look no further than the current impeachment process against Donald Trump. Supposedly a process where possible wrongdoing by a president that might require removal from office comes under careful scrutiny, it retains all the formal trappings that hide a hollow core, now a cynical charade where the Republican party has taken a determined ‘See no evil, hear no evil” approach, indeed extending it to “See nothing, hear nothing” approach by refusing to allow any witnesses or new information or testimony, and the accused Trump even boasting that he refuses to release the information that he has.
It is a symptom of a degenerate system, one whose foundations are tottering because of the willful ignoring of basic democratic norms.
Samantha Bee walks us through the opening day.
But, but, but–didn’t Watergate prove that “the system works”?
The only thing is that to me the democrats are just as big a set of hypocrites as the republicans on this subject. Just at different points.
There are a bunch more things that Trump did before this (instructing the treasury department to obstruct one of the functions that falls to congress for example) that could have been used for starting the process. To me the main reasons the democrats reacted to him going after Biden like this were/are:
A) The crown prince of the democrats who was supposed to be the next democratic presidential candidate (and yes that means I’m stating that the whole process of selection is a theater production)
B) The specific act of threatening the Ukraine like that is not something that any of the future presidents is expected to do (everything from cut-outs to suggestive language instead of outright threats) so that it is a safe charge to hit Trump with without limiting what future presidents can do.
Steve: The system did work then, but it obviously doesn’t work now.
Who Cares: This will be one of the biggest barriers to trying to do any electoral politics the left needs to do in the short term. EVERYONE (who isn’t an utter Dem partisan) can see the craven hypocrisy of the Democrats on this score. Trump was impeachable day one. But they only moved to do it when an elite was personally attacked. Just like Watergate: bomb Cambodians and get nothing, burglarize the powerful and be impeached. Worse, unlike with Nixon they didn’t even include a pretense of, say, hitting him on emoluments clause violations. They are risking losing a trial and weakening their case.
This time, Justice Dems were demanding his removal long before this and for principled reasons.