Posted on 02/15/2017 11:54:48 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
I can’t believe I’m writing this after the administration has been in office for 26 days, but here goes. The idea that Donald Trump is now inexorably on a path to impeachment has taken almost gleeful hold in the wake of the Michael Flynn resignation among liberal elites and anti-Trumpers generally—and everybody better stop and take a deep breath and consider what might arise from this. This isn’t fire we’re playing with, it’s a nuclear war.
That Trump might somehow be deus-ex-machina-ed out of public life has been a consistent feature of the past 20 months. He won’t run gave way to He’s only in it for the publicity to He only wants to show Obama he’s not to be trifled with but he doesn’t want to be president so he’ll drop out to We’ll deny him a first-ballot victory at the convention and then the party pooh-bahs can take over and find a new candidate to His poll numbers are so bad he’ll quit and let Mike Pence run against Hillary to The Access Hollywood tape will finally do him in…and then he won. Now that he’s president, the question I’m asked constantly is “will he serve out his first term.” The wish is father to the hope here; only the vilest and most monstrous of crimes has led to a negative answer to that question (save in the case of the first President Harrison, who caught a cold from not wearing a coat on Inauguration Day in 1841 and died a month later). No one has ever willingly or voluntarily given up the presidency.
The dream of his self-willed departure is just that—a dream. Which then leads to the question of whether his behavior or choices or emoluments will lead to his impeachment and removal from office. Remember, impeachment is not removal. It is an indictment of the president, brought about by a vote of the House of Representatives, which then refers the case to the Senate. The Senate tries the case and can only remove the president from office with a two-thirds vote.
Presidents have twice been impeached (Johnson, Clinton) and neither was removed. Nixon resigned but that was to avoid his impeachment, which would surely have led to his removal.
Let’s play with this scenario for the moment. The only way Trump will be impeached—by a Republican House!—is if there is unshakable, inarguable, and (forgive me) unimpeachable evidence that he has committed a crime as president. The Constitution requires this, actually; he must be accused of treason, bribery, or other high crimes or misdemeanors. He has to have done something specific. He must, in effect, be charged. How on earth could this happen when Republicans hold a 50-seat majority in the House? Even if he mugs an old lady on Pennsylvania Avenue, it’s hard to see that happening sheerly as a matter of politics unless something catastrophic happens to his poll numbers. By which I mean, he needs to have become so overwhelmingly unpopular already that Republicans in the House who come from districts Trump won need to know that their constituents will not punish them for voting to impeach.
By catastrophic, I mean his numbers have to go lower than anyone’s have ever gone—lower than Bush’s in late 2008, lower than Carter’s in the summer of 1979, lower than Nixon’s in the summer of 1974.
And even so—even so—unless the evidence is beyond question and beyond all argument, this is an incredibly dangerous thing for people to be speculating about openly. Already pro-Trump voices on the right are calling the leaks that led to Michael Flynn’s firing evidence of an attempted coup d’etat. The fevered use of such terms is part and parcel of the way in which social media amplifies the melodrama of daily news stories.
I am myself unnerved by the evidence of high-level lawlessness in the Flynn matter, but a “coup d’etat” refers specifically to a military ouster of a leader, not a leak-driven campaign using the press to nail someone. This is sure to persist, though, if the Flynn-Russia matter accelerates—and if the reluctant House and Senate do begin investigating the matter in earnest. If the language surrounding the investigation remains florid and purple, if Democrats try to please their Trump-hating constituents by screaming impeachment and liberal media tries to garner audience by jumping openly and vociferously on the bandwagon, the Trumpians will respond in kind by stirring the pot through their media and their argumentation.
The result might well be violence. Not rhetorical violence. Actual violence. Actual political violence. Actual conflicts between anti-Trumpers and Trumpers. At demonstrations. In the streets. Of our cities. Political violence of a sort we haven’t seen in 50 years, and maybe haven’t really seen in this country in the modern era. Those who believe Trump is a unique menace whose threat to our democratic way of life will be met with those who believe the elites are using illicit means to oust the legitimately elected president of the United States.
This is not a fantasy. This is one possible future. And every rational person who cares about the future of the country should be mindful of it, and should work to forestall it.
there is ZERO chance that 2/3 of the Senate would vote to remove Trump from office.
That’s about as likely as passing a constitutional amendment.
Poderetz is a very very intelligent writer...who I can agree with sometimes and not other times but he is dead-on right this time for sure....
the only problem I can see is that SorozNazi wants to destroy USA or at least destroy our representative governance ...
and the kind of mass violence he’s promoting with McCain and Graham and all the rest of his pathetic purchased puppets...
will be brutal...like the Civil War only much more one-sided as SorozNazi has money but few real supporters and even less who can fight or are prepared to fight. Or with all his filthy lucre and that backing CAIR and Moslem Brotherhood and PLO-PA Moslem Students Association and Isis and Iran and Hezbellah and Hamas...do they have a ready-to=fight militia inside USA? You do see them at the firing range all the time...and we know they’re well organized with tons of $$ bringing more and more of them into America every day..
are they ready to fight in our streets yet?
This is the question... if they think they’re ready, they WILL find a way to oust President Trump to start the war here they want, imho. If they think they’re ready...????
We The People will do the heavy lifting of ridding Congress of more ‘Rats come 2018.
President Trump can do the heavy lifting of ridding Government of ‘Rats, Moles, Skunks and Traitors while continuing to call out the Enemy Media at every opportunity.
Oh, and get Jeff Sessions confirmed - like YESTERDAY!
And then life will be grand. :)
That number was for all those “business men” who were not ‘re-educable’ in the camps they planed to set up. Since that was in the mid-60s, almost 60 years ago, the number of people not ‘re-educable’ must be two or three times than by now.
Just keep in mind that Socialism, in whatever form, is really good at just one thing: mass murder - never fail to remind your “progressive” acquaintances.
Unlike the 60s, this hippy “revolution” is going to hurt. I’m locked and loaded.
Remember, the most commonly used weapon in mafia hits & assassinations is the .22LR, not some huge caliber.
Nope, make that 150 years.
Exactly. :)
Look, as long as McCain, Graham or others speak openly against Trump, including deliberately whispering against him, the temperature will rise to boiling. This is what makes it so infuriating that McCain and Graham continue to run to the corrupt MSM and run their mouths!
If the RINOs don’t get on board — as in, RIGHT NOW — things could get ugly. The Left seems very willing to engage in open violence knowing they have the corrupt media covering for them. Do people not understand how tenuous things are getting? Or do they not care? Or, perhaps, they understand and are okay with it.
Build that prison in Northeast Alaska. Elites will no longer have Gray Poupon, and leftys will no longer get tofu. Escapees will be dinner for polar bears.
The worst the Black Bloc can envision is getting arrested and winding up with a non-friendly judge.
They have not considered how they will deal with snipers.
“there is ZERO chance that 2/3 of the Senate would vote to remove Trump from office.”
Bingo.... It could only remotely happen if the Senate were 2/3 Democrat, and that is a political impossibility even if Trump were to do a full 8 years as President.
Any impeachment attempts would be easily seen as grandstanding and a waste of time by desperate liberal morons trying to raise money and raise hell.
“Actual conflicts between anti-Trumpers and Trumpers. At demonstrations. In the streets. Of our cities.”
This guy has not been paying attention.
I think he’s spot on the money. The libs are at fever pitch. It does very much look like the CIA et al are trying to bring Trump down, smell blood in the water, are out to get anyone who so much as picks his nose. Makes me sick to my stomach and fearful in the middle of the night. I don’t see a way we voters who voted for Trump can do anything to stop it.
Certainly seems like the police departments let the anarchy go on, too. Here in Los Angeles 25 demonstrators STOPPED rush hour traffic. They were not carted off to the pokey. They were not cleared off the streets.
And Meet Up is offering their site as a ‘Resistance’ meeting site? I think things are really, really bad.
“elites are using illicit means to oust the legitimately elected president of the United States.”
Is there any doubt about this?
The American people elected Trump. They will get their way or their will be blood everywhere.
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