A few words to address some of the endless flow of incredibly stupid statements that have been made in the past few days by Congressional Republicans and members of the Trump Administration
1. Here are some of the Presidents that Congressional Democrats did not impeach in the past and why they did not impeach them:
Congressional Democrats did not impeach Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush. Even though the illegal war in Nicaragua was a complete violation of Federal Law, the Democratic Party had no direct evidence that President Ronald Reagan authorized it. In addition, at the time that the Democrats found out about the Iran-Contra Scandal, Watergate was still very fresh in everyone's mind, and no one wanted to go through that again so soon. Finally, the U.S. has had an extremely long history of getting involved in the internal struggle of foreign nations without Congressional approval (such as LBJ's "police action" in Vietnam) so Democrats realized that they would have real trouble getting the votes needed, not only for a conviction in the Senate, but also for getting the votes needed to impeach Ronald Reagan in the House the first place.
George H.W. Bush got full Congressional authorization for the Gulf War, and, other than the Gulf War, his presidency seemed to commit no serious acts that had not occurred during Ronald Reagan's Presidency.
George W. Bush's administration lied the U.S. into an illegal war with Iraq, but the Democrats had no proof that President George W. Bush actually ordered people to fabricate evidence in order to convince the American public that the Iraq War was necessary. When the Democrats came to power in 2008, they had the Great Recession to deal with, and by 2010 they had lost the House, thus killing any chance of Impeaching George W. bush for something for which the Democrats had no direct evidence to begin with.
2. Here are the Presidents that Congressional Democrats did Impeach (or will impeach) and why:
The Democrats in the House began the impeachment paperwork against Richard Nixon in 1974 because there was a whole lot of evidence that had committed crimes, that he had ordered others to commit crimes, and that he had ordered others to cover up their crimes. Nixon resigned before the Articles of Impeachment which had been written in the House Judiciary Committee reached a full vote in the House.
The Democrats will soon impeach Donald Trump because they have direct evidence that he committed the two illegal acts, including the act of Abuse of Power by soliciting a bribe from the leader of a foreign nation in return for a White House visit and approximately $390 million in military assistance. The summary of Donald Trump's call with the President of Ukraine provides direct evidence of his abuse of power, and the plot to get Ukraine to fabricate evidence against one of Donald Trump’s potential political opponents is backed up by the testimony of numerous government witnesses.
3. Democrats are the true law & order party:
In general, when a politician commits a serious crime, Democratic politicians want those people to no longer hold political office. Democrats do not just believe this about Republican politicians who have committed serious crimes, like Richard Nixon or Donald Trump. Democrats also believe that this is true about Democratic politicians like Anthony Weiner, Elliot Spitzer, and former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. The Democrats do not try to pretend that these Democrats did nothing wrong. They want them gone, regardless of their political party.
It is the Republicans who have Republican politicians like Nixon commit a crime, then have Ford Pardon him. It is the Republicans who have members of the Reagan Administration commit crimes related to Iran-Contra Scandal, then have George H.W. Bush Pardon them, at the suggestion of then A.G. William Barr. It is the Republicans that have Scooter Libby break the law in outing Valerie Plame during George W Bush’s administration, and then have Donald Trump pardon him.
Republican politicians and those who work for Republican politicians, commit crimes over and over again, and Republicans seem to think that those people should be free to break as many laws a possible. Republicans only seem to have a problem when they think that a Democrat may have broken a law, and in those cases, no punishment seems to be too great to Republicans.
4. When Republicans don't have the law or the facts on their side, they either pound the table or throw tantrums:
Carl Sandberg said the following about how people tend to act in hearings and trials: “If the facts are against you, argue the law. If the law is against you, argue the facts. If the law and the facts are against you, pound the table and yell like hell”
This is why Republicans have spent so much time lately yelling, complaining, and throwing tantrums lately--because they have neither the law nor the facts on their side. The Republican plan to defend Donald Trump:
- Yell
- Complain
- Throw tantrums
- Tell lies
- Make misleading statements
5. Republicans have said that the Democrats are just trying to overturn Trump's election with this impeachment. Here's why that idea is ridiculous:
Winning an election is not a license to commit crimes. Allow me to explain it to the Republicans as if they were five-years-olds because they sure have been acting like five-year-olds lately: If a Republican politician commits a crime, the Democrats will go after that politician. Your Republican politicians may then be removed from office. Republicans would do the exact same thing if a Democratic politician committed a serious crime. Removing someone from office because they commit a crime is not overturning an election any more than firing a worker you hired because he was stealing is "overturning a hiring". If you commit a serious crime, you risk losing your job. In what bizarro world has this not been true?
How many Republicans thought that they were "overturning an election" when they went after Bill Clinton in the 1990s? None of them thought that. So, why is it suddenly overturning an election to impeach Donald Trump? This is just another pile of one-sided, illogical, hypocritical Republican horse dung.
6. Republicans have said that Democrats are trying to impeach Donald Trump because of the following two reasons:
1. Democrats are afraid that Trump will win reelection so Democrats want to get rid of him before he wins reelection
2. Democrats think that impeaching Trump will improve their chances of defeating Trump in 2020
First of all, even if Donald Trump had a 100% chance of winning reelection, he still should be impeached immediately because he committed a crime, and he should be removed from office before he commits any more crimes. In addition, even if Trump had a zero chance of reelection, he should be impeached immediately and removed from office so that he cannot commit any more crimes. No matter what Trump's odds of winning reelection are, it has nothing to do with whether or not he should be impeached. If there is enough evidence that he committed a serious crime, he should be impeached, regardless of his chances of winning reelection.
Furthermore, every Democrat in Congress is fully aware that after Bill Clinton was impeached in the 1990s by the Republicans, the Democrats actually did better in their midterm elections. In no way are the Democrats going to Impeach Donald Trump because they are sure that it is a recipe to increase their chances of electing a Democrat to the Presidency or of electing more Democrats to Congress. Congressional Democrats are quite aware that impeachment may actually hurt the chances of some Congressional Democrats in challenging districts to get reelected.
Congressional Democrats do not, and will not, impeach Presidents because they think that it will help the chances of Democrats to either get elected or get reelected. Democrats impeach Presidents only when they have direct evidence staring them in the face of a serious crime and only when they have absolutely no other choice but to impeach.