Imagine
the trash compactor scene in Star Wars
running for five straight
years. Now you can skip thousands of
reports on the walls closing in
on Trump. You’ve got the idea.
In
2019
at RootsAction.org we published a
list
of 25 proposed grounds for
impeaching Trump, complete with
evidence.
The trouble was and remains that
most of the abuses by Trump were
also routine abuses by Congress
Members, including Democrats. This
had been the problem with Dennis
Kucinich’s 35
articles
of impeachment for Dubya. In fact,
I once wrote an article
listing 27 of those 35 same
offenses that had been committed
by
Obama.
There
were other reasons, of course, for
Congressional inaction, and
prosecutorial inaction. But that has been
a big one.
The
Democrats did find two things Trump had
done that they hadn’t, and
in the telling of which they could be seen
as opposed to Trump and
the victims of his abuses. They thereby
impeached him twice. Some
have ever since been on the prowl for
anything Trump’s done outside
of elected office, anything the Democrats
might not have had any
dirty fingers in at all.
I’m
100% in favor of applying the rule of law
to the rich and obnoxious.
But we should be perfectly clear why it is
that half the country
clamoring to lock up Trump before he
ushers in a fascist state must
collectively wait for some state
prosecutor to discover some crime
that Nancy Pelosi never went near. It’s
because the swamp into
which Trump dove like a briar patch is
perfectly real.
What
should have been done with Trump? He
should have been impeached,
tried, and removed on day 1 for some of
these outrages:
Violation
of
Constitution on Domestic
Emoluments
Violation
of
Constitution on Foreign
Emoluments
Incitement
of
Violence
Interference
With
Voting Rights
At
first the problem was general timidity and
indifference more than
complicity, I think.
Trump
should also have been prosecuted.
As
time went by, he should have been
impeached (and in many cases
prosecuted) for these, among others:
Discrimination
Based
On Religion
(ooh,
let’s
not touch that!)
Illegal
War
(well,
who
hasn’t done some of those?)
Illegal
Threat
of Nuclear War
(somehow
not
as disturbing in Washington as
when Putin [or Barack “all
options are on the table” Obama]
does it)
Abuse
of
Pardon Power
(we
wouldn’t
want emperors to lose that
privilege)
Obstruction
of
Justice
(yawn)
Politicizing
Prosecutions
(Well, all’s fair.)
Collusion
Against
the United States with a
Foreign Government
(This sounds good until you find
out which government.)
Failure
to
Reasonably Prepare for or
Respond to Hurricanes
Harvey and
Maria
(Seriously?
Foreigners?)
Separating
Children
and Infants from Families
(Both parties do it. One just
gets upset when the other
does.)
Illegally
Attempting
to Influence an Election
(Seems a little tawdry.)
Tax
Fraud
and Public
Misrepresentation
(Well,
let’s
keep this one away from D.C.)
Assaulting
Freedom
of the Press
(Yeah,
that’s
cool.)
Supporting
a
Coup in Venezuela
(America! Fuck Yeah!)
Unconstitutional
Declaration
of Emergency
(Hey, he is President.)
Instructing
Border
Patrol to Violate the Law
(Hmmm, yeah, you know,
immigrants.)
Refusal
to
Comply With Subpoenas
(As one should be able.)
Declaration
of
Emergency Without Basis In
Order to Violate the Will
of
Congress
(Nothing
we like better in Congress.)
Illegal
Proliferation
of Nuclear Technology
(3 years before the heroic raid
on Mar a Lago)
Illegally
Removing
the United States from the
Intermediate-Range Nuclear
Forces
Treaty
(What? Impeach him for
ant-Russian actions while
pretending he’s
Putin’s slave? Are you nuts?)
Seeking
to
Use Foreign Governments’
Resources Against
Political Rivals
(Now we’re getting somewhere.)
Refusal
to
Comply with Impeachment
Inquiry
(Whatever.)
The
absurdity of seeking evidence of crimes
outside of public office for
THIS PERSON should be remembered by
whatever species creates a PBS
documentary about this era.
This
commentary
is also posted on DavidSwanson.org
