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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThis article encapsulates the necessity for officially declaring the start of the impeachment
process. Pinning hopes on voting 45 out of office, to me, is very risky, especially after reading this article.
https://www.salon.com/2019/06/17/so-what-happens-when-donald-trump-refuses-to-leave-office-the-nightmare-scenario-could-happen/
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One principal talking point of Democrats who are reluctant to begin an impeachment inquiry is that Trump needs to be removed at the ballot box, not by impeachment. The argument is that Trump can't be removed from office through impeachment since Republicans, who control the Senate, will refuse to convict him no matter how much damning evidence there is. Depressingly, that argument has merit. With vanishingly rare exceptions like Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan, Republicans have shown that there is no level of criminality Trump could display that they are unwilling to accept, so long as it allows them to retain power.
But that's also why there's a real danger that, if and when Trump refuses to leave office after an electoral defeat, Republicans will go along with it. And why not? They haven't drawn any visible line yet when it comes to Trump cheating or breaking the law. On the contrary, Republicans were already flouting the law in their attempts to retain control over the government even though a majority of Americans have clearly rejected them at the polls. So far, there appears to be no limits to what Republicans will allow, so long as it entrenches their power.
Think about what Republicans were doing even before Trump came along. Gerrymandering and voter suppression efforts predated his candidacy, taking off in earnest after the Republican-controlled Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell also flatly refused to hold a hearing for Barack Obama's Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, violating all norms and traditions to hold the seat open so a possible Republican president could fill it. This trend goes clear back to the 2000 Bush v. Gore decision, in which the Supreme Court's conservative majority handed George W. Bush the presidency rather than allowing a fair and complete vote count in Florida.
Under Trump, Republicans have only become bolder. Robert Mueller's report documented Trump's extensive efforts to collude with a Russian criminal conspiracy to interfere with the 2016 election, as well as Trump's extensive cover-up of that conspiracy. Instead of doing anything about it, Republicans have persistently made excuses for Trump, either lying about what's actually in the Mueller report or drawing false equivalences to legal and transparent choices made by Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign.
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Goodheart
(5,327 posts)I am sure that even if he's defeated in the election our new Democratic President will not wish to prosecute him.
Already, Madame Pelosi says that there's nothing more divisive to our country than an impeachment.... to which I'd respond sure there is... prosecuting a defeated opponent after kicking him out. Democrats have not acted that way historically and I don't expect that they would this time, either.
And this is why I want impeachment NOW regardless of any Senate conviction. He must be officially censured and impeached because I fear that's the only punishment he'll ever get on the Federal level.
Hermit-The-Prog
(33,355 posts)TrumPutin and the Gangsters Of Putin are hell-bent on destroying this country and the planet. You can't get more divisive than that.
Maraya1969
(22,483 posts)criminality being done by the GOP all over this country and for years is a real problem. This type of abuse of the system only happens in dictatorships where the leaders do whatever the fuck they want and continue to get away with it.
We need to stop this because it will only get worse. The criminals in the GOP are emboldened by the lack of actions done by the Democrats. And I don't give a flying fuck that an impeachment would lead to a not guilty verdict in the criminal GOP senate. Because what will also go along with that acceptance of #45's horrible criminality will be a country who will have been informed and have seen, finally, what he really has been all about.
Impeachment trials will be reported on the regular 5 PM news, where most people get their news.
alwaysinasnit
(5,066 posts)to retain power.
stillcool
(32,626 posts)Mueller Report documented Trump's extensive efforts to collude. It documented people in his Campaign and Administration who met with Russians, it documented Russians interfering in our elections, and it documented Russians offering dirt to the campaign, including the son. I think Congress is looking for some fail-safe evidence of crime. You know, that no matter what, the GOP will grandstand, and attempt to distort everything that comes out, and in the end pull the plug. I don't see a way out, except for winning the election, and having some return of Justice and the Rule of Law, through which anyone can be charged and convicted. It's strange to live in a country where that seems so implausible. But, I don't know this country anymore.
alwaysinasnit
(5,066 posts)future election results. And even if, by overwhelming numbers, voters elect a Democrat as president, 45 won't leave willingly ('cause he knows what will happen to him the minute he steps out of the White House) and so he will likely do anything and everything to continue occupying the White House. Since the Rethugs have hitched their political wagon to this sociopath, there is no reason to believe they won't continue supporting 45's lawlessness.
stillcool
(32,626 posts)it's already gone. State governments are all there is, and the military is just another multi-national corporation.