To impeach, or not to impeach, that was the question

As of early December, it looks like the Democratic controlled House will impeach the President, and that the Senate will vote to acquit him.  Our country is so polarized, that no GOP Senator would risk being "primaried" because s/he voted to convict him of "high crimes and misdemeanors."  We're seeing a political hypocrisy that we haven't seen since the Clinton impeachment. And it's so sad....  

Donald Trump is a narcisist. He will revel in the House presenting the impeachment to the Senate for a trial.  At that time, political hell will break loose.  The GOP will put their wagons in a circle and defend a president that most elected officials dislike, but our powerless to control.  (Shades of 1930's Central Europe....)   But there are ways that sane men and women from both parties could prevail if they gave the process some out of the box thought.

Many in the mainstream press report that most of the GOP Senators would vote to convict if their ballots were cast in secret.  There is nothing in the constitution that prohibits the Senate from making rules to allow this to happen.  Since politicians are in the business of lying to their constituents at times, saying that they were one of the handful of GOP Senators who voted to acquit should be easy for them.  Will Mitch McConnell take this way out of trouble?

An option that involves the House would be to impeach the president, but not send the articles over to the Senate until they are complete.  The house can approve a subset of articles based on current investigatory evidence, and hold off delivering the indictments until a full investigation is complete - sometime in late 2020.  This would prevent the president from getting the Senate acquittal he wants and allow the House to continue presenting public evidence through election season.  An added benefit for the Democrats would be to allow their presidential candidate Senators to continue their campaigns without having to be in Washington, DC for the Senate trial.

This nation has a serious problem.  Adding "Democracy" to the presidential nominating process has encouraged the bases of each party to grow more and more extreme.  When I was young, there wasn't that much that separated the left and right wings of American politics.  The party leaders would allow the base to voice its opinion, and prevent "extremists" like Lester Maddox and George Wallace (who later moderated his views) from getting on a nationwide ballot.  It is no coincidence that politicians pander to the base before the primaries, and move to the center afterwards. Over time, this process served to cull the centrists from both parties and leave people who want a winner take all process - and we all lose out because of that.

Given the polarized bases, might a middle road be chosen?  The majority of people polled want our president removed from power.  But this doesn't apply to his base.  It will accept no evidence that he has gone past tolerable political limits.  Do we have still have leaders in government who know how to finesse the system to deny the narcissist in chief what he wants - an acquittal?  The jury is still out on that verdict, but I hope they figure out something, as it doesn't bode well for people who have faith in the 2020 elections.

Thoughts on Impeachment

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Beware of the politics of bullying

Melissa Harris-Perry, a weekend talk show host on MSNBC, who could have the victim of the politics of bullying.  Recently, some cretin approached her at the Iowa caucuses and started acting in a threatening way. Although the situation had a "happy ending", one can easily understand why people live in fear when they are in the minority. (And in this case, I do not refer to color, as much as I refer to being in ANY minority.)  Bullying people is a tactic which has been used since time immemorial, and will continue to be used until potential victims have ALL the tools to resist bullying.

Compare today's positions of the two major political parties. The Democrats are the more pacifistic party, seeking greater "gun control'.  The GOP is the more bellicose party, defending "gun rights" every chance they get.  So the supporters of our political left and its positions that are more likely to be bullied by people who are a few french fries short of a "Happy Meal".  And, for the most part, we tolerate that.  

Why do potential victims tolerate bullying?  There are many reasons.  For some, they do not wish to stoop to the level of the intellectually incompetent.  For others, they are afraid of being chosen to be sacrificial lambs for the sake of social cohesion.  As I said, there are many reasons, none of them good. It would make more sense for people to stand up to bullies and "go 'all in'".  Yet, this goes against a primal instinct to run in the face of danger.

Recently, a different cretin barged into the offices of a Texas state legislator.  Texas has both open carry and concealed carry. And there are no provisions to keep firearms out of the state capitol, where a few deranged madmen could take down the entire legislative branch of government, as well as its executive, if done at the right time.  As much as I believe that the people must preserve the right and ability to rebel against a tyrannical government, this was hardly the time and place where that right was needed.  This lawmaker had real reason to fear for his life.  And all Texas is doing in response is to put "panic buttons" in legislators' offices - a potential case of "too little, too late."

Sadly, it looks like we're letting the bullies control us.  Hopefully, we won't go down without a good fight....