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Showing Original Post only (View all)Andrew Sullivan: This Is No Ordinary Impeachment [View all]
http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/11/andrew-sullivan-this-is-no-ordinary-impeachment.html?fbclid=IwAR31kc870ZBhTMAwzegY7JUFpWOwRcILR2porhDerkETXtjzzOPhqKnjusENov. 8, 2019
This Is No Ordinary Impeachment
By Andrew Sullivan
Photo: Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images
This is not just an impeachment. Its the endgame for Trumps relentless assault on the institutions, norms, and practices of Americas liberal democracy for the past three years. Its also a deeper reckoning. Its about whether the legitimacy of our entire system can last much longer without this man being removed from office.
snip//
Trump has fast-forwarded regime cleavage. He is appealing to the people to render him immune from constitutional constraints imposed by the representatives of the people. He has opened up not a divide between right and left so much as a divide over whether the American system of government is legitimate or illegitimate. And that is why I dont want to defeat Trump in an election, because that would suggest that his assault on the truth, on the Constitution, and on the rule of law is just a set of policy decisions that we can, in time, reject. It creates a precedent for future presidents to assault the legitimacy of the American government, constrained only by their ability to win the next election. In fact, the only proper constitutional response to this abuse of executive power is impeachment. I know Ive said this before. But on the eve of public hearings, it is vital to remember it.
None of this presidential behavior is tolerable. If the Senate exonerates Trump, it will not just enable the most lawless president in our history to even greater abuses. It will deepen the regime cleavage even further. It will cast into doubt the fairness of the upcoming election. It will foment the conspiracy theory that our current laws and institutions are manifestations of a deep state engineering a coup. It will prove that a president can indeed abuse his power for his personal advantage without consequence; and it will set a precedent that fundamentally changes the American system from a liberal democracy to a form of elected monarchy, above the other two branches of government.
I wish there were another way forward. But there isnt. And this, though a moment of great danger, also contains the glimmers of renewal. Removing this petty, shabby tyrant from office goes a long way to restoring and resetting the Constitution as a limit on power and a guarantee against its wanton future abuse. It must be done. With speed, with vigor, and with determination.
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Ditto. They have all had chances to do the right things and have chosen to stick with corruption.
erronis
Nov 2019
#27
It isn't, and it'll be the same after Trump. For a half century, the GOP has been on a mission...
Garrett78
Nov 2019
#12