IMPEACHAPALOOZA 2: COUP COUP KACHOO (SLIGHT RETURN)
The outcome of Impeachapalooza 2 is old news by now, I know, but in light of the spectacle of Donald Trump headlining CPAC - which is packed with his minions parroting his election fraud conspiracy theories - I thought I might as well post some thoughts.
1. In regards to Trump’s acquittal, I mean, sure - we knew more or less how this would end. The only real surprise was that seven Republicans voted to convict - which is apparently a US record in terms of bipartisan impeachment. Still, you know, where were most of these people when he was impeached the first time?
2. Apart from those seven, the GOP basically confirmed that they are the Trump Party, and that if he wants to make up stuff about election fraud and whip his MAGA base into a violent frenzy to overturn the election and install him as POTUS for life, then they're totally cool with that.
3. Mitch McConnell’s post-vote speech did not impress me. He can bloviate all he likes about the unconstitutionality of impeaching someone who isn't President anymore (which, let’s not forget, was the result of McConnell intentionally delaying the trial until after Trump was out of office) - the truth is that he knows which way the political winds are blowing, and if he wants to remain the Senate minority leader, he can’t be showing disloyalty to the Trump MAGA cult that comprises most of the Senate GOP now. He’s trying to have it both ways - he wants to be loyal to Trump without looking like he’s actually condoning Trump’s attempted coup.
Ironically, of course, Trump is not having any of that. Which just goes to show.
4. Speaking of which, Trump is now free to start his 2024 campaign. Or whatever it is he plans to do. Whatever it is, he did it at CPAC this weekend, and it’s pretty much what you’d expect - insult comedy, conspiracy theories and a declaration of war against his enemies. Which, notably, includes all disloyal Republicans who didn’t do enough to keep him in office. Whether or not he actually runs in 2024, Trump made it pretty clear that he’s not interested in starting a new political party - he’d much rather complete his takeover of the GOP and purge the anti-Trump heretics, or at least the ones that don’t change their tune permanently. And he’s likely to succeed.
5. On a side note, I would be very surprised if Trump didn't run in 2024. Yes, there’s the possibility that Trump will be in jail by then. However, there’s literally no rule saying you can’t run for President from a prison cell - Eugene Debs and Lyndon LaRouche did it in 1920 and 1992, respectively.
Granted, both lost. Which is why we don't yet know whether you can take office if you win - being in jail might count as “impairment”, which could result in 25th Amendment proceedings to make Trump’s running mate President. There’s also the question of whether you could be released via pardon or some other mechanism. As I understand it, it’s pretty straightforward if you’re in a federal prison, but harder if you're in a state prison (remembering that if Trump does go to jail, it will be for breaking state laws).
In any case, I think running a campaign from prison would probably help him by feeding the “political persecution by anti-American libs” meme that the MAGA cult thrives on. So yeah, I think Trump is likely to try to get his chair back. And barring any other viable options, I think the GOP will go out of their way to help him get it.
6. As I’ve said before, the key takeaway from all this is that America does not have a viable mechanism for dealing with a crooked authoritarian President. Impeachment and the 25th Amendment are too political to be effective remedies, and the ballot box option is only available every four years. Trump did plenty of damage in that time, not all of which can be fixed with executive orders.
The challenge is that the Founding Fathers intentionally made it difficult to get rid of a POTUS. If it were easy, the Opposition would spend every waking moment finding some excuse to have him arrested, and we’d have impeachments probably every year.
However, as we just learned over the last four years, as long as we stand by the DOJ concept that a sitting President cannot be indicted, the truth is that a sitting POTUS can commit all manner of high crimes and misdemeanours - to include attempting a coup - with no fear of consequences (apart from maybe losing the election).
We need to have a very serious conversation about whether this is a status quo worth preserving, and whether the alternatives would be worse in the long run.
Crime time,
This is dF
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