The talks of impeachment regarding the United States President Donald Trump started even before he took office. Certain groups of people and communities believe that he has been involved in impeachable activities throughout his presidency. Only, efforts to impeach Trump and campaigns against him started when he took some actions regarding the FBI and dismissed the former director of the Federal Bureau of Information, James Comey, in May 2017.
The dismissal of Mr. Comey had proven to be one of the most controversial ones as he was leading an investigation on Donald Trump’s 2016 election campaign when he got fired. The investigation indicated that Trump might have been involved in a conspiracy with Russia to obtain the result of the elections in his favor. This controversy heated the impeachment talks, and certain campaign and movements against Donald Trump started all over the country (Medved, 2017).
Democrats, AI Green and Brad Sherman, initiated these efforts of impeachment against Mr. Trump. At the end of the year 2017, it had been proven by the process of polling that more than 40 percent of the people of the United States are in favor of this impeachment. Despite that, it is unlikely to get Trump impeached because the House and Senate both belong to the Republicans. It became obvious in December 2017 when the resolution of impeachment failed miserably in the House by a huge margin of 58-364.
However, there still some people exist who believe that Trump will not last for a long time. It includes numerous journalists and columnists of well-known news agencies like the New York Times and The Washington Post who have penned down their thoughts regarding the conspiracy. David Brooks of the New York Times has written an entire column about the issue. He thought that Donald Trump would be impeached within one year (Brooks, 2016). The American University professor, Allan Lichtman, believes kind of similar and thinks Trump would eventually be removed by his own Republican Congress (Stevenson, 2016).
Only recently, a candidate for the Senate, Texas’ Democrat Beto O’Rourke said that he would vote for the impeachment of the President over the allegations of obstruction of justice and collusion with Russia. He stated while talking to CNN that he believes that Donald Trump has been involved in many such activities that will be enough to get him impeached. Another candidate, Kevin de Leon of the California state, has also agreed to do so, but all the other members have preferred to avoid this controversial situation (Weissert, 2018).
O’Rourke is against Donald Trump’s proposal of the border wall, and he wants Texas to become a national model of maintaining a human immigration policy. He further opposed the Texas gun culture because it is the cause of the deaths of 30,000 Americans every year. He said that Americans need to find a human solution to all these problems. However, Trump’s supporters made this whole scenario look negative by implying that O’Rourke is just trying to make it to the news as Election Day is getting nearer (Weissert, 2018).
Donald Trump has translated the likelihood of being impeached into a laughing matter.
In the recent campaigns for the midterm elections, which are to be held on Tuesday, November 6th, Donald Trump is seen to be mocking the impeachment issue and using it as a punching rather than taking it seriously. He warned his followers that it would be their fault if he got impeached as they would not have voted for him. He ridiculed the Democrats during one of his addresses that they are trying to get him impeached for creating the best economy so far in the history of the United States, to get some greatest trade deals done and for increasing the job numbers to the largest extent possible. He warned them by saying that if they get him impeached, poverty will get to the peak in the country and markets would crash. However, Democrats still seem hopeful that there might be a chance to get Trump impeached if they win the House on November 6th (Peter, 2018).
The impeachment drive against Donald Trump can turn uglier than that off against Richard Nixon, Andrew Johnson, and Bill Clinton.
The United States has experienced three severe impeachment drives against their Presidents in the past. Richard Nixon faced it in 1974, Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton was shown his way out from the office in 1998. All three of them, in the end, faced an awkward situation and were left vulnerable to their opposition parties as their bitter enemies were controlling both houses of Congress. Johnson and Clinton were forced out of the office as the majority of the House voted for their impeachment and Nixon would most probably have faced the same situation if he had not resigned his office.
Impeachment is a clash between two opposite branches of government, where the country’s democracy is tested. Investigations are done to check whether or not; such damage has been done by the nation’s leader to the honor and integrity of the Republic, that the leader deserves to be thrown out of the office against the people’s will as shown by their votes through the process of impeachment. In Donald Trump’s case, even if the allegations of “high crimes and misdemeanors” look enough to get him impeached, it should not happen. This process of impeachment brings severe obstruction to the country’s economy, destroying the markets. The damage done to the country during such time is irreparable. Especially this time, the situation is expected to get worse as social media is on the hype and Donald Trump’s ugly political skill cannot be overlooked (Weissert, 2018).
Taking a look at Donald Trump’s nature and the past courses, there is not a single time when he has regretted any of his decisions or had written an apologetic note for his bad actions on Twitter. He believes in never asking for God’s forgiveness and has been doing all the politics with the same faith. Hence, it is so not likely that Donald Trump would walk away from such a fight. He will not give up this easily, and things will certainly get uglier (Medved, 2017).
With all the fuss that the efforts of impeachment can bring, there still exists the possibility that it might never happen, and all the efforts go in vain. Also, there are certain allegations on Trump that have not been proven right yet. The obstruction of justice is still being investigated. The claims of leaking intelligence to Russia are also not proven yet, and even if they do, they might be excusable under those circumstances. Trump’s numerous other actions have not brought any harm to an institution or a person. Therefore, it would be stupid to impeach Trump for such allegations and risk weakening the presidency.
An impeachment would strengthen the political norms that Donald Trump has broken.
Trump has no past political experience, and he seems unfit to govern. The United States is considerably going through a serious governing crisis as Trump is held accountable for various character flaws. Even though vice president Mike Pence is also a Republican, but he seems more competent for the presidency than the current President, Donald Trump. However, some liberals would worry that the legislature might get damaged if a unified Republican government takes charge, but this incompetent government is proving to do worse for the country.
Trump has broken a lot of political norms that includes the norms against concealment of financial interests and conflict of interests. He is also held accountable for interfering in the law enforcement bodies. His impeachment would be a lesson for the upcoming presidents and would help strengthen such political norms.
Even if the Democrats take the Senate on November 6th, it is still not likely that Trump would be impeached.
In the United States, impeachment is purely one political act. It requires two-thirds of the majority of the Senate to vote for the article of impeachment to force the president out from his office. Looking at the current political dynamics, even if the Democrats take the Senate during the midterm elections 2018, they will not have the two-thirds majority necessary to drive Donald Trump out of the white house. The impeachment would require more than 15 Republicans to vote for the article as well. It is possible that at most five or six Republicans would turn against Trump by the evidence found against him for ‘high crimes and misdemeanors,’ but no more Senate Republicans are likely to vote for his impeachment.
The two Democrats, AI Green and Brad Sherman, who initiated the efforts to get Donald Trump impeached, were attacked with severe criticism not only from the Republicans but also from their parties. Journalists and Democrats are being forbidden to go against Trump and talk about this impeachment issue as the elections are getting nearer day by day. Political parties understand that raising this issue at such a crucial time will risk their chances of winning the elections. Republicans will not take it lightly, and they will have to face serious consequences (Peter, 2018).
In the end, it can be concluded that this impeachment looks like a dream right now that only a few Democrats and some liberals are enjoying watching themselves and are also making their supporters watch it along with them. Looking at the current statistics, it does not seem possible for the Democrats to get two-thirds of the majority in the Senate. Hence concluded, this impeachment is not happening in reality,and it is foolish to damage the country’s economy for such an impractical thing.
References
Brooks, D. (2016, November 11). The View from Trump Tower. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/12/opinion/the-view-from-trump-tower.html
Medved, M. (2017, June 8). Even after James Comey’s testimony, looks like we’re stuck with Donald Trump. Retrieved from https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2017/06/08/donald-trump-wont-be-impeached-michael-medved-column/102308532/
Peter, B. (2018, October 13). Is Trump on a Collision Course with Impeachment? Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/13/sunday-review/is-trump-on-a-collision-course-with-impeachment.html
Stevenson, P. W. (2016, November 11). ‘Prediction professor’ who called Trump’s big win also made another forecast: Trump will be impeached. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/11/11/prediction-professor-who-called-trumps-big-win-also-made-another-forecast-trump-will-be-impeached/?postshare=3181478883342535&tid=ss_tw
Weissert, W. (2018, October 19). Texas’ O’Rourke tells national audience he’d impeach Trump. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/texas-orourke-tells-national-audience-hed-impeach-trump/2018/10/18/7df9bf02-d340-11e8-a4db-184311d27129_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.58e0e8a3ed9e
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