CommentsONE MAN’S OPINION-Abe Lincoln spoke in loftier terms than back-stabbing when he gave his House Divided Speech in 1858. Although the nation was headed toward a civil war, people still cared about the principles on which the nation was founded. Not so in 2019.
A little more than 100 years after the first civil war, the nation still cared about the principles in the Declaration and the U.S. Constitution. After Nixon covered up the foolish break-in at the DNC headquarter at the Watergate, he was forced to resign. Hence, the word Nixonized refers to when the leaders of both political parties decide that the President’s misconduct is too serious for him to remain in power. The joint decision is based on the gathering of a sufficient number of facts to have public opinion turn against the President.
(Parliamentary governments have a similar process when new governments must be formed after their Prime Minister’s conduct has lost him or her political support. They habitually resort to their own type of impeachment.)
During Watergate, Congress did not shirk its duties to bring out the facts over the President’s opposition. It took a long time with far less evidence for Congress to press ahead to trace down where each bit of evidence would lead. The White House tapes were subpoenaed because John Dean thought that one of his conversations with Nixon had been taped because Nixon had gone to a far corner and started to whisper. That scant evidence was enough of a lead for Congress to find Alexander Butterfield, a presidential assistant, who knew that Nixon had taped everything all the time. This was July 1973. After that, a lengthy court battle ensued, but Congress did not shrink from its Constitutional duty for partisan political benefit. A year later, in July 1974, the Supreme Court ruled that Nixon had to turn over the tapes.
Since November 2019, virtually everyone has known who should be called to testify next against Trump. We do not yet have overwhelming evidence necessary to turn public opinion because Trump’s party does not admit his “high crimes and misdemeanors.” GOP members keep telling us, “Give us more evidence so we can turn on him.” The process of turning public opinion is like turning the Queen Mary. Fact after fact has to be found and forced into the open. The public needs an ocean of facts and the witnesses must touch the President himself in order for the evidence to become “overwhelming.”
Pelosi’s Congress Stabs its Own Witnesses in the Back
In June 1973 when John Dean testified for a week before Congress, the GOP savagely attacked and maligned him for a year, yet Congress itself did not stab him in the back by saying, “we shall not follow up on the leads which you gave us.” But that is exactly what Pelosi did with all the fact witnesses who laid a superb foundation for subpoenaing more documents and witnesses. She stabbed each one in the back. And Reps. Adam Schiff and Jerry Nadler have become her accomplices.
Let’s be clear. Pelosi had the subpoenas withdrawn. Former Secretary of State John Bolton is not under subpoena, nor is current Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. After the federal court ruled on November 25, 2019 that Presidential advisor Don McGahn had to obey the subpoena, Nancy Pelosi would not let Schiff re-issue the subpoenas to Trump’s advisors. Instead, Pelosi abbreviated the impeachment process and on December 10, 2019, Pelosi’s Congress has issued two puny articles of impeachment including that Trump has not cooperated. How can any sane person proceed with that article of impeachment after Congress refused to re-issue the subpoenas after the court ruled that McGahn had to obey?
Trump is Mentally Ill and Engaged in Treasonous Behavior
Lest any reader think that this article is defending Trump, please note that Trump is seriously mentally ill and should have been Nixonized as far back as January 2017. Since then, we have witnessed Trump engage in the most despicable acts. Trump has a moral, but no legal, defense, which is that he suffers from two debilitating personality disorders: Histrionic and Narcissistic. Trump’s level of functioning is so low that he cannot comprehend that his actions are unconstitutional and traitorous. Trump’s bad behavior does not exonerate the Democratic Congress for its cowardly betrayal of its constitutional duty.
The Gravest Dangers Which Face the Nation Are (1) Pelosi Democrats and (2) We the People
(1) Pelosi Dems:
Trump epitomizes every horrid trait which the Founding Fathers feared. However, Trump’s leaving office is personally bad for Speaker of the House Pelosi, and thus, a Dem Congress has allowed her to sabotage all attempts to remove Trump.
Let’s put it in everyday terms. Suppose Pelosi coached your high school football team in the regional championship. She tells the quarterback to take a dive, to deliberately throw passes far too short, to fumble the ball intentionally, to avoid making first downs, and for the defensive line to just step aside. Then to cap it off, you discover that Coach Pelosi betrayed the entire school because she could make more money if the team lost. That is exactly what Pelosi has done with Trump’s impeachment. She has intentionally sabotaged the entire process because she makes more money fundraising if Trump remains in office doing horrible things all over the world.
(2) We the People:
Prof. Noah Feldman said that impeachment is a constitutional remedy that takes precedence over elections for high crimes and misdemeanors. The Constitution gave us a Republic and not a mobocracy where elections determine everything. Another election is not how the U.S. Constitution handles high crimes and misdemeanors. It does not matter whether Trump’s conduct might result in his being voted out of office. Yet, Pelosi is in fact stopping a full impeachment in favor of the November 2020 elections. We the People are allowing her to trade our constitutional republic for a mobocracy which is leading to civil war.
We the People allow Pelosi and Trump to trash the U.S. Constitution, and all we do is shout out hyper-emotional memes, while ignoring our own treachery. We the People are stabbing ourselves in the back.
(Richard Lee Abrams is a Los Angeles attorney and a CityWatch contributor. He can be reached at: [email protected]. Abrams views are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of CityWatch.) Edited for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.
