How we should approach uncharted political waters
Do you ever need a moment to take a step back from the world of politics and just take a breath? I’m a political science major, and I’m paying thousands of dollars a year to gain an education on the topic, yet I can hardly stomach what is happening on Capitol Hill.
What I’ve pieced together from rapid-fire news headlines and Twitter tirades so far is as follows: impeachment inquiry, whistleblower report, phone call transcript, Ukraine, Ukranian President Zelensky, and Hunter Biden.
This call for impeachment is not the first scandal of the Trump presidency, and to be quite honest, it certainly is just as revealing of Trump’s character and governance as past scandals. This time, the only difference is that the House Democrats finally decided that a formal impeachment inquiry would be a viable option in order to do what has been needed to be done for a long time: hold the executive branch accountable.
While I’m in support of the decision to actually hold Trump accountable and force him to own up to his actions, there is a caveat to impeachment that is only being addressed at surface level.
Due to the nature of this particular presidency and the current political climate, the process of impeachment is being viewed as an arbitrary political maneuver used to further divide the American public, rather than as a viable check on the power of the executive branch.
One Opinions columnist for The New York Times, Frank Bruni, asserts that “to be engaged in politics is to be engaged in battle — and that shouldn’t and needn’t always be so,” but that’s what it seems to be boiling down to.
The president understands this reality: by encouraging the more liberal members of Congress who oppose him to follow through with impeachment, he will have more colors on his palette to paint a picture of the opposition as corrupt, un-American, and conductors of some convoluted “witch hunt” against the president of the United States, nevertheless deepening the political battle.
This is the picture right wing supporters of Trump have bought for over two years now, and rather than seeing how impeachment would actually put the American people and American security first, they will only see how the the crazy leftists are out to get our commander in chief because they’re too soft to take his commentary.
The process of impeachment is not just something meant to take down solely Trump. As The New York Times Editorial Board writes, “A president’s use of his power for his own political gain, at the expense of the public interest, is the quintessence of an impeachable offense. It was, in fact, one of the examples the Constitution’s framers deployed to explain what would constitute ‘high crimes and misdemeanors,’ the standard for impeachment.”
I understand that we live in a hyperpartisan state at this point in time. I understand that politics has become more of a game, used as a means to win an argument rather than as a means to improve the state of this country. And I understand that Trump has managed to become the face of division as well as the basis for many arguments in this country.
But I also understand that political division existed before the age of “Trumpism.” Although the precedent setting cases are quite different, I understand that impeachment proceedings have existed before 2019. Therefore, I’m asking everyone to do what I’m trying to do and take a step back to look at this situation rationally.
I don’t care if you are Republican, a Democrat, an Independent, a member of the Green Party or a Libertarian. I don’t care.
There is valid and concrete evidence against the president that calls for impeachment proceedings, and instead of looking at this as a tactic by one party to attack another, take it for what it is and look at the facts.
On the flip side, if you are a Democrat and you think calling for impeachment can only hurt the Democratic candidates because it makes it look as though Trump is the only thing they care about, then you also need to reevaluate how you’re viewing this situation.
Because to be honest, a lot of people thought Donald Trump would lose in 2016, but here we are. Therefore, anything can come of the current situation—Why lock ourselves into our partisan view points and act as though this is merely a game with a predictable outcome?
We have someone in office who does not value this democracy for what it is, but values only his power (which he abuses) over the citizens of this country. Let us come together, and at least agree on that.
If we can agree on that much, and look at the impeachment process as something more than a political tactic, maybe we can walk away from this when it’s all said and done just a little closer to lessening the political chasm we live in.