Opening Remarks: Sometimes, during the journey through life, people encounter situations and events that require them to choose between honor and expediency. And, far too often, they choose the latter.
The reason why this occurs is a phenomenon that I call "the culture of forgiveness." Forgiveness, so the arguments go, is a cathartic and essential part of human growth and maturity. But what many forget is that forgiveness never undoes the evils that prompted it. It has instead, especially in the governmental sphere, often become an eraser that politicians conveniently exploit when their evils no longer serve their interests.
Perhaps this is why so many in the United States Congress feel absolutely no shame about supporting one of the most venal, racist, corrupt, mendacious, megalomaniacal, and divisive demagogues to ever serve as president, and why so many in the United States Senate feel absolutely no discomfort in openly announcing that they will not subscribe to any semblance of fairness and impartiality during Trump's impeachment trial.
Many are calling the House of Representatives' vote for Trump's impeachment "historic." Sadly, it may become historic in the same way that the Nazis favored Hitler over the good of Germany, or the Khmer Rouge favored Pol Pot over the good of Cambodia. Choosing person over country has rarely ended well, and, sadly, signs indicate that those seeking to protect and embolden the criminality of Donald J. Trump will allow this pattern to continue.
History
Despite the delusional rantings of William Barr, Trump's personal lawyer who masquerades as Attorney General, American history is clear that its founders never wanted to create an omnipotent president.
The nation's first experiment with the Articles of Confederation after the American revolution are testimony to this-showing the aversion the founders had to even creating a strong federal government.
Events like Shay's Rebellion, however, convinced many that these Articles were impractical, so a convention was called to replace them, and, from the efforts of its participants, the constitution was born.
But even though this new constitution created a strong federal government, the founders' aversion to monarchy was still apparent by the creation of three branches-legislative, executive, and judicial-with each to serve as a "check and balance" on the others.
Still, even this wasn't enough for the "anti-Federalists," who feared that these three branches could unite and/or refuse or fail to exercise their "check and balance" obligations, which, in turn, could result in the oppression of the governed. So, they insisted that, for the constitution to be ratified, a Bill of Rights had to be added to guarantee numerous individual freedoms that the government could not take away.
Yet, in desperation to create a Trump monarchy, we are witnessing the decay of this "check and balance" system. The federal judiciary, thanks to the mindless rubber-stamping of the United States Senate, is now inundated with unqualified Trump sycophants posing as federal judges and Supreme Court "justices." We are seeing both Representatives and Senators, primarily in the Republican Party, blissfully unconcerned about, and even willing to enable, Trump's abuses of power in the hope these abuses will serve their political self-interests.
The Result
In today's world, we hear a great deal about terrorism. Terrorism is often defined as using violent means to overthrow or destroy a system of government.
But, as recent events in America demonstrate, it doesn't always require guns and bombs to overthrow governments. They can be destroyed from within, by placing the wrong people in positions of power-people who take oaths to uphold and defend the very government they are working to obliterate. People who believe they are above the law.
As stated above, we have already heard some members of the United States Senate openly announce that they will violate their oaths and refuse to be impartial when deciding if Trump should be removed from office. In fact, a Senate leader who will oversee these removal proceedings is actually working with the White House to ensure Trump's removal, no matter how deserved, does not happen.
Think about the audacity and hypocrisy of this. Even novice attorneys know that prospective jurors who openly admit to favoring one side over the other are routinely dismissed, and if prosecutors and defense attorneys were caught rigging a trial by working together for a desired outcome, they would face disbarment and potentially other sanctions as well.
But if terrorism is too strong a word to describe what is happening in today's America (though I submit it is not), I have another: FOOLISHNESS.
What could be more foolish than to have members of the Legislative Branch dilute their own power to strengthen the power of Trump and give him an unchecked license to not only ignore any laws this Branch passes, but also to obstruct any and all investigations into his criminality.
Politicians, unfortunately, are incessantly unable to see beyond the next election, so this foolishness is not surprising. But those who can see beyond the end of their noses are not oblivious to the dangerous precedent this will set. Trump's acquittal will mean that every president who follows will be able to invoke this unchecked license, and what Trump's Republican supporters in Congress fail to think about is that some of these future presidents will be Democrats.
So, this question must be asked: is protecting Donald J. Trump, obstructionist extraordinaire, worth creating this precedent and destroying the effectiveness of the "check and balance" system for the rest of America's existence?
Closing Remarks
After the constitution was created, Benjamin Franklin was asked, "What have we got, a republic or a monarchy?"
To which Franklin replied, "A republic if you can keep it."
For over two hundred years, America has kept it. America kept it through World War One, World War Two, and during the contentious years of the Vietnam War. It even kept it after the Civil War.
Through all this turmoil, through all this strife, through all the hope and desperation, the Republic was kept.
How ironic that, without a shot being fired and in the absence of a conquering foreign enemy, the Republic is about to be destroyed, all because a corrupt cabal of myopic, self-serving, amoral politicians are more than willing to place the creation of the monarchy of Donald J. Trump before the good of the nation.
David R. Hoffman, Legal Editor of Pravda.Report