Why not impeach?
Re “The impeachment show in Congress only helps Trump,” Opinion, July 30
Columnist Jonah Goldberg thinks that by impeaching President Trump, we would be giving him exactly what he wants. What would Goldberg have us do instead? Should we just sit on our hands and watch the most corrupt man in America continue to demolish what’s left of our democracy? Should we indulge in the fantasy that we can easily vote him out of office next year without Russian interference? Impeachment, on the other hand, will bring a very public and very shaming televised trial to the Senate floor, which will also serve as a taxpayer-funded marathon infomercial for the 2020 Democratic presidential nominee. We may not get a conviction, but we can make him campaign for reelection with the impeachment millstone around his neck. If that’s really what Trump wants, let’s give it to him. Dan Curtis, San Luis Obispo
It was validating to read Goldberg’s piece on the “impeachment show” (yes, that’s the right term) that the Congress is obsessively putting on despite there being virtually no chance of Trump’s removal from office.
How would the Senate achieve the two-thirds vote to accomplish that? With the 2020 election only 15 months away, one can only wonder why House Democrats would waste such precious time on a lost cause.
Have House Democrats forgotten that the only two American presidents ever impeached, Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton, were both acquitted by the Senate? In continuing with the impeachment nonsense, Congress is not only going against history, but most importantly, it is irresponsibly racing the clock. Berta Graciano-Buchman
Beverly Hills ::
Goldberg accuses the Democratic Party of “obsessive pandering to its base.”
I got a big chuckle seeing that Goldberg ignored the true panderers in American politics: the GOP, which has cast a blind eye to every atrocity committed by this president.
Its obsequious appeasement speaks to its origin story, starting with Ronald Reagan’s Southern strategy and winding through the Moral Majority, Roe vs. Wade, anti-LGBTQ activism, evangelicalism and now anti-immigrant fervor. This has led to a vast collection of racists, bigots, theocrats and other misfits who found in Trump someone just like themselves and who will therefore never abandon their loyalty to this president.
Which Republican can say no to those people without committing political suicide? This explains why only those Republicans not running for reelection dare speak a word or two of sideways criticism, as if to tell themselves that in fact they do have a sense of morality after all, even after it’s been buried by decades of always toeing the party line. Mark Chipman
San Diego
Democrats who favor impeachment fail to look at the consequences.
With a GOP majority in the Senate, there will not only be no conviction of the president, but also a splintering of the Democratic majority in the House. The president, after he is acquitted, will probably gain majority support from moderate voters.
Can the radical left wing of the Democratic Party be restrained? Not likely, as evidenced by the success of the “squad” in the House and the push by Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in the Senate. Impeachment would bring disaster to the Democrats in 2020, but no one appears to be listening. Nelson Marans
New York