Gardner’s road to redemption
In March we wrote that Sen. Cory Gardner “could still prove to be a great senator for Colorado, a man who puts his state and his principles above party and politics. It’s a rare person these days who can take that road.”
The road of redemption is before Gardner now in the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump. Will Colorado’s native son stand for what is right? Will he rise above the party machinery and the right-wing talk radio that are exerting maximum pressure on Republicans to not foil their best chance at maintaining power for another four years?
If ever there was a time for Gardner to forsake Trump loyalists and special interests, this is the moment. He should remember that his power actually flows from the voters of Colorado who elevated him to this high office. It wasn’t the conservative base who chose him to be a senator from Colorado, but the swing voters in the middle who tipped the scales in his favor against an incumbent Democrat. Gardner should listen to what those constituents are saying.
Trump has abused the power of his office and threatened our republic and our democracy from within. Any remaining shadow of a doubt that could have been cast in defense of Trump’s elaborate and months-long scheme has been washed away by former national security adviser John Bolton.
Bolton has written in a draft of his new book that Trump personally and directly told him before he resigned that he was withholding millions of dollars of aid to Ukraine until the government launched an investigation of Democrats, including former Vice President Joe Biden.
Republicans can argue all day that other presidents have done similar misdeeds when executing their foreign policy objectives, but Trump’s defenders cannot escape the fact that there isn’t another example to be brought forward.
Except for maybe that time President Richard Nixon ordered operatives to violate U.S. laws in pursuit of dirt on his opponents. The Senate never got the chance to impeach Nixon; he did the right thing and resigned.
Trump will never resign. It’s up to men and women of conscience to show the president the door to the Oval Office with a clear message that this will never be tolerated in America. The president spent months exerting pressure on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to announce an investigation.
Gardner has proved his conservative credentials, perhaps to a fault. We were appalled when he voted to allow the president to redirect billions of dollars Congress had appropriated to build a wall along America’s southern border with Mexico. Congress, with that single vote, handed over the legislative branch’s highest authority — the power of the purse — to the executive branch.
We were astounded that Gardner would vote to cut Medicaid funding to states, especially with a poorly crafted directive that left it unclear how deep the cuts would be and who would be affected. Americans relying on federal health insurance panicked, rightfully so, as they wondered aloud if they’d lose access to health care.
But Coloradans respect and reward bravery. The West has made us gritty and hard. We want freedom and peace, not tyranny and hatred. Coloradans are not angry spewers of venom. We are factual and analytical voters who split our ballots between parties as needed.
And Democrats have laid the facts at our feet. Trump has abused the power of his office, and he must be removed. Call more witnesses if you must, but impeachment is a part of our Constitution and it’s time to exercise it.