Trump’s Judgment Day is coming but can Dems wait?
WASHINGTON » Please, Tom Steyer, stop spending money on impeachment ads. Run spots against President Trump’s shameful 2020 budget instead.
In the meantime, let’s acknowledge there’s not a big debate among Democrats about impeachment. There is actually consensus, which is why House Speaker Nancy Pelosi won broad support when she pushed back against impeachment in an interview with The Washington Post.
The House may have a moral and constitutional responsibility to start the impeachment process now, given what we know about Trump’s misdeeds and lies. But most Democrats recognize that they didn’t win control of the House last fall on a promise of impeachment but by endorsing traditional inquiries.
It’s far better to say, “Let’s painstakingly investigate all the charges against Trump, let’s see what special counsel Robert Mueller finds, and then we’ll decide what to do.”
We’re right to feel we should be further along on this. The Mueller probe should have been accompanied by serious inquests by the House into the president’s actions.
But far from investigating Trump’s transgressions during his first two years in office, a Republican- controlled House focused on disrupting and discrediting those trying to learn the truth. Democrats now have to start from scratch. Unfortunate? Yes. But still no reason for rushing to impeach. This is why the leaders of the committees doing most of the probing backed Pelosi’s restraint.
A premature debate over impeachment distracts from all the damage Trump is doing through uses of power that are not impeachable. This is why Trump eagerly brings up the I-word himself. Gathering shiny objects is his thing.
It’s more fun to talk about impeachment than, God forbid, budgets. Yet the budget Trump proposed this week is genuinely vile. He is proposing cuts in Medicare and calling for yet another effort to repeal Obamacare with $777 billion in reductions to Medicaid and Affordable Care Act subsidies. He slashes programs for low-income people, including a 30 percent cuts in food stamps.
Good for you, Mr. Steyer, for tweeting against Trump’s budget. Why not drop impeachment long enough to tell more people about what Trump is doing to them? The Constitution doesn’t create an
to impeach Trump. Maybe we’ll get to the point there is a moral and political responsibility to impeach. Pelosi said she would act if faced with “something so compelling and overwhelming and bipartisan.” I’d go further and say that “compelling and overwhelming” evidence might require the House vote for impeachment, even if Senate Republicans refuse to drive him from office. That would send a message to voters about the extent of Trump’s wrongdoing and how spineless Republicans have become.
But there’s an overriding obligation for those of us who oppose Trump because of the damage he’s doing to our democracy: the imperative to check our passions. The Constitution is a framework for self-rule. We must demonstrate our respect for democratic procedures and the power of the people to speak through free elections.
South Bend Mayor and Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, in a CNN town hall on Sunday, said “I would like to see this president and the style of politics he represents sent off through the electoral process — decisively defeated at the ballot box.”
Politics should be about promoting durable, long-term reform. This requires affirmation from the voters. Congress should not lightly deprive the electorate of the chance to kick Trump out of Washington, rebuke his party and set a better course for our country. The ideal date for Judgment Day is still Nov. 3, 2020.