Happy New Year to all progressives readers and their families. It’s an election year so it is time to know the issues, make our case, and, above all, vote. Just remember, if you don’t vote (or are blocked from voting) you don’t exist.
This section of the progressive assault, The Easy Answer, is a convenience for progressives. Reactionary Republicans are constantly making stupid, obviously wrong, accusations and claims -about almost everything. And in particular, they make them about and on behalf of Trump. The problem, of course, is that there are so many of them. What’s a thinking progressive to do? Use the Easy Answer
Here are two tiresome and stupid claims made by Reactionary Republicans that the good people of America are currently having to endure:
-President Trump is being unfairly treated in the impeachment process because he is being denied due process.
Donald Trump and the Reactionary Republicans love this charge, and an infinite variation on it, to no end. And they whine about it endlessly. In fact, I often times think that the Reactionary Republicans believe that whoever whines the first and whines the longest always wins the argument.
Even the President’s own lawyer, Pat Cipollone, makes this ludicrous charge. He has accused the house democrats of denying Trump his rights of due process by not allowing him to call witnesses, to cross examine witnesses, to have access to evidence and to have counsel present. (1)
There are several easy and obvious answers to these charges . First, the house impeaches the president but the senate tries him. Impeachment is the investigative stage - there is no due process at in the investigation state. During the senate trial the due process procedures are employed.
Second, impeachment is a political procedure to remove a president from office. It is not a criminal trial and there is no criminal penalty. If the senate trial proves the president guilty he is removed from office - and may later face criminal prosecution and penalty.
Third, the constitution gives the house of representatives the right to establish its own rules and procedures to conduct it investigation. In fact, the house has such power to run the impeachment as it sees fit that the even the Supreme Court will not interfere with its actions. (1)
There you have it, three simple reasons why the Republican whine about Trump being denied due process is a stupid argument. However, if you want the Really Easy Answer, here it is: Trump does not want due process and is afraid of it.
Due process in a senate trial would give Democrats the right to compel Trump to testify - under oath - and to be crossed examined under oath. And his subordinates, too. It would force Trump to give up all written evidence and force his subordinates to handle over all of their emails.
The house, in its investigation, has already requested all of these things. But Trump has denied every request and stonewalled on everything - everything.
So here’s the real Easy Answer: due process is meant to reveal the truth and assign guilt fairly and properly. And due process, like the truth, is something that Donald Trump can’t handle.
- The Democrats just want Trump to fail.
This is a constant whine of Reactionary Republicans, and a favorite of the Fox Fake and Phony news crowd.
But, as in so many cases, what Donald Trump and the Reactionary Republicans say is true of others is actually the truth about them. And in this case, having it in for a president is what the Republicans wanted to do to Barack Obama.
It’s one thing when a talking head on Fox Fake and Phony News, say Sean Hannity, says that the democrats just want the president to fail. You expect that kind of nonsense from a man who is bing paid big money to smear Democrats. But it is another thing when the Senate Majority of the Republican party actually says it and makes it clear that it should be the strategy of the entire Republican Party.
Shortly after the Republicans secured control of both the house and the senate in 2010, Mitch McConnell stated very directly, and bluntly, what the goal of every Republican should be, “the single most important thing that we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term President.” (2)
And it was not just the McConnell who intended, and made, this the official policy of the Republican party. The man who became the Speaker of the House, John Boehner, was just as committed to the failure of Obama. Even before he assumed the gavel as the speaker he made clear what was in store for the President agenda, “We’re going to do everything - and I mean everything we can do - to kill it, stop it, to slow it down, whatever we can.” (3)
Much of the Republican fury and intransigence towards Obama was his alleged, “runaway spending, deficits and debt. And most of all, his Obamacare. (3)
But under Trump who has the runaway spending (billions in subsidies for farms hurt by Trump’s own tariff policies) and debt? And how is the Republican legislation to repeal and replace Obamacare coming along?
So here is the easy answer when you hear the Republican whine that the Democrats just want to see Trump fail: Remember President Obama, and shut up you hypocrites!
References:
1) Politifact, “Trump lawyer claims lack of due process in House impeachment. 3 reasons the law doesn’t back him up”, Jon Greenberg, 10/10/2019
2) Wikiquotes, taken from National Journal, 10/23/2010
3) Politico, “The GOP’s no-compromise pledge”, Andy Barr 10/28/10