Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is a pivotal figure in the Trump Presidency. Her goals and objectives determine the actions of the sole portion of the Federal Government that Democrats’ control, the House of Representatives. From the right she is pilloried, seen as the literal “face” of Liberal change in America. A Congressman from San Francisco, she is the “bête noire;” used for decades in Republican ad campaigns to defeat Democrats all over the country.
A Life Long Liberal
But now, even though she has represented them for years, the Liberal side of the Democratic Party is attacking her. They demand that Pelosi move against the President by starting the impeachment process NOW.
Nancy Pelosi has a long tradition of Liberalism. She certainly recognizes the President’s transgressions, supposedly saying to her leadership that she wants to see him in jail. Why is she holding back, why hasn’t she demanded that Mr. Trump is accountable for his actions? What’s stopping her?
Democratic control of the House seems overwhelming, a thirty-five-vote majority over the Republicans. But that thirty-five-vote margin is actually pretty tenuous, with thirteen of the Democrats winning seats in 2018 from Districts won by President Trump in 2016. If those thirteen flip back in a Presidential election year, the Democratic majority becomes a slim nine votes. Given the vagaries of American political life, the Democrats could lose their majority in 2020.
Impeachment as Grand Jury
Many Liberals believe that the House should begin impeachment proceedings. Impeachment is described as a “political” action rather than a judicial one. But impeachment is much like the “grand jury” process in court. It is a way of gathering evidence, and determining if charges are justified.
The President and the Attorney General have made it next to impossible to investigate illegal activities in the Executive Branch, and particularly by the White House. The Department of Justice has already declared the President immune from indictment. Now they are going so far as to say he is immune from even investigation.
Congress is blocked from exercising its oversight authority. So the facts are simple: there is currently no way for anyone in the government to find out IF this President is breaking the law. Those who support President Trump demand that …they want to see the evidence…” of Trump’s transgressions, but the mechanisms to show it are stifled. Impeachment is the only “judicial” action that can display that evidence.
Impeachment is the only check on the Federalist Society and Trump’s warped unitary executive theory of Presidential authority. It is all that is left, the only Constitutional recourse. And even if a Mitch McConnell dominated Senate refuses to convict the President, a House impeachment would bring the evidence to light.
But, the Speaker asks, at what cost?
A Vague, Indefinite Shore
Speaker Pelosi sees a bleak future: an impeachment that backfires and causes Democrats to lose the House and the Presidency in 2020. It’s not only the slim margin in the House of Representatives. The nation is just as divided, with both right and left having 40% of the electorate. Who wins “the middle,” 11% of the remainder, wins the Presidency. Pelosi fears impeachment could push that middle to the Trump side.
Yet there remains the spectacle of a President, unchecked, and willing to go to any lengths to do what he wants, and stay in the White House. As a former Obama speechwriter, Jon Favreau, tweeted:
“Trump is seeking foreign assistance to win another election but House Democrats are reluctant to impeach him because they’re afraid it will help him win another election. (9/20/19 – Tweet from Jon Favreau.)
The Choice
The definition of a “Hobson’s Choice” is: “the necessity of accepting one of two or more equally objectionable alternatives” (Webster.) This is what the Liberal wing of the Democratic Party must decide. Either:
- Use the impeachment process to gather evidence about Presidential transgressions, and present that to the American people; knowing that the Republican Senate will never remove Trump. Or,
- Continue the current strategy of highlighting those transgressions, and believe in the American people’s common sense to defeat Trump in 2020.
It seems that Nancy Pelosi has made her choice and intends to avoid impeachment. She is the “den mother” of her vulnerable moderate majority. Meanwhile, the free press continues to present the evidence of corruption in the executive branch. It is serving as a “grand jury” of the New York Times, the Washington Post and others, that will put the facts before the public.
The ultimate result of an impeachment and conviction is removal from office. The election of 2020, now fourteen months away, will do the same thing.
It seems we will have to wait.
