{"id":2327,"date":"2019-09-21T18:09:16","date_gmt":"2019-09-21T22:09:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/?p=2327"},"modified":"2019-09-23T07:59:05","modified_gmt":"2019-09-23T11:59:05","slug":"the-den-mother","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2019\/09\/21\/the-den-mother\/","title":{"rendered":"The Den Mother"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is a pivotal figure in the Trump Presidency.\u00a0\u00a0Her goals and objectives determine the actions of the sole portion of the Federal Government that Democrats\u2019 control, the House of Representatives.\u00a0\u00a0From the right she is pilloried, seen as the literal \u201cface\u201d of Liberal change in America.\u00a0\u00a0A Congressman from San Francisco, she is the \u201cb\u00eate noire;\u201d used for decades in Republican ad campaigns to defeat Democrats all over the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Life Long Liberal<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nancy Pelosi has a long tradition of Liberalism.  She certainly recognizes the President\u2019s transgressions, supposedly saying to her leadership that she wants to see him in jail.  Why is she holding back, why hasn\u2019t she demanded that Mr. Trump is accountable for his actions?  What\u2019s stopping her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Impeachment as Grand Jury<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Many Liberals believe that the House should begin impeachment proceedings.  Impeachment is described as a \u201cpolitical\u201d action rather than a judicial one.  But impeachment is much like the \u201cgrand jury\u201d process in court.  It is a way of gathering evidence, and determining if charges are justified.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Congress is blocked from exercising its oversight authority.\u00a0\u00a0So the facts are simple:\u00a0\u00a0there 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 \u2026they want to see the evidence\u2026\u201d of Trump\u2019s transgressions, but the mechanisms to show it are stifled. Impeachment is the only \u201cjudicial\u201d action that can display that evidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Impeachment is the only check on the Federalist Society and Trump\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, the Speaker asks, at what cost?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Vague, Indefinite Shore<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Speaker Pelosi sees a bleak future: an impeachment that backfires and causes Democrats to lose the House and the Presidency in 2020.\u00a0It’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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTrump is seeking foreign assistance to win another election but House Democrats are reluctant to impeach him because they\u2019re afraid it will help him win another election<\/em>. (9\/20\/19 \u2013 Tweet from Jon Favreau.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Choice<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The definition of a \u201cHobson\u2019s Choice\u201d is:\u00a0\u00a0\u201cthe necessity of accepting one of two or more equally objectionable alternatives<\/em>\u201d (Webster<\/a>.)\u00a0\u00a0This is what the Liberal wing of the Democratic Party must decide.\u00a0\u00a0Either:<\/p>\n\n\n\n