Listen, I\u2019m a huge fan at tilting at windmills.\u00a0\u00a0Don Quixote is one of my favorite literary characters.\u00a0\u00a0But I\u2019m a Pancho Sanza fan as well.\u00a0\u00a0For those who aren\u2019t up on their classic literature, Don Quixote is the central character in Manuel de Cervantes early 1600\u2019s fictional tale of the same name.\u00a0\u00a0Quixote is a would-be Knight, enamored with the chivalry of the Middle Ages, and\u00a0\u00a0looks for a dragon to slay.\u00a0\u00a0He chooses a windmill as his target.\u00a0\u00a0Pancho Sanza, his squire, is a pragmatic peasant who recognized that his \u201cknight\u201d is, in fact, attacking a windmill, not a dragon.\u00a0\u00a0Thus became the \u201cmodern\u201d phrase, \u201ctilting at windmills\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n What windmills am I referencing?\u00a0\u00a0Well, let\u2019s start with the Congressional power of impeachment, the one way that Congress can exercise power over the Executive and Judicial branches.\u00a0\u00a0Impeachment is the House of Representative\u2019s way of charging the Executive Officers (including the President) and Federal Judges with removable offenses.\u00a0\u00a0Conviction of impeachment is the Senate\u2019s confirmation that actually removes them from office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We all know how that works.\u00a0\u00a0President Trump was impeached twice for actions during his first administration.\u00a0\u00a0The first impeachment was over the \u201cperfect phone call\u201d with the then newly elected President of Ukraine, Vladomyr Zelenskyy.\u00a0\u00a0In the call, Trump threatened Zelenskyy with the loss of US financial support, unless Ukraine found evidence against Trump\u2019s major rival, and the future Democratic candidate for President, Joe Biden.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Zelenskyy did not provide the evidence.\u00a0\u00a0Biden was eventually elected President of the United States in 2020.\u00a0\u00a0And, since Trump regained the office in 2024, Zelenskyy\u2019s refusal has been a hurdle to Trump\u2019s\u00a0\u00a0continued support of Ukraine against the Russian invasion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And the second impeachment was for Trump \u201cfomenting insurrection\u201d on January 6th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In both cases a majority of the House (then controlled by Democrats) voted to impeach the President.\u00a0\u00a0And in both cases, the Senate failed to get a two-thirds majority to convict, and Trump bore no consequences, other than the ignominy of being the only President impeached twice.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Democrats may well regain control of the House, assuming a \u201cfree and fair\u201d election process in 2026.\u00a0\u00a0(That\u2019s a big assumption, as the Trump Administration is doing everything it can to take Federal control of the process).\u00a0\u00a0Democrats might even regain narrow control of the Senate, though that\u2019s a more difficult task.\u00a0\u00a0In 2027, there may well be a \u201cclear path\u201d to impeachment in the House, both for the President, and his cabinet.\u00a0\u00a0But there is not a path, not even a narrow one, to conviction in the Senate.\u00a0\u00a0Should Democrats control the Senate, there still will be at least fifteen Republican votes needed for actual removal from office.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n While Impeachment trials are a great way to highlight Presidential or Cabinet level criminal acts, the reality is clear:\u00a0\u00a0impeachment and conviction is not a functional way to reshape our government.\u00a0\u00a0No matter how clear the cause may be;\u00a0\u00a0what might look like a dragon to us Democrats, is really just a windmill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But impeachment isn\u2019t the only windmill in our current political life.\u00a0\u00a0Other issues are ending the Electoral College method of electing the President, and altering the Second Amendment to restrict personal gun ownership. (And, from the other side, altering the Fourteenth Amendment to end birthright citizenship).\u00a0\u00a0While both sides of American political thought have \u201cthings\u201d they want to change in the Constitution, the paths to make those alterations are politically arduous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Democrats are largely in favor of \u201cdirect election\u201d of the President, by simple majority vote of the citizens.\u00a0\u00a0But in order to accomplish that, it would require re-writing the 12th<\/sup>\u00a0Amendment to the Constitution (the Amendment that reorganizes the process outlined in Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution).\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n And many Democrats are in favor of altering the language of the Second Amendment, now interpreted as giving an absolute individual right to \u201ckeep and bear arms\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0While, in the past, there was some \u201cflexibility\u201d in the Supreme Court\u2019s interpretation of the Second, in order to change that today likely would require changing the Constitution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Also, Trump and other Republicans are fighting a \u201crear-guard action\u201d to alter the common language interpretation of the \u201cbirthright citizenship\u201d clause of the 14th<\/sup>\u00a0Amendment.\u00a0\u00a0While in today\u2019s MAGA majority Court anything is possible, it\u2019s likely that even this Court will rule against the Republican argument and uphold that the plain language of the Amendment.\u00a0\u00a0If they do, then the only choice Republicans would have would be to change the Constitution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All of these are \u201cwindmills\u201d, not dragons.\u00a0\u00a0To amend, the Constitution, it requires two-thirds of both the House and the Senate agree, and then three-fourths of the states confirm as well. Not only is it highly unlikely that two-thirds of either the House or the Senate would agree on anything, but for thirty-eight out of fifty states to agree is almost inconceivable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Or, two-thirds of states (34) could call for a Constitutional Convention, and then three-fourths of the states agree to Amendments from that Convention.\u00a0\u00a0That\u2019s an even higher bar, (and even more unlikely).<\/p>\n\n\n\n So when I get the email asking me to donate to \u201cend the Electoral College\u201d, I sympathize with the concept.\u00a0\u00a0When I hear calls for Trump\u2019s or Hegseth\u2019s or whoever the current Secretary of Homeland Security impeachment, I heartily agree.\u00a0\u00a0But I won\u2019t put my hard-earned money on \u201ctilting at windmills\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s 2026, a pivotal election year in American history.\u00a0\u00a0There are very real \u201cdragons\u201d to defeat in this next election.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019m putting my money against them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Impeachment<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
2027<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Amendment<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Real Dragons<\/h2>\n\n\n\n