![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
By impeaching President Trump twice, the second time a week before he was to leave office anyway, Democrats have ensured that Trump will not be the last President to face multiple impeachment trials. If Republicans retake the House while Biden is still President, we should expect an immediate impeachment of President Biden, and then another, and then another.
Because impeachment is no longer what it was meant to be -- a nonpartisan instrument for removing a President. It was clear ahead of time, both times, that the Senate would not vote to convict this President, because he's too popular among Republicans.
You could argue that this time the House vote was bipartisan because 10 Republicans joined all the Democrats. But the Senate will still not vote to convict -- that requires a 2/3 vote and it won't happen.
I'm reminded of how the Republican House voted 54 times to repeal ObamaCare, yet of course we still have ObamaCare. Well, get ready, the next Republican House may vote 54 times to impeach President Biden.
You could say that Republicans started this when they impeached President Clinton, knowing that the Senate would not convict that popular fella. But Democrats didn't try to impeach GWBush, and Republicans didn't try to impeach Obama, so, we could've let this tit-for-tat opportunity pass. You could say that Democrats had good reason to impeach Trump, because what he did arguably consisted of crimes. But impeachment is a political procedure conducted by the legislature, not a judicial procedure conducted by prosecutors and courts of law. Once Trump is a private citizen, go ahead and charge him with crimes, and let a court of law decide whether he's guilty and how to punish him.
Democrats have complained, with justification, of all the norms that Trump has blown through. Well, here's a norm that Democrats have blown through. From now on, impeachment will be a joke. "Republicans impeached Biden for the 34th time yesterday ..."
Because impeachment is no longer what it was meant to be -- a nonpartisan instrument for removing a President. It was clear ahead of time, both times, that the Senate would not vote to convict this President, because he's too popular among Republicans.
You could argue that this time the House vote was bipartisan because 10 Republicans joined all the Democrats. But the Senate will still not vote to convict -- that requires a 2/3 vote and it won't happen.
I'm reminded of how the Republican House voted 54 times to repeal ObamaCare, yet of course we still have ObamaCare. Well, get ready, the next Republican House may vote 54 times to impeach President Biden.
You could say that Republicans started this when they impeached President Clinton, knowing that the Senate would not convict that popular fella. But Democrats didn't try to impeach GWBush, and Republicans didn't try to impeach Obama, so, we could've let this tit-for-tat opportunity pass. You could say that Democrats had good reason to impeach Trump, because what he did arguably consisted of crimes. But impeachment is a political procedure conducted by the legislature, not a judicial procedure conducted by prosecutors and courts of law. Once Trump is a private citizen, go ahead and charge him with crimes, and let a court of law decide whether he's guilty and how to punish him.
Democrats have complained, with justification, of all the norms that Trump has blown through. Well, here's a norm that Democrats have blown through. From now on, impeachment will be a joke. "Republicans impeached Biden for the 34th time yesterday ..."