Sleight Of Hand
As pointed out in my last essay (Something, ANYTHING, 10/17/19) Democrat efforts to remove President Trump from office have reached the level of desperation. Surely, the Democrats MUST know that Presidential impeachment does not equal Presidential removal. Surely they MUST know that removal of the President can happen ONLY when a SUPERMAJORITY of 2/3 of the Senate votes to do so (source: en.m.wikipedia.org), and that’s NOT going to happen. So, since the impeachment process will NOT remove President Trump, and since we’ve got an honest to God election comping up in just a little over one year’s time, the question that HAS got to be asked is: WHY? What gives? Why are the Democrats wasting their time (and our money) pursuing a course of action that is doomed before it begins? If they’re so intent on removing the President, why not go all out for November 3, 2020? Why not make their case to the American public and let the voters decide? Three reasons, I think.
The first reason is that the Democrats know that they need to drum up enthusiasm, especially among millennials, for their candidates (presidential, senatorial and congressional) come November, 2020. Millennials (with the exception of a small percentage of idealistic activists), as a group, tend to be somewhat nihilistic and skeptical of government in general. Democrats know that although the majority of millennials will never vote for Donald Trump, if they are not enthusiastic about the Democratic candidates, they simply WON’T VOTE. Because it is inherently difficult to get young voters excited about Democrat OCTOGENARIANS (Maxine Waters, 81), SEPTUAGENARIANS (Biden, 76; Sanders, 78; Warren, 70; Pelosi, 79; Nadler, 72), SEXAGENARIANS (Schumer, 68) and the prematurely senile (Schiff, 59, and others), Democrat leadership is quite aware that they’ve got to do SOMETHING to engage young voters. And, there’s nothing quite as effective at generating enthusiasm among the young as waging a crusade. Even a DOOMED crusade. In fact, it’s even better if it IS a doomed crusade! So, dear readers, the impeachment proceedings are, first and foremost, about engaging the young.
Next, the Democrats see the impeachment process as a means by which they can, on a DAILY basis, besmirch the President. The hope is, that if they malign him bad enough, and often enough, the “negative vibes” (whether true or not) will turn independent American voters away from a President who has otherwise been quite successful. And, since, come Election Day, it’s difficult to turn voters away from success, Democrats know that they’ve got to get America to focus on something else. So, with the impeachment proceedings they hope to focus America’s attention on Trump’s character flaws (and there are many) rather that his very positive accomplishments in leading America.
And, lastly, and most shameful, is that the Democrats need to turn America’s attention away from the stark fact that THEY HAVE DONE ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, in the last 3 years, to better the nation that they claim to love. ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. Nothing on the illegal immigration crisis. Nothing on DACA. Nothing on securing the border. Nothing on improving health care. Nothing on educational reform. Nothing on the massive problem of urban decay. NOTHING. And, Democrats know that if Americans, young AND old, come to really realize this, Democrats will loose in 2020. So they desperately need a political “sleight of hand”, and they hope that impeachment will do it.
And, it should be pointed out that not only have the Democrats been “do nothings,” they’ve been WORSE then that. At every turn they have tried to sabotage the President, often harming America along the way. Dear reader, ask yourself how much better negotiations with China would go if President Xi Jinping KNEW FOR SURE that Mr. Trump would be around for another 5 years? Ask yourself how much easier it would be for Mr. Trump to push back against Turkey’s aggression in Syria if President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan KNEW FOR SURE that Mr. Trump would be re-elected? Ask yourself whether President Putin might tone down some of his revanchist activities if he KNEW FOR SURE that he’d have to contend with President Trump for another term? And, ask yourself how much stronger our engagement with Mexico on border issues would be if President Andrés Manuel López Obrador KNEW FOR SURE that Trump “wasn’t going anywhere.”
So, all of the above explains, I think, the reasons behind the Democrat strategy. It explains it, dear readers, but it certainly doesn’t justify it. The Democrats should be ASHAMED. As former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski put it, when referring to the Democrats: “They hate the President more than they love America.” Well said, Mr. Lewandowski. They do, indeed.