Here's the Problem

[NanceGreggs]

The framers of the Constitution attempted to foresee, as much as possible, future events – such as a president who committed ‘treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdeamours’ – and succinctly set out the remedy to address that possibility: impeachment.

What the framers didn’t foresee was a president so arrogantly corrupt, he would simply ignore the Constitution he swore to protect and defend. What they didn’t envision was a president insisting that he is above the laws he swore to uphold. What they didn’t imagine was a US president standing on the world stage and declaring that the adversarial foreign power that attacked our election was blameless, and that the nation’s true enemies were those who questioned his actions and/or openly opposed them.

Much was made today of past comments by Nadler and Pelosi with respect to impeachment needing to be a bipartisan effort – and ideally, it would be. But what they didn’t foresee was a party that is as lawless as its president, and an administration so rife with corruption, the members of the party that enabled it would lie, perjure themselves, and fully adopt the idea that the Constitution is meaningless.

What they didn’t anticipate was that the treason, bribery, or other crimes and misdeamours committed by any president would be dismissed as trivialities, and defended by party members who themselves are fearful of being implicated as collaborators in those crimes.

If the Democrats went wrong anywhere, it was holding onto the belief that their ‘friends across the aisle’ would put country above party, that people of conscience and good character would act as patriots rather than flunkies beholding to a madman, that when it came down to Trump v The Constitution, upholding the Constitution would supersede all other considerations by Democrats and Republicans alike.

What we have suspected over the past three years is that the GOP is simply not interested in the truth or the facts, and that their only interest is protecting the criminal they elected, supported, and enabled as he abused the powers of his office, as he did the bidding of our enemies by undermining our democratic institutions, as he lied to the citizenry over and over again – all of which has now been undeniably confirmed.

If the Democrats are guilty of anything, it was their naïve belief that the GOP could be trusted to honour the oaths they swore to uphold the Constitution, and to defend the country against all enemies, foreign and domestic. They have now been disabused of any such notions.

What it all comes down to is that this really IS Trump v The Constitution – and the Republicans have amply demonstrated which side they’re on.

[spanone]

1. K&R...👍🏼

[Beartracks]

2. Another K&R

Is this, by any chance, a letter-to-the-editor somewhere?

========

[Cha]

3. Mahalo, Nance!

[Maraya1969]

4. I don't think they thought about a political party that would support this president

no matter what. If Trump did not have the support of all these Russiapublicans he would not get very far. But they bend over backwards for him for some reason. In my opinion they make themselves look like idiots for him.

Is it that they all have connections for Russia? IDK the NRA's money comes from there. But maybe he has gotten them involved in his crazy cult just like his supporters. People who will believe whatever he tells them.

[soldierant]

5. I don't think many Dems, if any,

trusted Republicans to honor their oaths. I know I haven't for at least 40 years. I think what we naively trusted in (and I know I did) was that they would value the appearance, the pretense, of honoring their oaths, if only because they would fear losing the next election That is all that has ever kept them in check, and, apparently, now that's gone.

[Lock him up.]

8. So they MUST lose the next election then.

Register new Dem voters (out of the 100 million of never-voters).

GOTV.

There are more of us than there are of the Rushablicans.

[ProudProgressiveNow]

6. KR NT

[Joinfortmill]

7. Agree

And thankfully, the Dems now get it. Schiff is out for bear.

[Stonepounder]

9. Unfortunately we have some serious and possibly intractable problems.

1. Citizens United - The uber wealthy buy up GOP Congresscritters and then tell them how to vote.

2. The GOP is perfectly willing to be bought because they want to be part of the uber wealthy.

3. The GOP really wants the US to become an oligarchy, where they can be part of the wealthy, and nothing else matters.

4. So if Putin wants to take over the world, it is OK with the GOP as long as they can be part of the rich and powerful.

5. Nothing else matters to GOP members of Congress. Not their oath of office, not climate change, not even their families. Only being part of the ruling elite.

That is what we are fighting.

[DFW]

13. It all boils down to point number 5

They care about nothing other than personal wealth and having a large number of people snapping to attention whenever they snap their fingers. Depending on their local audience, they cloak their goals in a mixed cocktail of religion and patriotism. They may disguise things for their audience, but none of it changes the fact that their cocktail is nothing other than waste water from the local sewer.

[DENVERPOPS]

10. Yet

Yet another great one lady!

[Hermit-The-Prog]

11. the Gangsters Of Putin want money and power, not government

[Garrett78]

12. They aren't naive. They knew the GOP would go out of its way to defend Trump.

Bipartisanship is really just a talking point. It's a way of saying, "This should be bipartisan, and it will be if the GOP has any scruples (but we know they don't)."

[ffr]

14. K&R

[kentuck]

15. And they blame the Democrats that it's not "bi-partisan"...

In these circumstances, "bi-partisanship" is the duty of Republicans. If they fail, they cannot blame the Democrats.

The Democrats have the lantern to lead them out of the cave.

[Dem_4_Life]

16. Agree 100%

[BSdetect]

17. The situation is critical in the extreme. Well described by NanceGreggs as usual.

[malthaussen]

18. No, I believe they did foresee such a possibility...

... but I believe they never imagined that Congress would collude in the delusion. Congress and the Executive should be natural adversaries, with the Judiciary remaining ideally neutral. Instead, we have all three branches all or partially infected with madness. Hamilton et cie foresaw this possibility, too, but I believe figured that if the disease had spread that far, all that would be left was a Lockean solution.

-- Mal

[bucolic_frolic]

19. Pick a side. America. Or Trump.

saw that on Twitter yesterday. The Founders saw the world through an 18th century lens of patriots and gentlemen. They should have known better, since they did study history of the Roman Empire, the Glorious Revolution of 1688, Cromwell, and all the political thinkers of the Enlightenment. Maybe they thought it was different this time. Their clockwork Constitutional mechanism has been gamed, parties corrupted their checks and balances, and property and the right to be armed have trounced the rest of the Bill of Rights. The Constitution is a "skiff made of paper", a quote I think attributable to John Hancock. Without enforcement, rule of law is powerless. It's now or never. And we still have to uncover exactly who and what is the force behind this gang of goons, and the sources, present and past, of their funding. We will be 15 years cleaning this up. If we're lucky.

[Nitram]

20. The impeachment clause was included because the framers indeed DID anticipate a corrupt

president. What they didn't foresee was a cabinet and a majority of Senators who would break their oaths of office and help a corrupt president obstruct an impeachment inquiry and refuse to find him guilty in spite of overwhelming evidence.

[dragonlady]

21. Excellent point! n/t

[Nasruddin]

22. They knew bad behavior

Disagree. They were intimately familiar with bad behavior, some of them even practiced it. They were 100 years down from Charles II, Cromwell, and Charles I. Some of them were in North America because those bad behavers had made it necessary for their families to go.

They didn't understand political parties, they had a poor understanding of cults and other group behaviors, and they didn't have such a complete theoretical understanding of psychopaths and personality disorders.

For instance, "didn’t foresee was a president .... [that] would simply ignore the Constitution he swore to protect and defend." But that's the most natural thing in the world to a psychopath. If they had known this, they would've taken it into account. It's certainly behavior they knew about. What they didn't know about was how groupthink and political parties could corrupt the checks and balances. This is not the first time in our history this system has threatened to fall apart.

[OldBaldy1701E]

23. They did foresee this...

It is called the Second Amendment. Sorry if this offends, but that was the reason for its inclusion. And, it was included so the people would never be 'outgunned', i.e.: oppressed, by the government. Well, we see how this has played out. It is not really a factor anymore, as it has become 'bad form' for anyone to defend themselves from anything. And, as far as taking action (of any kind), well...

[Joe941]

24. Not really. They did forsee it.