StarfishSaver
StarfishSaver's JournalIf you REALLY want Trump impeached, here's how to help make it happen
The one and only reason the House isn't going full-steam ahead with impeachment right now is that they know the public is not with them on this yet and unless the public opinion changes, he can be impeached but he will remain in office.
Fortunately, they're moving forward with investigations and hearings that we all hope will help shift public opinion. But don't leave it up to them. You can help them change the landscape.
Most people that you and I know probably haven't actually read the Mueller Report and only know what they've heard and read about it, if they've even done that. But why now organize some friends or neighbors locally to raise public awareness about the Report, impeachment, obstruction of justice, etc.?
Write letters to the editor of your local paper. Dial in to radio call-in shows. Organize public forum or town halls to discuss the report and why and how local people can mobilize. It doesn't need to be a huge even just a few people is a success. You can do it at a local venue or even in someone's living room or basement. If your local politicians participate, that's great. But if they don't, do it without them. Visit your Senators' offices and insist on hearing from them whether they would vote to remove and, if not, why not. If you can't visit their offices, contact the local media and demand that THEY ask them the same questions.
This doesn't have to be a complicated or sophisticated effort. The main thing is to educate and mobilize people in your community. If this occurs in pockets across the country - here, and then there, and then there, and then there ... - it can have a real impact by helping to undergird and bolster what the House is doing and make it easier for them to take the steps we all want them to. The House of Representatives and Senate Democrats need help and support from their constituents, not constant waves of criticism and "advice" from the sidelines.
DON'T just complain! DO SOMETHING!
We have more power in all of this than we give ourselves credit for.
Unfortunately, we seem to expend much of our energy demanding that Congress or Mueller or other people do something about it (and then getting worked up when they don't do what we think they should do when and how we think they should do it), yet we don't seem to put nearly as much energy into thinking much about what we can do ourselves and then following through with it.
What are YOU doing to fight back and bring our country back to its senses?
To those demanding impeachment now or else: What are YOU doing to ensure Trump's gone by 2021?
Besides tweeting and arguing online?
Are you organizing locally? Coordinating voter/community education efforts? Organizing visits (and/or sit-ins) to your Member of Congress and Senators? Encouraging your friends, neighbors and co-workers to pressure their representatives? Writing letters to your local paper? Calling in to local radio shows? Trying to convince people you know to support impeachment and or electoral defeat?
If you're not, why aren't you?
It's easy to go online and complain that Congress isn't doing enough to get him out and insist that they do what you think they should do. But that, without more, is a copout.
What are YOU doing about it?
Don't get it twisted: The impeachment process has already begun
It started in January when the Democratic House Members were sworn in and has been underway ever since. It is not necessary to open a formal impeachment inquiry to initiate the impeachment process.
Everything the House Democrats are doing - hearings, subpoenaing witnesses and documents, requesting the tax records, Committee Chair appearances on various news shows, even the strategy sessions - are all parts of the process laying the groundwork leading to impeachment.
It is a mistake to assume that it's an all-or-nothing proposition, that unless the Judiciary Committee has opened formal impeachment hearings, nothing's being done.
This is moving forward.
We can do our part by helping to shape the narrative. We don't help by accusing Democrats of being cowards or of dragging their feet, neither of which is the case.
A Modest Proposal
While everyone argues about whether to impeach now or later, can we all do something?
We need to help the House shift the narrative away from "Why aren't the Democrats doing more?/The Democrats are in disarray!/If the Democrats don't impeach now, they're failing the country!" blah blah blah and shift he burden onto the Republicans.
Absent in many of the these discussions is any responsibility being put on the Republicans to do the right thing. The only reason there is any hesitation or concern about timing and strategy by the Democrats is that they know that, right now, Republican Senators will not vote to convict and, therefore, even if impeachment is successful, Trump would not be removed from office.
Why aren't they being called to task?
I think we can be helpful - and do much more than just beat up on our Democratic leaders on a message board - if we start to pressure the media (social and MSM) to change their frame. And also take it upon ourselves to reach out to and hammer Republicans directly whenever the issue comes up.
Key questions:
1. Do Republicans believe that the behavior described in the Mueller Report is appropriate for a president?
2. If they don't think it's appropriate, do they think it rises to the level of a high crime or misdemeanor?
3. If not, why not?
4. If the House were to impeach, would they vote to remove him?
5. If not, why not? If a majority of House members find that a president has engaged in obstruction of justice and other wrongdoing, what justification do they have for keeping him in office?
This needs to be hammered and hammered and hammered every day. Republicans - and their voters - need to be softened up and not let off the hook. Stay on them. Demand they answer these questions.
And demand the press ask these questions, too.
Remind them that while Dems have a responsibility to the country to hold Trump accountable, this isn't only on them. The Republicans have just as much responsibility, if not more (because, after all, he IS their boy).
If we do this in sufficient numbers with concerted pressure, we can change the narrative AND help the Democrats move toward the impeachment we all want to see. But just complaining and criticizing them for not doing more won't cut it.
WE can do something besides wring our hands and it can make a difference. Let's do it!
If the House filed Articles of Impeachment today based on Mueller Report, impeachment would be
limited to the allegations contained in the Articles. It would essentially be one count of Obstruction of Justice arising out of attempts to thwart the Mueller investigation. That's a pretty narrow path.
No Emoluments.
No money-laundering
No additional proof of Russian collusion and compromise
Tax fraud and other financial crimes
No other corruption or crime
And any effort to investigate this other wrongdoing would likely be shut down as superfluous "piling on" irrelevant to the question of impeachment - since, if the evidence being sought was relevant to impeachment, why wasn't it included in the Articles of Impeachment?
Even if the investigations continued, imagine how chaotic this would be and how difficult it would be for the American people to follow two separate tracks: an impeachment investigation while a series of other, separate investigations was going on.
This has to be done thoughtfully and methodically:
1. Conduct investigations in the relevant committees: Oversight, Financial Services, Intelligence, Judiciary, etc.
2. Let the American people see, day after day, Mueller, Rosenstein, McGahn, and various Trump cronies called before committees to testify under oath, demonstrating the depths of depravity of this man and his administration.
3. While the investigations are conducted, build a narrative that begins to narrow and isolate Republicans, making clear to the American people that impeachment is an indictment but only the Republican Senate can remove him from office. And setting the stage for forcing Republicans to have to explain why, after a volume of evidence of criminality and corruption was developed in the House, they believe that the president should continue to hold office.
4. Based on the flood of evidence, present an "omnibus" Impeachment Referral to the Judiciary Committee, that includes not just the Mueller Report, but foreign corruption, collusion and compromise, money laundering, graft, emoluments, and unprecedented degrees of criminal behavior and general unfitness for the office, etc.
5. Hold impeachment hearings in which experts explain to the American public why such behavior constitutes high crimes and misdemeanors.
6. Draft comprehensive Articles of Impeachment based on the evidence presented
7. Engage in a concerted effort to have voters pressure Republican Committee Members - even just a few - to vote to recommend impeachment on at least some Articles.
8. Send the impeachment recommendation to the floor and, again, engage in continued effort to pressure some Republican House Members to vote for impeachment on at least one Article.
9. Vote to impeach on a bipartisan basis (bipartisan defined as even one or two Republicans voting with the Democrats) and send the impeachment to the Senate for trial
10. Continue to pressure Republican Senators to vote to remove or to explain why they believe a president who has engaged in the degree of wrongdoing and has been impeached by a bipartisan majority of the House should remain in office.
The result will be either 1) Trump will be removed from office; or 2) If he remains in office, it will be clear to the world and to history that a corrupt, criminal president was called out, shamed, impeached by a bipartisan majority based on voluminous and irrefutable evidence but was kept in office by a craven and compromised minority of Republican Senators.
The House must take the time to do this right. It will make all of the difference in the world.
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Member since: Mon Apr 22, 2019, 03:26 PMNumber of posts: 18,486
