By Edwin Cooney
It ALMOST doesn't matter what one’s position on the upcoming impeachment battle is. The important thing to remember is that all of us are from “the land of the free and the home of the brave." Accordingly, whichever side we take in this, the most wrenching battle of our 46-year-old culture war, it's important that we carry three vital items with us into the conflict.
First, we must acknowledge and even respect what we know about the legitimacy of the opposition. Mistrust or hatred of our political opposition won't bring about victory.
Second, our strategic thinking must be designed to counter those of our opponents.
Third, we must have a strategy not only for victory, but a strategy for governing once we prevail.
As I've stated in recent musings, were I in Congress, I would have held off on an impeachment effort thereby saving my political ammunition for the upcoming election. However, those who are in a better position than I to effectively analyze the political atmosphere in Washington have, for the present, decided to pursue an impeachment effort. It's important to remember that impeachment is a political process not a legal struggle. Thus, politicians rather than lawyers will be practicing their trade in the immediate future. (I almost felt sorry last Thursday as I listened to Devin Nunes, the ranking Republican member of the House Intelligence Committee, as he listed all of the outrageous and unfair attacks Democrats have made against President Trump from the day he was elected to the present. Then I recalled the unwillingness of men such as Mr. Nunes to grant that President Barack Obama was even an American citizen. I also wondered when President Trump ever granted any political opponent the slightest benefit of any doubt as I recalled his slanders against his fellow Republicans during the 2016 primaries and my sorrow just melted away!)
As I've asserted before in these musings, during recent campaigns, Republicans, Democrats, Conservatives and Liberals have substituted legitimate policy differences for the criminalization of their political and ideological opponents to the country's detriment. To the extent that you and I have indulged ourselves by being swayed by this tactic, we deserve what has happened to us. What these authors of ideological theory and personal smear have succeeded in doing is to devalue the influence and integrity of the very offices that they are seeking. Nevertheless, our current challenge is to discern how specific actions by President Trump actually endanger us.
Back in 1796, when President Washington warned against the formation of political parties in his farewell message, he never offered an alternative method for selecting the leaders of our republic. Thus we are left with a leadership selection process that's both competitive and antagonistic by its very nature. Many of our "Founding Fathers" believed that only property owners and the more educated among us should have the voting franchise. However, what Jefferson called "the disease of liberty" proved to be very contagious and now all of us have converted this "disease" into a human right. Even more to the point, the most significant element of a human right is the obligation of personal responsibility in the exercise of that right. I was reminded just a few days ago that back in 1992 when there was a question as to what degree candidate Bill Clinton had consorted with Soviet officials in his opposition to the Vietnam War, the Bush administration actually refused to investigate the seriousness or innocence of candidate Clinton's activities when he visited the Soviet Union while he was in college. In other words, unlike President Trump, President George H. W. Bush refused to use a foreign government to his advantage during a political campaign he would ultimately lose.
Recognizing that in a democracy there must always be room for compromise but that no one can be expected to cooperate when backed into a corner, I'd be willing, if I were a member of the House of Representatives, to support a censure of the President by the House and the Senate rather than indulging in a Senate trial. This is the very position I took back in 1999 when Bill Clinton faced impeachment and conviction via the Congress. The absolute truth is that the United States Senate, as it is now politically composed, will not convict President Trump in a Senate trial.
As for the people, as fickle and easily manipulated as they can be at times, I'll take a chance on their political judgment.
After all, this not only remains the land of the free and the home of the brave, it's also the home of the most humane and conscientious people in human history!
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY
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