Capitol Hill Blue Forums Political Issues The Trump Administration The Impeachment of Donald trump

When 240 characters of whining just isn't enough.
Whining and having a temper tantrum, it's the only move he has left.

I solemnly swear (or affirm, as the case may be) that in all things appertaining to the trial of the impeachment of [President Donald Trump], now pending, I will do impartial justice according to the Constitution and laws: So help me God.

McConnell and Graham have both publicly stated that they will not be impartial. If they take this oath, they will be perjuring themselves. If they don’t take it they can’t be jurors.

What do you think should happen?

And most Republicans are convinced beyond a shadow of doubt that he hasn't. That Trump hasn't committed any crimes whatsoever. So both sides bring their beyond a shadow of doubt convictions to the senate trial. Verdict decided, votes decided way before the trial begins for both sides.

As I stated before, one side believes impeachment is nothing more than a political vendetta against Trump, revenge for beating Hillary Clinton in an election. The other side is like you, they are convinced beyond the shadow of a doubt that multiple offenses against the Constitution have been intentionally committed by the POTUS.

These are hard convictions from both sides. Neither side can fathom the reasons and beliefs of the other. In this polarized and ultra high partisan era of our politics, these hard, beyond the shadow of doubt beliefs of each side doesn't surprise me one bit.

I fully expect the Democrats won't accept the senate decision of acquittal. That in the near future, as early as next year, there will be more impeachment charges drawn up and the articles passed.

My hope, a dream is that by all this impeachment action with probably more impeachment action to come that both major parties will become so tainted by it, that a viable third party will rise. One that represents America as a whole, not just one party's base while totally ignoring the other party and all independents who don't kowtow to their ideology. It's a pipe dream, but one I have held and have for around 30 years now.

It's certainly not a case that both sides are the same: Several Senate Republicans have made public proclamations that they don't need to listen to the evidence. I don't think any Democratic Senators have said any such thing. If you said those things in public when selected for a jury, you would be dismissed. If you swore to be a fair and impartial juror before the court after making such statements, you could be charged with perjury.

Seems to me these guys have just disqualified themselves to be on this jury. I wonder what John Roberts will do about this? He has a highly vested interest in making this seem like a fair trial. What if he asked all the members of the Senate to raise their hands if their minds were made up before hearing any evidence, AND THEN DISMISSED THEM from the jury? I bet Mitch would have a stroke.

It's certainly true the facade of impartiality is being torn down by a couple of senators. But that impartiality is there for almost all 100 senators with maybe a couple to three exceptions. Anyone with a bit of political common sense can see that.

Impeachment is a political process, one can't expect party animal politicians, elected officials to leave their partisanship at the door. Their political convictions. So dismiss those who have breached the facade, how many? 2,3 GOP senators? That means you have 97 or so preserving the facade of impartiality while not a single one of those 97 are even one iota impartial. That would mean a 50-47 GOP majority, that means 66 votes are needed instead of 67. That isn't about to happen either since almost every senator is entering the trial with their minds and votes made up.

I just received this from Gallup this morning. Interesting.

"Trump Approval Inches Up, While Support for Impeachment Dips"

https://news.gallup.com/poll/271691...nt=morelink&utm_campaign=syndication

This conclusion from Gallup's article above: "Months of reporting and testimony on impeachment seem to have largely crystalized preexisting opinions of Trump. Views among Republicans (overwhelmingly positive, anti-impeachment) and Democrats (almost exclusively negative, pro-impeachment) hardly change, while political independents tend to be the real drivers behind minor variations in overall national sentiments. Independents have become slightly more positive toward both the president and Congress, while they are slightly less in favor of impeachment."

Happy Peach Mint Day, everybody!!

What we don’t seem to be able to do is put a finger on why this chasmistic divide exists. I have put some effort into trying to see it from a Trump supporter’s perspective to no avail. Part of it I can see, that many people are not Trump Zombies but would poll as inclined to vote for him because the economy (by the customary measures) is doing well and employment is high, and they don’t pay much attention otherwise. Also, the decades-long rightwing propaganda machine against the left has shifted knee-jerk perceptions of liberals negatively for politically casual citizens.

But the hardcore Trump true believers are still a mystery to me. There seems to be an actual cult mentality of worship for the man. He apparently has a dark and highly attractive charisma for a class of people that is surreal. For many of us he is plainly a blatant con man - I would challenge anyone to present factual evidence to the contrary. In fact, a salient characteristic of the Zombies is that they despise facts and refuse to even acknowledge them. The easiest proof of this is their adamant insistence that Trump never lies.

I post this not just to counter Perotista’s casual expressions of an implied equivalence between opposing “partisans”, it is also a self reality check to assess if I am just as crazy as the hardcore Trumpers as their polar opposite.

I have mentioned before canvassing hardcore Trumpers on a righty blog and I can report this - they absolutely will not allow a discussion of these issues into their bubble. Among them there is zero introspection happening. They are cultists. The question is why?

I just saw that Lou Dobbs has called Trump’s letter to Pelosi “elegant” and his guest compared it to the Gettysburg Address. And TZs are saying that Trump is America’s greatest president. This is indicative of a mass mental disorder to me - am I off base here?

We must understand this problem before we can fix it. Or maybe we can’t fix it and it will run it’s course like so many other mass insanities in human history?

How do you fix 63,000,000 people demanding bad signal?

I mean, an autocracy could fix this, but that is what we're trying to avoid by fixing it.

So, no, this isn't going to get better.