A Mean-Spirited Political Assassination Attempt

I listened to the introduction of the House Impeachment Managers and came away thinking of a phrase from Lincoln's Gettysburg address where he said, "the world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, . . . ." All the hyperbole and political maneuvering surrounding this insane impeachment will fade into the ether (Aristotle's empty space).

The whole impeachment falderal reminds of Shakespeare's words from Macbeth where he has Macbeth says,

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

We have wasted our precious national capital on a mean-spirited political assassination attempt of a sitting President. Oh, some will argue that the Constitution allows for this and I reply, "Indeed it does." However, just because I have the right and the power to do something does not mean it is the right thing for the powerful to do. It is all the result of ambitious people and I mean that in the worst possible sense.

People who asked to be leaders and to whom we granted the power to govern have lost sight of what their real purpose is and why we have anointed them. We expect them to take actions and pass laws that can be demonstrated to enhancing the people of the nation to pursue a life; to live as free as possible in community; and to do all of this with a sense of happiness in the lives.

Had these same people put any real effort in finding a way to work with this President for the public good they might have credibility. However, they have no (zero) credibility. They began looking to impeach the day he was elected and many refused to at5tend his inauguration. They have spent political coin and the national treasury from the day he was elected and continuing through this day in pursuing some grounds to remove him from the political landscape.

Why, you ask would they do something like this? Is it because he has created some nation changing Constitutional Crises? Then name it outright and in plain language . . . . just declare it. They do not name it because it is a bogus claim. He has done nothing but provide the citizens of this country an enhanced opportunity  to prosper.

The real motive was expressed weeks ago by Democrat Rep. Al Green (from my own state) who said in a moment of candor, "I’m concerned that if we don’t impeach this president, he will get re-elected." Daylight has shined through and landed directly on the motive for all this impeachment activity. The motive for this is clearly stated in real language and anyone who can hear it read or read it written can know why we are presently embroiled in a political civil war. It is because "He will get re-elected." In other words we cannot defeat him at the polls so we must find a way to "rid ourselves of this meddlesome priest" to paraphrase Shakespeare in again.
"Careless seems the great Avenger; history's pages but record

One death-grapple in the darkness 'twixt old systems and the Word; Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne, — Yet that scaffold sways the future, and, behind the dim unknown, standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own" says James Russell Lowell in his poem "This Present Crises."

So now we have arrived as I write at the beginning of a Senate process to either validate and remove the President from office or to reject the arguments of the House of Representatives and allow him to continue to lead.  It appears that it will turn out that the effort to remove him will fall short but I suspect before that takes place more precious national capital and treasure.

Adam Schiff made a statement that absolutely floored me. As he declared his view as if it were proven fact that the President had used the powers of the presidency to, in his words, “cheat in an election.”  He went on to say that is “precisely this reason, the president’s misconduct cannot be decided at the ballot box, for we cannot be assured that the vote will be fairly won,”

There are so many things wrong with this statement that I hardly know where to begin.
First, there is not evidence that Russian influence effected the election one way or the other. In fact, the evidence is to the contrary that Russian influence affected anyone’s vote in 2016. Even the Mueller Reports after nearly two years of investigation found no such evidence. I have watched every session of the House hearings, read all the publicly available documents and listed to all the Senate proceedings on the matter and have heard nothing that incriminates the President or any of the President’s men.

What I have heard and seen is a lot of hyperbole and opinion offered as evidence. Hearsay and innuendo from second and third hand office gossip and offended professional diplomats who feel slighted. I have witnessed a process that is as anti-American as the Joseph McCarthy hearings. No due process, denial of right to confront one’s accuser, etc. The hearings themselves were mindful of the British Star Chamber of the 17th century or the Sondergericht created by Adolf Hitler in 1934.
Second from where do we draw assurance that Russian influence will not affect the outcome of the 2020 election. Since the Russians and others have long been trying to interfere with our elections where do we go to find evidence that their interference was significant in the outcome of any election. Who do we ask? What are the criteria?

In short what he is saying is that we cannot rely upon the electorate to decide whether or not the President should be re-elected. Apparently, we are not intellectually sophisticated enough to decide whether or not Trump should get a second term as President simply because we might have been duped by, again in his words, “the Russians.”

Does it even matter that they try to influence us. Our own politicians in their election campaigns make all kinds of false assertions and deceptions trying to influence our decisions. What difference does where the deception comes from make. Deception is deception. Our own political parties have been lying to us for years. Most American’s have held their noses every time they vote. People voted for Kennedy because he was “prettier” than Nixon and Jimmy Carter because he was Baptist.

I suppose he determined that our intellectual sophistication is to be called into question because we voted for Donald Trump the first time around. I further suppose that in his warped way of thinking that means we have already been duped by the Russians. So, because of Schiff’s intellectual superiority we must rely on him and his fellow Democrats to remove the risk of Russian interference by making it impossible for Trump to be on the ballot by impeaching him.

So let me see if I understand this correctly: We cannot allow the President to be on the 2020 ballot because the American people in their unsophisticated thinking are liable to succumb to Russian influence and re-elect him President. Instead we must allow a small group of Democrats to make it impossible to vote for him by impeaching and removing him from office thereby making him ineligible to hold any public office.

I also have to wonder, even if we remove the President from the 2020 ballot does that solve the problem that Schiff and the House Democrats suggest. How will we know if whoever gets elected weren’t really elected by the Russian interference. So we have solved nothing. We they People of the United States of America do not need a political party determining for us who should or should not hold the office of President.

I see that as nothing but a political assassination. André Gide once said, “Trust those who seek the truth but doubt those who say they have found it.”  That is still good advice. I am a Baptist and have been a Baptist pastor and theologian all my adult life I have heard it said, "When Baptists know, Baptists will do." I believe that is true for the people of America. When Americans know they will act.

But fundamental to even that is another saying that has circulated among Baptist since long before my birth 73 years ago and that is, "Tell the truth and trust the people." I do not believe we are being told the truth. I believe we are being feed a politically biased narrative designed to achieve a political goal. We do not need these ego centric politicians deciding who may or may not be President of the United States.

I suggest they get out on the stump, give us the most convincing version of what they believe the truth to be and we the people ill decide what to believe or reject. The old Baptist phrase, “Tell the Truth and trust the people.”  We’ll do the right thing. You can trust or collective judgment but I am not so sure we can trust the words of people with a political bias. In this case the Democrats have much to gain by removal of Donald Trump as President and we the people do not.

I have another analogy from the book Fifty Shades of Grey that comes to mind but I'll leave that to you to make.