And here are a few reasons why Impeachment of Donald Trump should continue.
Actions that are criminal that should not be allowed.
The actions that Trump has done, are by no means, excusable for any public official.
Within days before January 6th, it has been shown that Donald Trump tried to pressure the Georgia Secretary of State to recant the election results. This is, by definition trying to rig an election in his favor.
However, this isn't the reason why the Articles of Impeachment were called up.
It is the events of January 6th, which were prompted by him, that should never happen, ever.
Days prior, he encourage all his supporters to come to Washington, DC on January 6th.
His speech and tweets that day, encouraged all his supporters to march on the Capitol, with vague enough direction that can be interpreted as storming the Capitol building.
Even his tweets during the riot, did not tell people to stand down, only not to attack the police (Which they still did).
He endangered the legislative branch of our democracy with said crowd. This is something that cannot be contested or denied. The very rioters who were arrested after the fact and confirmed being in the Capitol Building, stated they were there because they believe Trump wanted them there.
Also, said rioters wanted Mike Pense, who he called out in both his speech and tweets, chanting "Hang Mike Pense", with what looks like obvious intent to execute Mike Pense if they caught him.
He stated that he 'called for the National Guard', however, the timeline shows that as it was happening, his focus was NOT contacting the National Guard, but to contact one of his supporters in Congress to keep pushing the objection to the electoral votes.
And now we are getting word that he also intended on replacing the Acting Attorney General with a political appointee to overturn the Georgia vote.
We are now seeing, within the first week of January, Trump had intended to abuse his power multiple times as well as incite a riot with intent to bully or terrorize the legislative branch to katow to his will.
Why should we continue with the impeachment of Donald Trump.
First - Setting a precedent for future public officials.
These actions come within the final weeks of Donald Trump's Presidential Office.
If we do not impeach Donald Trump for these actions, we set a very dangerous precedent to future public officials that it is alright to commit crimes, abuse of power and the like, fail at it, and get away with it because you did not manage to keep the office.
This would allow carte blanche to current and future politicians that it is alright to incite a riot towards the government, to bully our states into bending to his will, becoming a literal American Emperor. (Much like the Roman Empire, or even more comically contemporary of Palpatine becoming the Emperor of the Galactic Empire).
Second - Common sense intention
While some republicans are stating that it would be unconstitutional or it was not part of the constitution, I say that the common sense intention of the Articles of Impeachment was there to hold officials, including the President responsible for their actions.
When the process with regards to impeachment was put up, it was the belief that an official in question would be held accountable for their actions when it was brought up.
In the cases of William Belknap, Secretary of War, he resigned but was still impeached (Same day). His impeachment trial continued while he was a private citizen, but was acquitted.
Samuel B. Kent (Southern Texas Judge) was impeached 11 days before he resigned and the ruling did not happen until 22 days after he resigned.
Given these two impeachments, while they did not end with conviction, does show that since they were called before the end of their term (Most notably, Kent and Belknap), it isn't necessarily unconstitutional to proceed with the Articles of Impeachment while he is out of office.
Third - We cannot afford Trump to dictate the future of US politics.
While Trump supporters cite he did 'great' things for the US such as:
- Improve the US Economy
- Did not enter a war during his 4 years of his presidency
- Increased employment (including for those of color)
- Brokered peace in the Middle East
A lot of that is undone by his actions since the beginning of 2020.
Economic Downslide
The handling of COVID-19, while no country was able to handle it properly, was still a dismal failure from beginning and to the end of his term.
The reason this is part of the Economic Downslide, is due to his insistence on not heeding his advisor's recommendations due to 'optics'.
The lack of leadership with trying to get ahead of it and then with regards to help getting the vaccinations out as well as telling people that it will 'go away'. Further to it, by encouraging people to ignore his advisor's recommendations, he furthered the irresponsible behavior with regards to travel and the spreading of COVID-19, which is now straining some cities abilities to handle the cases.
His 'intervention' with the COVID relief in December, while voicing people should have $2000 relief checks seems altruistic, the problem is, his team was involved with the negotiation for the $600 checks to begin with, and his stepping into it and delaying of signing it put those who were under unemployment in dire straights as the unemployment benefits were tied to that COVID relief, which expired days before he agreed to sign it.
These two things affected our economy and prolonging our economic downslide, all in the name of 'optics'.
This also affects the employment situation in turn as well.
Foreign relations are strained
Trump has strained all of our foreign relations, such as with Europe and NATO.
While the touting that he brokered peace in the Middle East, in 2020, he may have endangered it by drone striking the Iranian General.
At the beginning of 2021, there was concern on the anniversary of his death the retribution from Iran about the drone strike, which means we are still waiting for the repercussions of his actions.
Steve Pompeo, part of the Trump Administration, as well as Trump, have put a strain with China with regards to COVID-19 and with Taiwan.
Putting 'America First' has literally made us seem 'elitist' and even more arrogant than what we have been accused of in the past.
The "they are laughing at us" which was Trump's rallying cry to get him voted ended up making it a prophecy of the fact they are laughing at us, for all the actions he have carried out since he has been president and the recent events at the Capitol, which made people questioned our democracy.
Lying to the nation
Yes, I know politicians lie.
Everyone lies.
But Trump's agenda of lies is to the point of creating division among us as well as our foreign allies.
The events of January 6th is a result of Trump who insists that the election was stolen. That there was no way Biden could have won the election.
Yet even his own people have stated that the election was fair.
He pushed several republicans to push that agenda, making people question the validity of votes.
The lie has been pushed for months, culminating to the events of January 6th, making many believe that it was necessary to assault the Capitol to overturn the Election.
His influence will further alienate the US from the world stage
In the last 4 years alone, the 'Make America Great Again' is slowly becoming similar to the touting of the rise of 'The Third Reich'.
The push to 'be great' and insulting our foreign allies will eventually make us isolated, ignoring the fact that some of our 'American' businesses do rely on materials outside of the US as well as Exports to said foreign countries.
Isolationism will, in turn affect our economy as we are not a self-sufficient country nor will we grow by ourselves.
Trump's views and his administration has not allowed a long term view with that in mind.
In the end, his presidential legacy should be remembered, by everyone, what not to do as a president.
When losing the presidency, to lose it graciously, not petulantly or reject the loss by any means possible, even at the cost of lives, which it has done.
While some will continue to believe that this will divide the country, we must show that no one public official should be allowed to do things without consequences, even at the end of of their term.
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