An open letter signed by over 500 law professors and other academics from American universities, including Harvard, Yale, Columbia, the University of California at Berkeley, and the University of Michigan tells us that President Trump betrayed his oath of office by seeking to use presidential power to pressure a foreign government. This letter simply reminds the Trumpophiliacs that professors are occupationally left-lurching, and reassures the Trumpophobes that they were right to demand his impeachment before he was even inaugurated.
It’s doubtful that the general public will be swayed one way or another. Conservatives long ago concluded that a majority of professional politicians in the Democratic Party, and a minority among Republicans, routinely betray their oath to uphold the United States Constitution. More, some of us can’t help but wonder what that word “oath” even means to them. President Clinton betrayed his oath to tell the truth under oath, but survived impeachment handily. His law licence was suspended for perjury but he prospers all the same.
At this point no actual crime has been identified, since violation of an oath is not a crime unless classified as perjury. Skeptics inclined to see impeachment as politics under a different name notice that most Americans have taken a detached, bored, or indifferent (take your pick) view of the House Intelligence Committee proceedings. Indeed, a couple of liberal columnists have noticed this and made some unkind remarks about American who don’t share their agitations. Those who have paid some attention are guessing that Speaker Pelosi turned the “investigation over Rep. Adam Schiff, chairmammal of the Intelligence Committee because she had little faith in the competence of Jerry Nadler, chairmammal of the Judiciary Committee. Now the investigation has migrated back to Judiciary Committee which always had responsibility for drafting the articles of impeachment in the first place.
A new Yahoo News/YouGov poll shows a majority of registered voters believe that Trump put his personal interests above the national interest when he pressured Ukraine to investigate his political rivals but don’t believe the Democrats have made the case for impeachment. Schiff, in other words, has failed to justify Pelosi’s hopes. His long report on Trump’s behavior is too murky and ambagious to convinced a decisive majority of voters to favor impeachment.
The fact stands out that the Pelosi/Schiff/Nadler cabal did not succeed in persuading a single Republican representative to join their impeachment posse. Rep. Will Hurd, who is due to retire at the end of his current term, looked like a possibility since he criticized Trump’s foreign policy. He now points out that Schiff’s report failed to identify an actual crime. The Democrats problem here is that a large number of voters dislike impeachment more than they dislike Trump. The problem is aggravated when we consider this question: does a majority of the voters dislike Nancy Pelosi as much, or more, than they dislike Trump? Going a step beyond that we must ask whether they like politicians in general. It’s hard, in not impossible, to sort out the mix of ideas influencing answers to simple approval/disapproval questions, but we do know that polling consistently showing that public approval of Congress in general is very low.
Impeachment articles with no GOP support will be seen by many Independents as mere partisan vindictiveness. Recently a reporter asked Nancy Pelosi whether she hates President Trump, and whether the whole impeachment drive isn’t about the Democrats’ hatred. Some people may have been persuaded by Nancy’s reply that, as a Catholic she couldn’t possibly he accused of hatred. She claims she prays for Trump all the time. Some voters somewhere in the United States may believe her reassurances. Investigators are still looking for them as this column is being written.
Lack of unanimous Democratic support in the House will strengthen the impression of partisan vindictiveness. Back in September, in an event on “political civility” New York’s Democratic governor, Andrew Cuomo, rebuked his fellow Democrats’ cries for impeachment. He blamed “leftist” Democrats for forcing Congress to begin its impeachment investigation.
Cuomo felt the ‘quote unquote inquiry’ was a result of Democratic radicals in Congress pushing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to engage in an ultimately pointless exercise that would just result in political gridlock. According to Cuomo, “There is a heightened leftist component of the Democratic Party that she was feeling pressure from…It’s a long and unproductive road. Where does it go ultimately? Nowhere.” When Cuomo made that statement he was, in effect, defending Pelosi. Her resistance to demands for impeachment made her unpopular among that ‘leftist component. Some observers believe the Speaker finally gave way from hard left pressure.
This past week Democratic Whip Jim Clyburn admitted that not all Democrats are certain to vote for impeachment. “We do expect to lose some,” he tells the press. “And it’s with our constituents. We have a very diverse caucus.” Two House Democrats voted against formalizing the impeachment investigation back in October. Last week a Michigan Democrat said his constituents would prefer Congress to focus on “kitchen-table” issues rather than impeachment. Maine’s second district representative, Jared Golden, voted for an investigation but has not said that he intended to vote for impeachment.
The Gateway Pundit Newsletter, a popular conservative site, includes Rep. Jared Golden in his list of 31 representatives who are likely to lose their seats in they vote for impeachment. This list is compiled from Democrats who won their elections in districts that Trump won in the presidential election. Trump won Maine’s second district by ten points and Golden took it from Bruce Poliquin only after the deck had been reshuffled according to novel rank choice voting rules. Incidentally, the Minnesota representative who opposed impeachment back in October comes from a district President Trump carried by nearly 31 points in 2016.
Factor in the Labor Department’s November jobs report that employment grew by 266,000 while the unemployment rate fell to 3.5%, a fifty-year low. Average hourly earnings rose by 3.1% from a year ago, while the average workweek held steady at 34.4 hours.
This good news won’t moderate the hatred of dedicated Trumpophobes, but voters who find him only mildly irritating may think it unwise to mess with success.
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