Fantasies About Russia Could Doom Opposition to Trump
Fantasies About Russia Could Doom Opposition to
Trump
By David Swanson
http://davidswanson.org/node/5399
To
many Democrats for whom killing a million people in Iraq
just didn't rise to the level of an impeachable offense, and
who considered Obama's bombing of eight nations and the
creation of the drone murder program to be praiseworthy,
Trump will be impeachable on Day 1.
Indeed Trump should
be impeached on Day 1, but the same Democrats who found the
one nominee who could lose to Trump will find the one
argument for impeachment that can explode in their own
faces. Here's a "progressive" Democrat:
"In
his dalliance with Vladimir Putin, Trump’s actions are
skirting treason. ... By undermining further investigation
or sanctions against the Russian manipulation of the 2016
election, Trump as president would be giving aid and comfort
to Russian interference with American democracy."
There's
a bit of a nod there -- in the word "investigations" -- to
the lack of any evidence that Russia manipulated any U.S.
election, yet that manipulation is stated as fact, and a
failure to support further sanctions as punishment for it
becomes "aid and comfort." What level of punishment exactly
constitutes the absence of aid and comfort? And how does
that level of punishment compare with the level likely to
produce war or nuclear holocaust? Who knows.
Failure to
sufficiently punish a foreign government, even for an actual
proven offense, has never been a high crime and misdemeanor.
The United States is in fact bound by the Hague Convention
of 1899, the Kellogg-Briand Pact, and the United Nations
Charter to take any such dispute to arbitration and to
settle it by pacific means. But that would require producing
some evidence rather than mere allegations. Lawless
"punishment" is much easier.
But further evidence can
emerge to counter the claim. The lack of evidence for the
claim can weigh ever more heavily on public opinion. And the
dangers of creating further hostility with Russia can enter
the consciousness of additional people.
Meanwhile, we
have a man planning to be president later this month whose
business dealings clearly violate the U.S. Constitution in
terms of not only foreign but also domestic corruption. That's a perfectly
overwhelming case for impeachment and removal from office
that doesn't require opposing a single incident of mass
murder or offending a single Pentagon contractor.
Beyond
that, Trump is becoming president after election day
intimidation, the partisan-based removal of voters from the
rolls, and opposition to attempting to count paper ballots
where they existed. He's arriving with the stated policies
of unconstitutionally discriminating against Muslims,
murdering families, stealing oil, torturing, and
proliferating nuclear weapons.
In other words, Donald
Trump will be from Day 1 an impeachable president, and
Democrats will have already spent months building their
campaign around the one thing that won't work. Imagine what
will happen after all their hearings and press conferences,
when their supporters find out that they aren't even
accusing Vladimir Putin of hacking into election machines,
that in fact they are accusing unknown individuals of
hacking into Democrats' emails, and that they are then
vaguely speculating that those individuals could have been
sources for WikiLeaks, thereby informing the U.S. public of
what was quite obvious and ought to have been widely
reported for the good of the U.S. government, namely that
the DNC rigged its primary.
By the time the Democrats
beat themselves to the floor with this charade, more facts
will likely have come out regarding WikiLeaks' actual
source(s), and more hostility will likely have been stirred
up with Russia. The war hawks have already got Trump talking
up nuclear escalation.
Luckily there is an ace in the
hole. There is something else that Democrats will be eager
to hold Trump accountable for. And give Trump a month and
he'll produce it. I'm referring, of course, to that greatest
fear of Our Beloved Founding Fathers, the ultimate high
crime and misdemeanor: the presidential sex
scandal.
--
David Swanson is an
author, activist, journalist, and radio host. He is director
of WorldBeyondWar.org and campaign
coordinator for RootsAction.org. Swanson's books include
War Is A Lie. He blogs at DavidSwanson.org and WarIsACrime.org.