CommentsONE MAN’S OPINION-“Two people tell The Daily Beast they’ve heard Trump talk about how he’d like to have the now-cleared Clint Lorance, Matthew Golsteyn, or Edward Gallagher show up at his 2020 rallies, or even have a moment on stage at his re-nomination convention in Charlotte next year. Right-wing media have portrayed all three as martyrs brought down by “political correctness” within the military.” (The Daily Beast Nov 26, 2019)
The reason Trump is asking the disgraced military service members to campaign for him during the 2020 Presidential election is simple.
“Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher will support President Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign should he be asked, according to his lawyer.”. . .“There can be no stronger testimonial for an elected official than one of their constituents whose life has been helped significantly by that elected official.” (The Washington Examiner, Nov 28, 2019)
Trump is creating a faction within the military that is personally loyal to him outside the chain of command. This conduct is lethal to the Republic and it constitutes another ground for impeachment. There can be no greater threat to the Republic than a demagogue who wants the military to have personal loyalty to him and not to the Republic itself.
One of the charges made retroactively against the German people is that they looked the other way when they should have taken action to curb the rise of the Nazis. America is long past the point where we should have acted against a mentally deranged president who is now corrupting his role as Commander in Chief for his own personal power.
The role of the House’s evidence gathering is to bring all impeachment conduct before the American people. As shown in a previous article, the actual removal of a president under the impeachment process is a political act which occurs during the House’s evidence gathering phase and not after a trial in the Senate.
Senators do not convict on the basis of facts and law, but on the basis of their own political viability. When the evidence of presidential wrongdoing reaches a critical mass, then the members of his own a party will force his resignation. Unless that evidence has been produced in the House, senators cannot later politically vote to convict. Actual removal would occur behind the scenes after the House’s evidence has made Trump a political untouchable, at which point the GOP and the Dem leadership will Nixonize him. Trump’s resignation will eviscerate the Alt-Right’s ability to attack the GOP candidates during the primaries.
Enter Stage Left, Trump’s Salvation
Has Nancy Pelosi said a single word about Trump’s desire to fashion a cadre of Alt-Right members of the military as warfighters who are personally loyal to Trump? If so, her words do not seem to have been reported. We do know that Pelosi is pushing to end the evidence gathering in order to have the articles of impeachment prematurely voted on before all the impeachment conduct has been disclosed in the House hearings.
Pelosi’s November 18 memo to congressional Dems said in part: “The weak response to these hearings has been, ‘Let the election decide,’” Pelosi added. “That dangerous position only adds to the urgency of our action, because the President is jeopardizing the integrity of the 2020 elections.” (FactCheckPost Nov 19, 2019) Notice two horrid points:
(1) For Pelosi, the public “response” to acting U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, William Taylor; to Marie Yovanovitch, the former Ambassador to Ukraine; to Fiona Hill, one of Trump’s National Security experts; and to Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman was “weak.” After standing ovations and overwhelming praise, Pelosi has adopted Trump’s position about the witnesses. Her memo does not say that their bravery should be the foundation for additional evidence gathering. Had Pelosi been its architect, the Empire State Building would have had one floor.
(2) The urgent action Pelosi demands is to stop the evidence gathering and vote on articles of impeachment before public opinion among the right-of-center turns against Trump.
It will take time for the public to grasp the true villainy of Trump’s perversion of the role of the military in our society. The role of stopping Pelosi’s truncation of the evidence gathering now falls to Rep. Jerry Nadler’s House Judiciary Committee as he continues the hearings. While there is a lot more evidence in connection with the Ukraine -- such as the Fat Ladies Giuliani, Pompeo and Bolton testifying -- we now see the tip of a more serious iceberg. Because Trump cannot keep his mouth shut, we know that he has discussed the treasonous idea of staying in power after a “fake election” by using a cadre of the Alt-Right within the military. Do not say it cannot happen. We see the beginning of it before our very eyes.
The Other Evil That Merits Impeachment
Pelosi’s Identity Politics likewise needs to be resoundingly rejected by the Dem leadership just as the GOP needs to oppose Trumpism -- the sectarian white-bashing seen this Thanksgiving season where the Pilgrims are reduced to slave traders, murderers and rapists serves to solidify the Trump base. When you and your family are constantly under attack by virtue of their skin color, you are not about to depose the person who comes to your defense. Anyone who thinks that Pelosi’s Identity Politics does not pose an existential threat to white Americans has not been paying attention.
As Abraham Lincoln said in June 1858 when the first civil war was looming, a house divided against itself cannot long stand. In addition to Jerry Nadler’s House Judiciary Committee’s bringing forth all the evidence until Trump is totally exposed, the Dems need to sideline Pelosi and her racist white bashing. A significant purpose behind Identity Politics is to denigrate individual inalienable rights in favor of Group Rights where people’s privileges and liabilities rest on the group to which they belong. Group Rights always cast a villain. Trump started by blaming Mexicans as criminals and rapists, and now Pelosi’s Group Rights advocates sum up the Founding Fathers as slave traders and rapists.
(Richard Lee Abrams is a Los Angeles attorney and a CityWatch contributor. He can be reached at: [email protected]. Abrams views are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of CityWatch.) Photo: Doug Mills/New York Times. Edited for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.
