{"id":1317901,"date":"2020-01-25T21:32:02","date_gmt":"2020-01-26T04:32:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/polman-column-the-trump-trial-is-democracys-ultimate-stress-test\/"},"modified":"2020-01-25T21:32:02","modified_gmt":"2020-01-26T04:32:02","slug":"polman-column-the-trump-trial-is-democracys-ultimate-stress-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/polman-column-the-trump-trial-is-democracys-ultimate-stress-test\/","title":{"rendered":"Polman column: The Trump trial is Democracy\u2019s ultimate stress test"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In a column on the eve of the 2016 election, I warned that if Donald Trump were to inexplicably occupy the White House, he would wreak havoc on American values, and his \u201cauthoritarian sensibility\u201d would precipitate \u201ca systematic breakdown of our democratic institutions.\u201d I was merely stating the obvious. Any two-bit seer could foresee how his destructive reign would play out.<\/p>\n

Now it\u2019s playing out.<\/p>\n

The 53 Republicans who run the chamber are busily abetting Trump\u2019s authoritarian assault on democracy and the rule of law by systematically sabotaging any semblance of a fair impeachment trial. On Tuesday, in a series of votes, they blocked all attempts to subpoena witnesses and new evidence. And Wednesday, in Davos, Trump openly boasted about his coverup: \u201cWe have all the material. They don\u2019t have the material.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump has predictably stressed our constitutional system to its breaking point. Mitch McConnell and his lockstep legions seem determined to break it.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re doing so in defiance of American majority sentiment. According to a Washington Post-ABC poll, 71 percent want to hear witnesses at trial. Other recent mainstream polls have seen similar results, including a new Quinnipiac poll, where 66 percent say they want key ex-aide John Bolton to testify.<\/p>\n

In the Senate chamber, they appear totally unperturbed that Trump\u2019s lawyers are offering zero evidence to refute the Articles of Impeachment \u2013 which prove that Trump shook down a foreign power to get domestic campaign dirt for his re-election bid, then covered up his abuses. They apparently don\u2019t care that Trump\u2019s core anti-impeachment argument is a crock that would shock the Founding Fathers.<\/p>\n

Basically, Trump\u2019s legal eagles claim that the two impeachment articles are \u201cridiculous\u201d because they don\u2019t specify that Trump committed a crime. One of those lawyers, TV talking head Alan Dershowitz, said last weekend that Trump should not have been impeached because the articles merely describe \u201cnon-criminal actions.\u201d He said on TV that \u201cthe (House) vote was to impeach on abuse of power, which is not within the constitutional criteria for impeachment.\u201d<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s the obvious rebuttal: \u201c(Impeachment) certainly doesn\u2019t have to be a crime if you have somebody who completely corrupts the office of president and who abuses trust and poses great danger to our liberty. You don\u2019t need a technical crime.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thank you, Alan Dershowitz! Because that\u2019s what he said on TV back in 1998, when he deemed Bill Clinton\u2019s extramarital sex to be sufficient grounds for impeachment.<\/p>\n

The Founders never specified that impeachment and removal required a crime \u2013 because at the time the Constitution was being drafted, there was, as yet, no federal criminal code. Instead, the Founders anticipated that Congress \u2013 awarded the sole power of impeachment \u2013 would take its cues from Alexander Hamilton, who spoke broadly about \u201cthe misconduct of public men\u2026 the abuse or violation of some public trust.\u201d<\/p>\n

Remember, last month, when Republicans were lauding law professor Jonathan Turley, who\u2019d testified at the House hearings that he thought Democrats were moving too fast on impeachment? Well now Turley says that Trump\u2019s lawyers are wrong to claim that impeachment requires a crime. That claim \u201cis at odds with history and the purpose of the Constitution\u2026 I do not believe that the criminal code is the effective limit or scope of possible impeachable offenses.\u201d<\/p>\n

The gist of Trump\u2019s defense argument \u2013 the argument that Senate Republicans are destructively indulging \u2013 is that he can do whatever he wants, and that whatever he wants is sanctioned by divine right simply because he wants it. Who is he, King George III? That\u2019s the monarchist mindset that the American Revolution\u2019s soldiers fought and died to overthrow.<\/p>\n

So now we\u2019ve arrived at the end game. McConnell and his colleagues appear bent on ratifying Trump\u2019s power abuses, thereby destroying the checks and balances that are crucial to our constitutional order. The only hope is that Democrats \u2013 with the winds of public opinion at their backs \u2013 can hold Trump and the Senate Republicans accountable at the ballot box.<\/p>\n

I warned in my 2016 pre-election column that a Trumpist future \u201cis down the dark path at the fork in the road. If we take it, we own it.\u201d We took it, we own it, and the election 10 months hence is our last best chance to reverse it.<\/p>\n

Dick Polman, a veteran national political columnist based in Philadelphia and a Writer in Residence at the University of Pennsylvania, writes at DickPolman.net. Email him at dickpolman7@gmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a column on the eve of the 2016 election, I warned that if Donald Trump were to inexplicably occupy the White House, he would wreak havoc on American values, and his \u201cauthoritarian sensibility\u201d would precipitate \u201ca systematic breakdown of our democratic institutions.\u201d I was merely stating the obvious. Any two-bit seer could foresee how […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1317901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-06 03:50:31","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1317901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1317901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1317901\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1317901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1317901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1317901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}