The impeachable offenses of which Trump is indisputably guilty form a long list. It does not include any reference to fantasies about Trump and Putin and Julian Assange "hacking" an election. Forming the Russiagate illness and impeachment into a single topic is madness. Proposing to wait until Russiagate proves its case or hell freezes over and then to consider impeachment is to reject impeachment, to strip it from the Constitution.
Impeachment is not a partisan game. Proposing to support impeachment only after an election is a gross perversion of the purpose of impeachment, which is to address treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors when and where they arise.
Impeachment is not an election. The question of who is worse, the current president or the vice president, is a very different question from this one: "Who is worse, President Trump in an era of unchecked power and immunity, or President Pence in an age of popular sovereignty with the threat of impeachment looming behind every high-crime-and-misdemeanor that comes up for consideration by the White House?" Changing the office of the presidency into one that can be lost for substantive crimes and abuses -- a radical change from its current state -- would be a crucial step toward genuine democracy. Part of that significance would derive from the benefits of building the movement that imposes impeachment on a corrupted and partisan and reluctant Congress. Cultural and political change comes principally from movement-building, and relatively little from the personalities of elected officials. As Trump's reign of disaster continues, justifications for allowing it to continue appear ever weaker -- including the endlessly arrogant, too-clever-by-a-mile fear of Pence as the Greater Evil.
Impeachment is not second-fiddle to the important citizen responsibility of getting World War III started. The fact that creating hostility toward Russia, selling more weapons, and rolling out familiar Cold War propaganda is clearly enjoyable to many people does not give it precedence over holding the U.S. government accountable to the U.S. public. In fact, nothing makes it excusable at all. Trump's abuses of power cover the globe. They are no better or worse in Russia than anywhere else. President-elect Trump "colluded" with Israel to try to block the U.S. position at the U.N. on illegal settlements. You want collusion? We got it. The test of whether it is impeachable is not whether Russia is involved. The test is whether we can get our heads straight, stop listening to crazy people, and do our jobs.
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