The OLD Philosopher – John M. Miller
Even before the House Judiciary Committee began its hearings yesterday, it was becoming very evident that Republicans inside and outside Congress claimed the process is moving much too quickly. They want it to slow down so that their side of the debate may produce more of their own witnesses to derail an impeachment conviction of President Trump.
As Professor Jonathan Turley insisted in the hearings, in order for an impeachment to be politically acceptable, the public must confer widespread acceptance upon it. Obviously such acceptance is currently neither visible nor viable.
Therefore the Democrats in the House, and the Republicans in the Senate, should immediately agree to slow down the impeachment process, despite Nancy Pelosi’s frenetic haste. That would give the public the opportunity to be so thoroughly confronted by the realities of whether or not the President should be impeached that everyone but the most intractable on the two political extremes would be satisfied with the outcome of the impeachment process.
Let us validly assume that Mr. Trump will be the Republican nominee for President in 2020. Let us further assume that the Members of Congress would agree to guarantee the impeachment decision would be rendered by no later than October 15, 2020. In that scenario, voters would still have at least two weeks to decide for whom to vote after gthe impeachment decision.
Were those two factors to occur, it would mean one of three things. 1. Donald Trump would either be exonerated or convicted in the articles of impeachment. 2. If exonerated, he would face the Nov. 3 national election with a thoroughly investigated impeachment behind him and presumably a clean slate. 3. If Mr. Trump were convicted, presumably Mike Pence would serve as President until January 20, 2021.
If the third of the three possibilities were to transpire, on January 20, 2021 the new President would be sworn into office. That person either would almost certainly be the Democratic nominee, whoever that will be, or Donald Trump. President Trump thus would have been convicted of articles of impeachment and removed from office by Congress. Nonetheless he would still be a legally viable and electable candidate for the presidency. So we would not know who would be the new President until Nov. 3, 2020.
If it is important for the public to support the impeachment of a President (and surely it is), up to a full year of official Congressional hearings would surely be sufficient time for the public clearly to decide on the legitimacy of the impeachment process. Besides, it would keep many Members of Congress in Congress until the election, which would be unprecedented in an election year. It would greatly reduce campaign expenses, and it would require elected politicians to stay in Washington rather than to spend a year seeking to be re-elected.
If, as many of the Republican members of the House Judiciary Committee and Jonathan Turley and others believe that haste is threatening the validity of the current impeachment process, this proposal would negate their concerns.
Or would it?
- December 5, 2019
John Miller is Pastor of The Chapel Without Walls on Hilton Head Island, SC. More of his writings may be viewed at www.chapelwithoutwalls.org. Feel free to share this essay.