Republicans v. Impeachment

Most of today's Republicans think it's alright to let Pres. Trump pressure the Ukrainian president to bribe him with political assistance in exchange for money which Congress had already assigned to Ukraine. They somehow ignore the fact that Donald Trump or any other future president, if we should have another, would have absolutely no restraint on selling the services of the presidency by requesting bribes from anyone and everyone to sign legislation, offer emergency assistance, sign a treaty or do anything else a president can do. Want your legislation to become law? How much will you pay the president? Want your forest fires put out? How much will you pay to get water tankers and firefighters from the president? Want drug interdiction to your community? How much will you contribute to the president's re-election campaign? There would be no end to it. Forget about any Congressional subpoena for documents or testimony. The presidency would just say "Nyet" and Congress can pound dirt. Forget about oversight. The Executive branch would become a black box which didn't answer to anyone. Forget about FOIA requests. Government is slow to process them now, but after Trump gets away with his behavior, there won't be any reaction to FOIA requests. It's over.

Republicans who ignore the law, offer us a future where there is no impeachment and no removal from office for bad conduct. They offer us a future where winning the presidency would be winning a "get out of jail free" card and carte blanche to do anything with the presidential powers. It would be Hell for everyone else.

We all know the impeachment of Bill Clinton was meant to tear him down, so George W. Bush could win the next election. Bush lost the popular vote by 500,000 votes and only "won" when the Florida election was handed to the U.S. Supreme Court where it was a "party-line vote" 5-4. W won by 1 vote in a very stolen election. They would have had a better chance of winning fairly if they hadn't impeached Clinton. After the impeachment failed to remove Clinton his poll numbers went up. But at least the actions of future presidents wouldn't have been affected. Clinton's "sin" was entirely about personal conduct and not about the presidency. Donald Trump's behaviors as president and using the powers of the presidency are an entirely different thing and all future presidencies would be affected.

Some people way that those who ignore the past are doomed to repeat it. The Founders of America had seen the behaviors of monarchs of Europe and they learned from that. They created the impeachment clause especially to restrain an American president. Maybe today's Republicans think that maintaining power in the short-run is the only important thing. Maybe they've forgotten life under a monarch/emperor and how little power they would have. Maybe they hadn't fully realized how despicable Donald Trump and his Russian master Putin could be.