In 1787, during the drafting of the U.S. Constitution, young James Madison, the father of that document, argued strongly that a president who flagrantly breaches the public trust should be targeted for impeachment. Madison listed some dire scenarios: A president “might lose his capacity after his (election). He might pervert his administration into a scheme of peculation or oppression” – the word peculation was an 18th-century synonym for the monetization of one’s office – and then came the worst scenario of all:
“He might betray his office to foreign powers.”
Bingo. We first saw that behavior in 2016, when private citizen Donald Trump, in pursuit of office, welcomed foreign help from Russia and indeed solicited it on national television (“Russia, if you’re listening,” go find Hillary’s emails!). We saw it again in 2017, when Trump used his office to obstruct justice – 10 documented times, according to the Mueller report – while trying to cover his tracks on the Russian help he’d welcomed. We saw it again in 2018 when Trump trekked to Helsinki and declared to the world, in front of Vladimir Putin, that he believed Putin’s lying denials over the consensus truths unearthed by U.S. intelligence.
And now, more flagrantly than ever, he has commenced work on destroying the integrity of the 2020 election. Thanks to a patriotic intelligence community whistleblower, he has been outed for seeking to coax or coerce Ukraine into “investigating” Joe and Hunter Biden, in the hopes of concocting fake smears against the Democratic presidential candidate.
Since he apparently got away with it the first time, why shouldn’t he try to confirm James Madison’s warning a second time? Remember, this guy thrives on the weakness of others – and he has correctly read his opponents, namely Nancy Pelosi and the House Democratic leaders, as the cowards they are.
If what we’ve already learned about Trump and his dealings with Ukraine’s president – eight times he demanded fake dirt on the Bidens, during a July phone call – is not impeachable, then Madison’s language has no meaning. If the current Democratic Congress doesn’t impeach Trump over this episode, then it has no moral or political purpose.
In the words of former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti, “(Trump) invited a foreign nation to influence the 2020 election on the heels of a nearly three-year investigation that proved Russia had tried to influence the last presidential election…the kind of gross misconduct that easily clears the bar of high crimes and misdemeanors set by the Constitution when impeaching a president.”
Tom Nichols, an international affairs expert who teaches at the U.S. Naval War College, cuts to the chase today: “(I)f this kind of dangerous, unhinged hijacking of the powers of the presidency is not enough for either the citizens or their elected leaders to demand Trump’s removal, then we no longer have an accountable executive branch, and we might as well just admit that we have chosen to elect a monarch and be done with the illusion of constitutional order in the United States.”
But who has the guts and gravitas to stop him?
On Friday, Nancy Pelosi issued a statement: “If the president has done what has been alleged, then he is stepping into a dangerous minefield with serious repercussions for his administration and our democracy.” Fine. So what’s she prepared to do about it? Does she truly believe that Trump will misstep in that minefield and blow himself up, without even a nudge from the opposition?
I’ve heard all the cowardly arguments from those who think Democrats should flee from their duty to impeach – heavens, impeaching him might gin up the Trump base! – and pray for justice at the ballot box in 2020. Here’s a scoop: Trump’s base is already ginned up. Perhaps the House Democratic leaders should focus on ginning up the Democratic base (holding Trump as accountable as possible would only help). Perhaps they should make the most comprehensive case about Trump’s impeachable offenses to the swing voters and the “soft” Trump voters who simply took a chance on him in 2016. In other words, have the courage to lead on public opinion – to shape it, not mirror it. And when Trump’s toadies in the Republican Senate exonerate him, make the GOP own those votes.
Like his Russian benefactors, the only thing Trump understands is resistant force. Absent that, he’ll feel emboldened to do whatever he can to destroy the integrity of the 2020 election for his own political gain. House Democrats who shirk their constitutional duty may discover that, by the time the election rolls around, the damage will already have been done. And James Madison’s dire warnings will have been fatally in vain.