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A Case for Impeachment

Partisan politics is a disaster these days. And it’s just… tiresome. We would all like nothing more than to never hear another word about previous administrations and just move on towards a better future. I can easily envision a political party just making a big show of impeaching for no reason other than to rile up its base and engage in more political warfare. In that case, I would be right there with you, wanting it all to – just – go away.

However, in this case there is a good reason for impeachment. People (and most often the party being impeached) like to forget that impeachment isn’t a criminal trial at all. Sure, it is structured like one – the rigid structure is required as an attempt to reduce partisan hackery.

Here’s the thing though… I’m not sure you can get Trump with the criminal charge of incitement of a riot. Not because he didn’t do it, but because that particular charge runs in direct opposition to freedom of speech (specifically political speech). The courts will take great care not to set precedent against free speech.

Imagine if the President addressed the nation wearing a “Camp Auschwitz” t-shirt, a hat that says “Abortion: Just Do It” and holding a “God Hates Fags” sign from the Westboro Baptists. None of that is a crime. It is all expressly allowed as freedom of speech. However, the country has a process in place to kick a President out of office for being terrible at his job. (See “President’s Defenders Distort…” or “Misconceptions About High Crimes…” below)

Okay, but why even bother impeaching him now? He is already out of office?

  1. To officially rule that his behavior was unacceptable.
  2. So that those in the future know to stay away from that line.
  3. To ensure he cannot run for office again.
  4. So taxpayers don’t pay him $1 million a year to support his failing businesses.
  5. So his son doesn’t pick up the same playbook with the same lies and make a mockery of our country again in 2024.

Because if we DON’T impeach him. We show every person that comes after just how much you can openly lie, manipulate, sow division, and get away with it. Regardless of whichever party is in power, that future President can point back to this event and say, “it was fine when Trump did it.”

For more reading…

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Gas Prices, Crude Oil, & the US President

People love the internet forwards (and previously email forwards) of cherry-picked data that shows how someone was just so amazing that even the corn held more vitamins while so-and-so was in office. Rather than tackle the entire forward, we’ll hit one piece of it: Gas Prices.

Gas prices aren’t $1.90 now, they aren’t likely to be $8.00 next year, and President’s have little direct impact on gas prices. Here’s AAA’s Gas Analysis for the first week of the Biden Administration. Note the fun chart which shows how much fluctuation has occurred over the last 4 years, and that it’s been on an upward swing for a while:

If you care to learn about gas prices, you can refer to this Congressional Research Report which was designed to explain prepared to legislators what factors impact gas prices.

Crude oil (supply, demand, availability, etc) is the main cost in increased gas prices, followed by the cost of refining, distribution, marketing, and taxes.

US Department of Energy

I hope you would now think twice before you share on that meme about gas prices under whichever President. Was crude oil almost $3.50 a gallon at one point under Obama, yes. However, if he’s fully responsible for that, you have to credit him with bringing it down to $2.14 two years later. (hint: You don’t have to because the US President doesn’t have much control over international crude oil supply and demand.)

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Executive Orders & A Massive Start

Constitution > Legislation > Executive Orders

When it comes to policy, you don’t want to continually prioritize flash over substance. Often you’ll find that when the flash fades, very little remains. Unfortunately, this doesn’t hold true for the hearts and minds of the general public – that damage will take much more work to repair. Constitutional amendments are the hardest to achieve but the most enduring, whereas executive orders are the easiest put into place.

When you have an individual that wants to be the “Uncompromising Man of Action” their options are limited and not long-lasting. While some may have heavily utilized the executive order and strained the limits of what could be achieved by this tool, those orders are just as easily tossed aside by the preference of the next administration.

Sweet Seventeen (15-19?)

A lot of outlets are counting seventeen Executive Orders, but it depends on if you count memos, or if he instructed another agency to make the announcement. Regardless, we are talking about a lot of executive orders for the first day (and a busy second as well). These were all major items that could have been stretched out for weeks of positive press and impression of accomplishment while they did a lot of administrative (boring) clean up and restructuring.

Biden has been here before, and he knew people who had done ALL these jobs before. When a previous administration trashes the entire operational infrastructure and places themselves at the center of everything, it would take a lot of work to rebuild a system from scratch. But if you bring back people who already know how to do their job, you can spend the two months you were frozen out of White House Updates, and just have plans for hitting the ground running.

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