When Will It End?

Well, here we are, with a looming constitutional crisis before us. I have to revert back to my undergraduate degree in American History to confirm that while we have been in some interesting crises over the past two hundred year span of American democracy, we have never been in a position where the President has sided with a foreign power who is not our friend, by any stretch of imagination, as opposed to our country’s interests.

Over the past year I have thought, even as others have called for Trump’s impeachment, that nothing he has done, warranted that heavy hand, and that it was best left to the voters to give control of the Congress to the Democrats and let the democratic process work it’s will to correct the problem.

After Trumps actions in the meeting with our Allies in NATO and then an absolutely unbelievable meeting with Putin in which he sided with Russia over our own experts and our own interests, I personally am on board with the impeachment process. I’m certain most Democrats, and a minority of Republicans, are in favor of impeachment, even if they don’t express it publicly. The only thing holding them back is a fear that Trump’s loyal base will rise up and cause major political problems for elected officials who espouse impeachment. It is past time for politicians to read all or at least portions of the Federalist Papers, written at the founding of our democracy.

Here is a quote found in the Federalist papers by Alexander Hamilton that politicians should read and take to heart as they worry about Trump’s supporters and their possible impact upon their reelection:

“When occasions present themselves in which the interests of the people are at variance with their inclinations, it is the duty of the persons whom they have appointed to be the guardians of those interests to withstand the temporary delusion in order to give them time and opportunity for more cool and sedate reflection. Instances might be cited in which a conduct of this kind has saved the people from very fatal consequences of their own mistakes, and has procured lasting monuments of their gratitude to the men who had courage and magnanimity enough to serve them at the peril of their displeasure.”
― Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist Papers

It is time for small backboned politicians to represent this democracy, not their own prurient interests.

by Dick Goodson
Emeritus Chair, Des Moines Committee on Foreign Relations
Posted 7/24/18