That’s it. Alexander Hamilton was right. Abolish the impeachment clause because it is now just a cheap political tool instead of a solid defense against treasonous behavior.
Politicians in Congress have confirmed what he feared most about the impeachment process when he wrote in his Federalist Paper essay on impeachment power “…there will always be the greatest danger, that the decision will be regulated more by the comparative strength of parties than by the real demonstrations of innocence or guilt.”
Duh. Give politicians an important check-and-balance and they will find ways to abuse it for pure political spite and animus.
The impeachment clause is now the political equivalent of the human appendix ― it used to have an important function and purpose, but no longer.
Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has initiated a “preliminary inquiry” into impeachment proceedings against President Joe Biden. If it proceeds to a full-scale impeachment process, it will suck up all the energy and time of Congress between now and the 2024 elections. Republicans will be no better and no worse than Adam Schiff, Nancy Pelosi and the other left-wing maniacs who impeached Donald Trump not once but twice.
The idea of giving Congress impeachment power in the first place was to hold public officials accountable for serious breaches of public trust. General Benedict Arnold was a traitor who sought a high commission in the British army by giving them secrets about West Point fortifications on the Hudson River. His diabolical deceit is what the Founders had in mind when they instituted impeachment in the Constitution in 1787.
Not a clumsy sexual encounter in the White House which led to the impeachment of Bill Clinton in 1998. Certainly not a manufactured “crime” such as the “Russian Collusion” hoax perpetrated against Donald Trump.
For whatever stupid and illegal things his son Hunter Biden has done, even if it was laundering money to his old man as vice-president through questionable foreign contracts, impeaching President Biden with one year to go on his (hopefully) only term in the White House is a carnival act and a colossal waste of time and energy.
Alexander Hamilton, writing as Publius in Federalist #65 nailed the downside of putting the impeachment clause in the Constitution:
“The subjects of its jurisdiction are those offenses which proceed from the misconduct of public men, or in other words from the abuse or violation of some public trust. They are of a nature which may with peculiar propriety be denominated POLITICAL, as they relate chiefly to injuries done immediately to the society itself. The prosecution of them, for this reason, will seldom fail to agitate the passions of the whole community, and to divide it into parties, more or less friendly or inimical, to the accused. In many cases, it will connect itself with the pre-existing factions, and will inlist all their animosities, partialities, influence and interest on one side, or on the other; and in such cases there will always be the greatest danger, that the decision will be regulated more by the comparitive strength of parties than by the real demonstrations of innocence or guilt”.
Both impeachment efforts against Clinton and Trump were purely politically-motivated and hate-filled. Neither resulted in anything close to a conviction which requires 67 votes in the Democratic Senate. Both efforts made the prosecuting parties caricatures of themselves in the process and worse, liars on the face of it.
The worst thing about impeaching a president? It gives everyone in Congress a free pass to avoid doing any of the hard work it takes to balance the budget; reduce the national debt; permanently solve our energy needs; make healthcare less expensive and so on down the line.
“We can’t devote any time to such issues when we are trying to bring down the President of the United States of America!” both sides triumphantly harrumph during their respective witch hunts.
We have a tried-and-true way to remove any elected official from office: elections. Everyone who voted for Biden solely because they hated Trump intrinsically aided and abetted his nonsensical policies, all of which have led to rampant inflation, high interest rates and a doubling of gas prices. Starting with early voting in just twelve months, they will have the chance to vote Biden out of office in 2024 and rectify their mistake.
Defeating candidates with terrible policies at the ballot box is the ultimate impeachment process.
