Thursday, September 14, 2023

One Post on the Impeachment Hearings, and This is It

Talking about something we knew was coming, even with the thin majority Republicans eked out in Congress in the midterms, this discussion has already become boring.  Since they've been in power, the GOP has turned looking for evidence to bring impeachment against President Biden into their primary party platform.  They have nothing to offer the American people, the part of their party that intended to break government and then point to how government doesn't work has run out of ideas.  That tends to happen when there isn't any reason to have good ideas in the first place.    

That's understandable, in this era of Republican politics gone of the rails.  They are seething with rage over all of the charges, all credible, all with mountains of evidence reviewed by grand juries and virtually unanimously affirmed, with which their political inamorata has been charged.  So far, only a handful of the craziest, most out of touch Republicans have publicly stated they think he's innocent and will get off.  It's hard to keep secrets in politics, so we know that Republican party leaders are in panic mode, alarmed over the damage to their chances in 2024 which they see coming.  

But that's why the term "impeachment" is getting dragged out.  They're running out of time.  Looks like the constutitional guarantee of a "speedy trial" is actually going to have some meaning, and even if there are delays, the publicity isn't having the effect that some Republicans thought it would.  It's just making more people hate Trump.  Anyone who is paying any attention to this at all, even through the smoke and mirrors way that Fox and Newsmax report things, it's tough to deny the evidence that is public knowledge at this point.  That's why impeachment has come up.  

Tining is everything.  Without evidence, and let's be really clear here, there's no evidence for the approach that has now been publicly identified as the reason for an impeachment "inquiry," an impeachement against Joe Biden that fails will be a political disaster.  It's not that Republicans think there's a legitimate reason to impeach the President, it's that they want to set up an inquity to have media opportunities to use the term and create appearances before the election.  There will be political consequences when this fails, the trick is to get those to occur after an election, rather than prior to it.  But even this isn't going their way.  

Somewhere around two dozen Republican members of the house, given one or two either way, have been absolutely dreading this moment.  Increasingly underwater in polls within their districts, the reality of an impeachment being discussed, even an inquiry, means they will very likely lose their seat the next time there's an election.  There are at least another 8 or 9 in swing districts who will also find themselves in electoral difficulty if this continues.  

As if Republicans need something else to send voters to the other side, or keep their own supporters at home on election day, launching an impeachment inquiry, without actually having any specific, credible evidence on which to support it, like every other impeachment inquiry in history has had prior to now, will do the trick.  An MSN poll that popped up yesterday shows that 57% of those in the poll think that launching this inquiry, without evidence, will lead to a Democratic sweep of elections in Congress and the Presidency in 2024.  

While some people will have difficulty distinguishing the fact that there is no actual evidence prompting an impeachment inquiry, just because of the terminology that will be used to try and make it sound as if there is, most voters aren't going to be misled on this.  If anyone among the GOP thinks they may have gained some ground in the charges against Trump by making that look "political," this will erase what little advantage, if any, that may have brought about.  This becomes public when they decide to hold hearings.  And you can bet that, with the exception of the extremist media outlets, the focus will find its way to the chaos and confusion that lacking solid evidence will bring about.  

It took time for the committees looking into Trump's impeachment inquiries to narrow down the list of corrupt, illegal activities he committed which fit the constitutional definition of "high crimes and misdemeanors" to avoid overwhelming the senate hearings.  The first, public, televised session of his first impeachment made note of the fact that from among 16 or 17 different possible charges, the house would focus on just four specific incidents that were clearly breaking the law.  I will never forget the second impeachment, when they simply read the list of charges and evidence, before focusing on their settled charges.  

I'm just waiting to see what specific charges they are even able to come up with, lacking any evidence to point them to a real violation of the law.  

In some ways, I think the best thing they can do for Democrats trying to get elected or re-elected is to simply move ahead with this waste of time and money.  I would prefer that President Biden's time in office, two terms as it appears to be at this point, not be marred by the historical asterisk indicating an impeachment.  But then, I wonder if, with this Limbaughesque-style of anti-government hostility and political atmosphere, whether impeachment hearings are aleady a part of the GOP platform.  Good for us if that's the case.  

But pursuing an impeachment after what will be happening to the orange headed buffoon will be a huge drag on the voter support for the GOP, which is already at a visibly lower point than it was in 2020, especially in battleground states.  I'm all in favor of anything which helps Democrats win, and this will definitely fit the bill.  

It also is a convincing way for Republican leadership to sever all ties with the principles on which their party was once built.  Government waste once used to be the major theme of the guy they used to consider their best politician of the modern age, Ronald Reagan.  So much for that.  But all of that "family values" talk, claiming honesty to flatter Evangelical Christian leaders who thought they were getting something out of their sycophantic idolatry was just talk.  Republicans now stand to defend criminals and their corruption, right down to rape, sexual abuse, pornography, adultery and treason.  Trying to impeach Joe Biden, while standing up for a narcissistic, corrupt, adulterous, treasonous, worldly demagogue is the height of hypocrisy.  Some Americans will continue to be blind to this but most already see through the deception, and propaganda.

Honestly, I have serious doubts about whether a vote to impeach the President will ever actually take place.  If McCarthy does continue his spineless lack of leadership, and there is a vote, there will be at least 10 GOP defectors.  I'm not expecting, even with a hard push, that this will ever get to the senate. I don't see Republicans like Juan Ciscomani, for example, who represents Arizona district 6, which was once Gabby Giffords district, risking re-election to vote for nonsense.  He won the seat against another political newcomer in a mid-term year by just a couple hundred votes even after gerrymandering cut out two heavily Democratic border towns out in a district that almost always goes Democratic in presidential election years.  Ciscomani, who emigrated from Mexico, already has a position on abortion rights that defies his party's stance, and has been friendly to the LGBTQ community.  

And the President's approach to this is brilliant.  He's ignoring it, as the rest of us should.  Oh, I'm not saying don't keep an eye on it and confront propaganda with evidence supporting the truth when it needs to be done.  But the President is giving this the attention it deserves, and the media should take the hint and give it that same level of attention.  

Kudos, also, to Stephanie Miller, whose handling of the issue on her talk show this morning was also brilliant.  She's one of the best when it comes to communicating how insignificant and unimportant the other side's conspiracy theories look to the general public.  If there's a recording of the early part of her show for September 14, I'd suggest you set aside some time to listen.  If you're a Democrat, it will have you ROFL.  

The Signal Press will now use its time and cyberspace for more realistic, productive pursuits.


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