You’re outraged and angry, and you want to do something. Me too. But a symbolic impeachment of Donald Trump, which has no chance of winning, is not the answer.
In his recent article, Clark Cunningham (professor of legal ethics, constitutional law and legal interpretation at Georgia State University College of Law) strongly suggests that the articles of impeachment should be framed in terms of seditious conspiracy, because it is simply easier to prove.
The events leading up to January 6th and the violence at the Capitol are text book examples of seditious conspiracy. Here’s why…
The conspirators shared a common motive: They believed, wrongly, that Trump won the 2020 election and that it was their duty to “Stop the Steal.”
When all investigatory, procedural and judicial remedies failed to overturn the election results, Trump and his co-conspirators called on his supporters to come to Washington, not to protest, but to take whatever actions necessary to ensure that he would remain president.
With Trump’s approval (“Go home with love & in peace. Remember this day forever!”), his supporters seized the Capitol building and hindered or delayed the acceptance of the state’s electors as prescribed by the constitution and by force opposed the authority of the congress and the vice president to do so.
As clear a case of seditious conspiracy as this country has ever experienced.
And by Trump’s and other’s actions and encouragements many of his supporters, thinking themselves patriots, became unwitting parties to the conspiracy. That is horrible on many levels.
I had a conversation with someone very close to me, a Trump supporter now shaken and dismayed by recent events. “I’m just not sure what to believe in anymore…” she said. And it made me profoundly sad.
“Well, in theory”, I said. “I know what we should believe in.”
Ronald Reagan was wrong. Government is the solution, or at least it should be. It alone has the power, when wielded fairly, to defend us from the forces that have long sought to delegitimize it. We the people alone have the responsibility and the authority to demand that our representatives uphold our shared values and earn our trust. We do that by organizing, comprising and voting. We make America great again by being our better selves and demanding the same from our representatives.
As a nation, we can not move forward without a reckoning. Those responsible for this affront to America’s intuitions must not be emboldened by our inaction. I challenge the congress and the incoming president to impeach Donald Trump and to prosecute his co-conspirators to the fullest extent of the law. Become that in which all American’s can believe; our last best hope for freedom.