OPINION:
Robert Reich, the Department of Labor secretary under former President Bill Clinton, took to whatever media would listen this week to press forward four — no, wait, five — reasons to impeach President Donald Trump.
In so doing, he became the latest in a growing line of Democratic nutjobs — can you say Reps. Maxine Waters and Joaquin Castro? — who forget that in America, the crime generally comes before the conviction (the exception being civil asset forfeitures, but that’s a different topic for a different column).
Reich’s reasons?
“By my count, there are now four grounds to impeach Trump,” he wrote on Twitter.
You go, Robert. List away. Trump does seem to be rackin’ ’em up.
“The fifth seems to be on its way,” he also said.
Writing is so limited. It’s hard to do voices. But what’s really needed here is a read-aloud of Reich’s words in a deep-voiced drawl, heavy on the drama, emphasis on “my” and “four grounds,” and then “fifth.” A long pause after “fifth” would be good, too.
Anyhow, his reasons are the now-well-worn Democratic talking points.
They go like this: Trump’s not faithfully executing the laws of the Constitution, Trump’s not steering clear of foreign business entanglements, Trump’s not upholding freedom of religion rights of Muslims, Trump’s not playing nice with the press and that’s against the Laws of Playing Nice With the Press (it’s in the Constitution, by the separation of church and state clause). And the fifth?
Well, Reich admits that’s still an emerging issue — but heck, why not throw it in there, anyway? No sense waiting on facts.
“Article III Section 3 of the Constitution defines ’treason against the United States’ as ’adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort.’ Evidence is mounting that Trump colluded with Russian operatives to win the 2016 presidential election,” Reich wrote.
Of course, evidence is mounting, and mounting at a much higher level and faster pace, that Trump didn’t. But that’s a potatoes-potahtoes argument. Leave that for the lawyers.
But if that’s too much gobbledygook legal mumbo-jumbo to sift through, really, all the impeach arguments against Trump, whether they come from Reich or Waters, or Castro, or the website petition that’s been passed around all the really good liberal parties in recent weeks, can be summed in this short phrase — by this one criminal act.
Trump’s guilty of Winning the White House.
And since he’s Republican, the crime just speaks for itself — no further facts, evidence, legal charges needed.
This White House, this president, this “Make America Great Again” mantra — these are all things of deep-rooted hatred to the left because they’re all tied to the common theme of the individual, not the collective.
Sovereignty and Constitution, not global government and elitist rule.
God-given rights, not government-granted privileges.
Trump threatens that order, that Big Government, progressive-socialist dream and vision that allows for a few chosen at the top and many worker bees at the bottom. Truly, if Democrats cared at all about the Constitution, they would’ve started their list of impeachable offenses under the previous administration. If anyone failed to uphold a presidential oath of office, it was the socialist-minded, pen and phone bragging Barack Obama, and his near-daily skirt of Congress and equally egregious thumbing of the courts.
But we already know that, don’t we?
The fact is, Reich, Waters and all the others clamoring for an ousting of Trump from the White House ought to look inward at their own leftist brand of politics and compare it to what Founding Fathers actually planted. An honest self-assessment would lead to the conclusion it’s the left’s radical brand of politicking that’s antithetical to America and should go — not Trump’s.
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