Like Nancy Gardner (My Turn Dec. 12), I also was transfixed by Nancy Pelosi’s press conference a week earlier. Pelosi returned to the microphone to respond to an ultra-conservative journalist’s question about her motives in the impeachment process and delivered a remarkably precise, eloquent, and unscripted statement that has helped guide my thoughts ever since. Her few, impassioned sentences stand out in a time of politician’s statements which are merely talking points to be repeated often at full volume, or fully-unhinged tweets and sound bites that contain no rational analysis.
She managed to separate President Trump’s character and policies from the Constitutional crimes he has committed that require his impeachment. For people who have opposed him at every step of his candidacy and presidency, I believe it is a crucial distinction.
She listed several policies in which she faulted his character and his policies: “I think the President is a coward when it comes to helping our kids who are afraid of gun violence. I think he is cruel when he doesn’t deal with helping our Dreamers . . . . I think he’s in denial about the . . . climate crisis.” Many other distasteful character traits and policies apply: I would call him a dysfunctional enabler in building the most corrupt administration in history; a craven opportunist in using his position to gain personal wealth from his businesses; a racist and misogynist as he exploits our country’s divisions for political gain; an easily-manipulated international adversary continually swayed by false flattery from foes and perceived criticisms by friends; a spineless bully in attacking military heroes and their families.
But Pelosi made it clear that these traits and policies are fodder for election debates, not reasons for impeachment. Even some of the most revered Democratic and Republican presidents have engaged in very questionable policy decisions. For example, in 1937 FDR tried to gain better results from the Supreme Court by “packing” it with as many as six new appointees. President Reagan began the slow death march for federal assistance programs that led to huge increases in homelessness and income inequality. But, like Trump’s policy decisions, these became subjects for the next election rather than crimes warranting impeachment.
As much as I, and other Democrats, would like to reverse the results of the 2016 election, it is not, and should not, be an option based on a president’s personality or policies. It is one of the reasons Pelosi was unwilling to join the impeachment drive until Trump made it impossible to stay away. Impeachment, stressed Pelosi, is about “the Constitution of the United States and . . . the President’s violation of his oath of office.”
President Trump swore with a hand on the Bible that he would “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.” But in dealing with Ukraine, he violated that oath.
Here is a simple explanation of one of his crimes: The just-elected government in Ukraine was a possible source of something personally valuable to President Trump — an announcement of an investigation into corruption there involving a political opponent (former Vice President Biden and his son). But Ukraine was not leaning in that direction. How could Trump get what he wanted? By withholding two things of value from its shaky new government: a symbolic public meeting with our president that would show the powerful U.S. as a strong supporter, and nearly $400 million in military aid Ukraine needed to help resist continuous Russian military attacks in its eastern region.
The U.S. and other countries routinely attach conditions to certain interactions. “Quid pro quo” is a constant: we’ll do this, if you’ll do that. But the profound difference is that the actions are sought for the good of our country as defined by Congress and the State Department, not for the personal gain of an individual. It is a clear abuse of power to seek personal gain through official acts backed by the power and prestige of our country.
At the same time, Nancy Pelosi said that she “always” prays for the president. I pray for our country instead. I am afraid impeachment will only harden the divisions in our country and inflame the anger that is already so near to boiling over. But given the clear crimes by our president, spelled out in his own phone summary, I see it as a symbolic stand in support of the Constitution and an attempt to resist the dangers seen so clearly almost 250 years ago.
Allen Woods is a freelance writer and author living in Greenfield, MA. Comments are welcome here or at awoods2846@gmail.com.