By WINK HARTMAN
The vote to impeach President Trump is nothing more than the fulfillment of the long-held wish of the Democratic Party’s base.
Many Democrats have made no secret of their desire to impeach President Trump, pushing for it since his election in 2016. Social media has been crowded with members of the Democratic Party’s base calling for impeachment over anything and everything. A member of Congress even called for impeaching President Trump hours after her own swearing-in back in January. The vote by Congress is nothing more than the Democrats finding a reason – any reason – to fulfill their long-held impeachment fantasy.
Democrats have rushed through this impeachment process, ignoring Republican voices. They are trying to fulfill some arbitrary deadline, rather than have a well-reasoned and researched investigation. After three years of attempting to please a voter base that wanted impeachment at all costs, Nancy Pelosi, Jerry Nadler and Adam Schiff realized they had to impeach the President in order to placate the base that controls their party.
The process employed by Adam Schiff, Jerry Nadler and Nancy Pelosi ignores the basic tenets of the American legal system. Due process and fairness have been tossed aside. The rights of the minority party, a basic part of our legislative process, have been ignored. Politics have dictated this entire process. This is not a surprise, because the Democratic Party has made overturning the results of the 2016 election their only priority.
The motives of the leaders of the impeachment are tied up in politics. Adam Schiff views impeachment as his way to break out of a crowded California congressional delegation and set himself up for statewide office. Jerry Nadler is trying to fend off a Democratic primary challenger who is even more pro-impeachment than he is and navigate a New York political scene now dominated by far-left leaders Bill deBlasio and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Nancy Pelosi has to attempt to hold her own party together, now that more and more of her caucus is dominated by the far left and those who owe their own elections to the pro-impeachment crowd. Personal politics dictates the mindset of the impeachment leaders.
It is also clear that no Democrat can show an independent mind on impeachment. Congressman Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey defied his party and did not support impeachment and he found himself summarily drummed out of the party, with his former allies turning on him in a nanosecond. Congressman Van Drew’s district voted for President Trump, but to Democrats voting with your constituents is not a congressman’s job.
Congressman Van Drew’s likely Democratic opponent even said in media reports that the Congressman “betrayed” the Democratic Party by voting with President Trump and not the party. No wonder other Democrats in Republican districts are voting party above country, they’ve seen that their allies will abandon them. Not exactly Profiles in Courage material.
Congressman Van Drew, welcome to the Republican Party.
Democrats even turned the impeachment debate into a chance to twist the words of our Founding Fathers to fit the views of their base. Democrats said that Alexander Hamilton’s own written words in the Federalist Papers do not mean what he wrote, but rather, they have come up with their own definition to fit their own world view. Makes one wonder, were Democrats holding a séance in the backroom?
Our Founding Fathers envisioned impeachment as a rare and serious event, one that looked at serious high crimes. The serious event is being greeted by Democrats on social media as a joyous occasion, that is a cause for celebration. That’s because instead of being a solemn occasion, impeachment is instead a fulfillment of what they have wished for and called for since November 2016.
What we should be cheering instead is 50 year low in unemployment that we are seeing under President Trump. We should be cheering the passage of the USMCA, which will deliver new manufacturing jobs, new trade rules that will grow small businesses and growth for our farmers. We should be cheering economic growth in our country. We should be cheering that Brexit will give us a chance to negotiate a new trade deal with the British that can and will grow the American economy.
Our country has seen success under President Trump and the only thing that we do not know is how much more success we’d be seeing if Democrats focused on actually governing rather than on trying to overturn the 2016 election.
Wink Hartman is the CEO of the Hartman Group of Companies in Wichita and was the 2018 Republican nominee for lieutenant governor.