Before you read this and draw the conclusion others erroneously drew: this is in no way an argument against the impeachment or removal of Trump. It’s a diagnosis of how the Republicans will react to it.
Trump says Democrats are “trivializing impeachment” which is of course bullshit. So naturally, our reaction is that this is cope. But in the Trumposphere, this is now truth. And since it’s truth, it will live in the memory of the GOP as the kind of procedural warfare they engage in (blocking Merrick Garland, etc. etc. etc.) Of course, it’s the GOP that trivialized impeachment by impeaching Bill Clinton for personal conduct instead of official conduct. The fact that Trump is 100% guilty is irrelevant.
I’m sure I’m not the first to predict this, but I’m adding my voice. Impeachment is going to be treated like a motion of no confidence in the future. The next GOP House will impeach the next Democratic president for whatever they can cook up. While it’s unlikely they’ll have 67 senators to affirm it, if they have a majority, they’ll crow about that.
So, while Mike Huckabee claims he was just trying to “own the libs” with his Trump 2024 tweet, we all know that these things take on a life of their own. The Constitution is meaningless to these people and even after years of this, the media is still completely vulnerable to it.
Yesterday, I heard a Very Serious Person say that Bill Barr’s mission in taking on the role of AG again was to further his theory of the “unitary executive.”
Republicans don’t believe in the “unitary executive.” They believe in the unbounded power of Republicans. They completely abandoned this “theory” during Obama’s tenure, just like they completely abandoned states’ rights in Bush v. Gore, completely abandoned free-trade, national security, or whatever else they claimed they stood for.
We have transcended policy. The next election (to the extent it won’t be cheated and stolen) isn’t about policy anymore. I really don’t care about your plans for taxation or whatever else. I care if you are loyal to the concept of an open society and liberal democracy. Anyone who can meet that low threshold is enough. The sooner everyone realizes this and quits bickering over health care plans (wake the fuck up) the better. That means the left, the center, and the residuum of Republican voters who want Trump out.