OpinionUncategorized Trump and the American constitutional crisis by Barbados Today 16/12/2019 written by Barbados Today 16/12/2019 4 min read A+A- Reset Share FacebookTwitterLinkedinWhatsappEmail 230 On the morning of December 13 2019, after an overnight recess, the Judicial Committee of the American House of Representatives decided to pursue two Articles of Impeachment against President Donald J. Trump. The motion was passed by a majority of 23 to 17. Not surprisingly, each side, Democrat and Republican, fell solidly in line behind its Party’s position. The vote will now go to the full House for ratification, before it reaches the Senate. This would make Donald Trump the third US president to be so impeached after Andrew Johnson in 1868 and William Jefferson Clinton in 1998. It must be remembered that Richard M. Nixon resigned the office of the presidency on August 9, 1974 before he was actually impeached. This was after his admission that he had held back evidence and his staunchest Republican supporters turned against him. The two Articles of Impeachment against Donald Trump included first, presidential abuse of power and secondly, obstruction of the Congress. Some commentators like long-time activist Ralph Nader consider the two articles too narrow and felt that the Democrats should have gone for a broader indictment of Trump. The two indictments do, however, go to the core of the constitutional challenge that Trump’s presidency poses to the American system of government. Expertly crafted by the Founding Fathers, it is in fact the earliest written constitution in world history. John Adams, second president of the United States wrote: ‘In all free states the constitution is final….. a standing law to live by.’ The American constitution paid strict allegiance to the three branch structure of government – executive, legislative and judicial – each a check and balance on the other. Apart from other things, it is the attack by Trump and the Republican Party on this sacred tenet that poses a grave and present danger to the core of American political values as enshrined in the US constitution. A commentator on one of the news networks posed this vital question. “Who would have thought that the American political ecology could ever seem so fragile?” Trump is not the only problem, although most of the current threat to that ecology springs from his election in 2016. There are clearly other villains in the piece including Lindsey Graham and Mitch McConnell who has actually stated that he would cooperate with the White House when the impeachment Articles come before the Senate. Then there is William Barr who must be the most dangerous figure in American politics. Eric Holder, Attorney General in the Obama administration recently defined Barr as “totally unfit to hold the office of Attorney General”. Given his way, Barr would raise Donald J. Trump to an autocratic Imperial Presidency akin to the monarchy of Louis XIV, with the dictum: “L’état, c’est moi”, I am the State. The case against Trump is supportable by an overwhelming corpus body of evidence. Five hundred constitutional scholars have stated publicly that based on that evidence the President is liable to impeachment. The Republicans testimony so far has done little to exculpate the President from the main charges. Instead, in spite of all the testimonies to the contrary, they have fallen back on the President’s talk and tweets about ‘Fake news’ ‘Kangaroo Court,’ and a ‘Witch Hunt’. You Might Be Interested In #YEARINREVIEW – Mia mania Shoring up good ideas I resolve to… As one US television advertisement states, “the Framers of the American Constitution devised its terms precisely for a moment such as this we now inhabit”. The big question is: Will it hold up? In today’s world, there are no guarantees that it will. The impeachment process will almost certainly fail in the Republican dominated Senate. Unlike in the Nixon case, the Republicans have shown a refusal to defend the constitution against the assault from the President. Two weeks after Nixon’s resignation, to formalise the conclusion, the Senate brought a final vote which Nixon lost by 412 votes to 3. Only three Dixie-crats refused to condemn Nixon including the infamous Earl F. Landglebe who had once voted against cancer research. The Republicans will not be so judicious this time. Perhaps only three or four will support the call to impeach and expel Donald Trump. Those up for re-election will prioritise the need to retain their Senate seats and the statuses and pecuniary rewards they afford. They will cower from the threat of Trump’s revengeful acrimony. After all, he only recently attacked 16-year-old climate change activist Greta Thunberg. Perhaps more significantly, I have a suspicion that morality as a driving agent in human conduct may be slowly dying, if not dead. Much in the United States and indeed, much of the world will depend on the result of the 2020 presidential elections. If Donald Trump wins another four years, he could grind the US Constitution and its encompassing values into the dirt. Ralph Jemmott is a respected retired educator. Barbados Today Stay informed and engaged with our digital news platform. The leading online multimedia news resource in Barbados for news you can trust. You may also like Beyond heads in beds – Building Barbados’ digital economy 18/02/2025 #SpeakingOut – Preserve the Holetown Festival 18/02/2025 Paradigm shift long recognised in Caribbean Education 14/02/2025