Impeachment 2

I wrote an entry when the topic of impeaching president Trump was first brought up, but the situation has evolved and so have my thoughts on the whole matter so I feel it's worth revisiting. Just yesterday, the house voted to go forward with it. After six (additional) hours of testimony and debate, which was largely ceremonial at this point in my opinion, the votes were cast, and a crucial decision was made. Trump was officially impeached. He will now have an asterisk next to his name for all of time, but that doesn't mean he's gone. Far from it, in fact. For one thing, now that he's been impeached, it will be hopefully more widely understood that simply being impeached doesn't mean one is no longer president. It means formal charges have been brought against a sitting president and it will be voted on in the senate whether these charges will be deemed worthy of removal from office. Make no mistake, this is a very serious matter and it is one that will effect many aspects of our current political stage. What do I foresee happening? Well, here's my take. I don't think Trump will be removed from office. The senate has a republican majority and they have made it abundantly clear that they will do everything in their power to see the whole matter swept under the rug as swiftly and quickly as possible. Of course this is morally abhorrent, but it's just the unfortunate nature of the current political reality we have. As sworn public officials, these republican members of the senate, especially the majority leader Mitch McConnell, have a sworn and sacred duty to uphold the constitution, the will of the American people, and simply justice in general in this very serious matter. By blindly standing by the president, they are failing to do their job, but that's just in actual reality. In their reality, they are the last bastions of democracy protecting their nation and the people who live within it from tyranny. I felt shivers run down my spine and a twisted knot in my stomach as I wrote that last sentence, but I wrote it because I believe it's important to understand the mindset of your opposition if you really want to overcome them. Many of these senators actually believe they are doing the morally just thing by preventing the president from being removed from office, but I doubt that accounts for all of them. I'm sure there are many that will cast the indefensible vote, fully aware of the fact that what they are doing is wrong. I believe they know damn well that this president is unfit, but to abandon him and their party would be political suicide in the current climate. That's just our unfortunate reality. Four republican senators would need to buck their party in order to remove Trump from office and I just don't see that happening. Again, that's quite disheartening but there is a silver lining. That silver lining to this depressing rain cloud is that this will follow Trump into 2020. That's what I actually want, and it's why I'm now actually happy that he was impeached but unlikely to be removed from office. I see Trump being removed from office as really nothing more than a symbolic victory, since there's the overwhelmingly overlooked fact that we'll just be stuck with Pence if that ends up happening. I see a more substantive victory scenario being Trump remaining in office for these next 11 months, disgraced and dogged by the fact that he was impeached, and going into the 2020 election in that weakened state where it will be much more likely that a democratic rival could unseat him. Not to mention the fact that in this scenario, Pence and his entire cabinet would also be removed. That would be a checkmate in my mind, where as Trump being removed from office would simply be a check from which Pence would quickly weasel out of and come back as a much more formidable opponent. Many might think my hopes for such an outcome are unforgivable. Some might say that I don't care about justice if I don't want Trump removed from office, but that's actually not true. Not only do I want Trump removed from office, I want a clean sweep of all of his cronies that would still remain even if he were to be taken down in the way that so many are clamoring for. Yes that would mean we would still be stuck with this administration for another eleven months, but I think that's pocket change compared to the possibility of two terms of Pence. It's hard to predict that far into the future, but I think people really underestimate Pence so honestly who knows. I used the terms "checkmate" and "check" earlier, and that was an obvious reference to Chess, which is significant and I'll explain why. Politics are much like a game of Chess in many ways. There are a number of ways to win in Chess, and many of those are the same ways you could win in politics. One could employ their intellect to move them forward, one could rely on strategy, or simply count on their opponent to slip up. A politician also needs to use their allies strategically in order to win at the game, and this is very much like Chess. Currently Trump is a king who is in check, and it's important to remember that a check is not a victory. All it means is that the king is in danger of being captured, but a slippery king, especially one who has plenty of pawns willing to defend him, can easily evade capture and remain in play. Another similarity between Chess and politics is that they're both games that require you to think multiple steps ahead. I firmly believe that all of these people are counting on Trump being removed from office aren't thinking far enough ahead. They're falling prey to the most basic of blunders in the game, celebrating before you've really won.