Running on Empty

A lot of my energy over the years has been expended trying to understand politics. Today, I sometimes want to give up, even though that is exactly what the powerful want average citizens to do and I know doing it will contribute to making things worse in some small way, I still often feel suffocated and overwhelmed and exhausted.

Today, I read in the ABJ that Senator Portman is leaning to not guilty and I wrote him a letter, pasted below. I expect to get a form letter in response and do not imagine this having any impact. But I do hope that he, and others in the Senate like him, will step up. So, I asked him to think about it. I post it here because that is what my blog has become...my own private archive, a place where I store ideas I find or my own thoughts, for some future time when I might want to retrieve them.

Senator Portman—

As we approach the holiday season, I am writing to express my concern about your recently articulated position on impeachment, based on your conclusion that the behavior does not rise to an offense so grave as to justify overturning an election.

You are my Senator and I implore you to reconsider.

Using one’s position as president to bribe foreign powers for personal gain is an extremely serious offense. Using one’s position as president to systematically deny Congress, your co-equal branch, access to the information requested to conduct its business is an extreme example of obstruction of justice.

In both instances, this president has not even tried to hide his contempt for the constitution, the rule of law, or the sanctity of democratic elections free from foreign interference. Even without widening our lens, these two counts alone expose a president willing to both put our national security at risk and to undermine respect for the rule of law for personal gain.

Let me remind you that neither of these, national security or respect for the law, are automatic or natural. Each has been carefully built over time, by leaders in both parties, and none of us knows what lies ahead for the great American experiment should these pillars be weakened or destroyed by this president and his enablers.

I am deeply sadden to conclude that your decision to defend the president can only be seen as the Senate version of Jim Jordan hysteria and complicity in a coordinated effort to confuse and distract the American public.

Your logic is that overturning the 2016 election requires a serious violation and you do not see one here. This logic is flawed for three reasons. First, the indefensible premise of your argument is that there is no serious violation here.

Second, impeachment will not make Hillary Clinton president, but it will (as designed) take a step toward saving the republic from a president who has demonstrated repeatedly a willingness to abuse his power for personal gain.

Third, this reasoning has been out there a while now, so we can all observe clearly that you are simply hiding behind someone else’s finely crafted talking point designed to obfuscate rather than lead.

It is possible that I am misreading you. Perhaps you believe the deep state conspiracy nonsense. Or maybe, despite appearing to be a thoughtful leader, you are actually driven more by partisan animus than a desire to do what is right for our country. If so, than I am wasting my time communicating with you today.

But I hold on to the hope that I am not misreading Senators like you and many others. My hope is that you will feature prominently in the next edition of Profiles in Courage. My hope is that Senators like you on both sides of the aisle will find a way to come together, to lead, to serve the country at this most trying time. My hope is that even a letter from a constituent who generally supports the other party will be read and considered, that it will impact your thinking, and nudge you toward putting country first.

Finally, I want you to know that I am also dissatisfied with the approach to this conflict among some in my own party. I understand that my voice is more likely to be heard within my own tribe, even as my dearest hope is that all of us can find a pathway toward being a lot less tribal. In this particular instance, however, you and your fellow Republican Senators are the only relevant audience.

Other than the most extreme partisan, no one wants our leaders to be spending their time on impeachment, unless the behavior compels us to make that choice. On the centrality of that question, you and I are in agreement. And it is entirely possible that history will prove me wrong in my conclusion that the behavior here clearly compels us to this choose this painful, but patriotic, pathway.

I feel fairly confident history will conclude that this president abused his power for personal gain, weakening our democratic institutions and national security. Even as I recognize that any of us could be wrong about this, it is unimaginable to me that a different conclusion would be based on the talking point you advance. I urge you to reconsider. For the good of the entire nation, from framers to future generations.

Respectfully, Bill