By using the process of impeachment so rarely throughout American history, Congress has taken a valuable check and balance and rendered it nearly useless.
This article is from The Liberty Hawk’s 2019 archives, first published in the days leading up Donald Trump’s first impeachment. With the rusted hammer being dusted off once more and with growing voices lamenting a possible precedent being set for the overuse of the impeachment power, the republishing of this article seemed both timely and pertinent.
By using the process of impeachment so rarely throughout American history, Congress has taken a valuable check and balance and rendered it nearly useless.
In this tradition of self-appointed impotence, we have narrowed the scope of impeachable offenses so thinly that impeachment, let alone a conviction, is virtually impossible. A de facto result of this calamity is that the President of the United States is, for all intents and purposes, entirely above the law and beyond meaningful reproach or censure. We have recreated the tyranny of Ancient Greek Democracy. Demagogues need only excite the passions of the people to maintain their power and their offices, answerable to no law nor a higher sense of moral behavior or demeanor. …
For the good of the country, the President must step down from office immediately.
America is still processing what occurred last week on the steps of our Capitol. With each new video and each new picture, the travesty of what unfolded is punctuated all the more. And there’s still so much more we don’t know.
Hundreds have been arrested. Hundreds and hundreds of investigations have been opened or soon will be. Reports are that charges of sedition and conspiracy are forthcoming. The picture slowly unfolding is that the violence of January 6th was no chance event. It wasn’t a spontaneous flash of violence that was supposed to remain a peaceful demonstration.
The evidence, thus far, is damning. While it’s true that the vast majority of men and women who answered the President’s call to come to Washington DC came expecting to peacefully seek redress for their grievances, there was an undercurrent of preparation for hostile action. An avant-garde of militias, white supremacists, and radical nationalists had carefully laid the groundwork with plans to violently attack the US Capitol from the very beginning. …
Every red-blooded American who loves their country must look this insurrection, and the leader who incited it, square in the eye and reckon with what has happened.
Yesterday, January 6th, 2021, will be a day that will live in infamy. America was attacked.
This attack was not conducted by the forces of a hostile country or carried out by operatives of a foreign terrorist organization. It wasn’t instigated by the leadership of belligerent actors organizing against America from foreign soil.
This disgraceful act of insurrection against our duly elected government was carried out by our fellow citizens in the name of a President who has, for two months, fed the flames of conspiracy and fear. The business of the US Congress was disrupted by an angry and spiteful mob. The Chambers of our nation’s capital were evacuated and overrun. …
Today, far too many “Republican” politicians will cave to the maniacal ravings of a mad man in hopes they can inherit his power and influence.
What does it mean to be republican? What does it mean to be conservative? What does it mean to be a constitutionalist? Not so long ago, the answers to these questions weren’t so hard to discern.
A republican could be expected to have a clear commitment to the American Republic, it’s system of government, and the vision established by the founding fathers.
A conservative could be expected to understand the importance of tradition, upholding institutions, and maintaining the moors and values that have allowed America’s free society to thrive.
A constitutionalist could be expected to have a commitment not only to the written law upon which our free society is established but the values and principles behind our government’s establishing document: liberty, justice, the rule of law, federalism, balance of power, and civic virtue. …
White nationalism is real. While it is loosely organized and ill-defined, it has quietly co-opted traditional conservatism's language and themes.
Dismissed as a Ploy of the Left
Many are blind to the very real existence and dangers of white nationalism. This is often because they can only think of racism and xenophobia in terms of outward projecting classical, ethnic superiority. Since there are no swastikas or burning crosses, many declare the idea of growing white nationalism as a ploy of the left.
Adding more to this confusion is that many media outlets have, in the past, used the ploy often dubbed “the race card.” Many pundits on the right have grown accustomed to immediately dismissing the false claims of racism towards Republicans and conservatives. It’s no surprise their knee-jerk reaction is to similarly dismiss the idea of growing white nationalism. …
The surest way to build a platform for principled conservatism is to lift the Republican Party from the ashes of Trumpism and chart a better course.
In the lead up to the 2018 mid-term elections, George F. Will made an intriguing plea to conservatives who remain hostile, or at least skeptical, to President Trump’s leadership of the Republican Party and his level of influence over the conservative movement.
In an opinion article for the Washington Post, Mr. Will encouraged them to vote for Democrats and help wrest control of Congress from the Republicans who had acquiesced to President Trump’s arguably undeserved dominance. …
Even accurate polls fall far short of being the crystal balls we seem to think they are.
The last four years saw a lot of talk about the 2016 polls being wrong, and many observers and pundits are going to spend the next four years talking about how the 2020 polls were pretty far off as well. But personally, I think we’re looking at polls the wrong way.
The scientific process of conducting a poll, when done correctly, gives us a snapshot of admitted attitudes at a given moment. It can’t read the minds of participants nor divine the next moment, let alone tell us how voters will actually act when their attitudes meet the ballot box, nor what issues could alter attitudes days, weeks, or months down the road. …
By perpetuating the notions of class struggle and conflict theory, its proponents all but ensure such struggle and conflict.
Marxism, in all its forms, becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. The more we talk about economic classes, the more people identify themselves by the construct of class, the more the theory of social conflict plays out between classes.
This is why mixed economies and social democracy ultimately erode free systems of government. Overtime, socialization towards an excessive focus on inequality centered on identity and class overshadows citizenship, legal equality, and equal opportunity in a sphere of liberty.
No free society can ultimately survive a demand for equal outcomes because it’s simply not possible without shattering individual freedom. Social democracy inevitably devolves into social conflict between hostile camps. …
A struggle between different factions seems imminent, but will it be a true “civil war” between cogent conservative positions?
“The Dumbest Coup”
It’s taken its sweet time, but the house of cards is finally starting to fall.
Donald Trump swept onto the scene like a force of nature, progressing steadily and unstoppable as, one by one, every pundit, politician, and partisan voter on the Right succumbed to the mythos of the Trump narrative. …
Conservatism has had better leaders in the past and could have such leaders once again, if it would just get off this damn train.
This article was first published as a guest article on the Saving Elephants blog.
Many of President Trump’s supporters tend to see numerous similarities between Donald Trump and Ronald Reagan.
They point at the irrational fear that gripped the media and others as President Reagan took office in order to excuse current fears of Donald Trump’s presidency.
They point at Reagan’s past as a member of the Democratic Party to excuse Donald Trump’s former left-leaning beliefs and activity in Democratic circles. …
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