PeterS wrote:
This meme below goes around and around on my Facebook feed posted by my conservative friends. Each time I try to explain to them that the House doesn't try the president but instead acts the same as a grand jury would in our own criminal system. Impeachment is similar to an indictment in criminal law, and thus it is essentially the statement of charges against the official nothing more. The trial is supposed to take place in the Senate but Moscow Mitch seems determined from keeping that from happening.
So do you get it? The house did not try the president because if they did there would be no reason for a trial by the Senate would there...
This meme below goes around and around on my Faceb... (
show quote)
Yeah, we know, Pete. The House did not try the case, it was supposed to conduct an objective, non-partisan investigation to determine if the president had committed impeachable offenses based on the standards set by our Constitution, then submit those to the senate for trial. But, the PSN cabal failed on all counts to do that.
The three preceding impeachments should have been the model for the current attempt, but again, the House completely ignored any precedent and made up their own rules without regard to the constitution or due process. The impeachment process established by the constitution is a political process, not a criminal one. The grotesque spectacle Americans are now witnessing in congress bears no resemblance to the process followed in previous impeachments.
During the Constitutional Convention in 1787, when the issue of removing a duly elected president came up, the framers understood this was no trivial matter, they knew full well that such a thing had serious consequences for the good of the nation. In considering how an impeachment could be done without endangering the integrity of the system of government they were creating, the framers pondered upon the British laws for removing a monarch. Madison and Mason engaged in a rather heated debate on what should constitute grounds for impeachment.
Treason and Bribery were already settled, but Mason proposed to add what he called "maladministration". Madison objected, stating this was far too vague, and would open the door for an unlimited range of impeachable offenses. Something as simple as policy differences could be grounds. Madison proposed "high Crimes and Misdemeanors" that were equally as serious in nature as Treason and Bribery. Eventually, the matter was settled with the bar set very high. (Curiously, George Mason did not sign either of our founding documents.)
The Constitution of the United States belongs to We, the People, it is not the property of the government.
The 435 members of the HOR are elected to represent We, the People, they are our voice in congress, or are supposed to be.
Originally, the 100 senators (2 from each state) were chosen by each state legislature to represent the interests of the state in congress. However, the 17th Amendment did away with that brilliant idea and put the election of the entire congress into the hands of voters. This effectively defeated the purpose of the senate. Thank you, Woodrow.
When an impeachment of the president is proposed by whomever, We, the People (that means all of us from sea to shining sea) through our representatives in the HOR rightfully have a say in this. This is why, as was done in past impeachments, an impeachment inquiry cannot proceed to committee without a majority vote in the entire House, IOW, without all Americans having a voice in the matter.
When an impeachment inquiry is approved, as in the past, the HJC has the responsibility to conduct the inquiry. And, as in all past impeachment inquiries, the president (the accused) has every right to be fully represented for the purpose of defense at committee hearings. The president's defense team has the right to call their own witnesses and to question and cross examine any witnesses in the hot lights. The SoH and House committee chairmen denied president Trump these rights.
In the current impeachment of president Trump, we can kiss all of that goodbye.
On November 9, 2016, 73 days before Donald Trump was sworn in as POTUS, the American left began the impeachment process. And, on that day, hearing the cries for impeachment from a large body of ignorant, thoroughly indoctrinated anti-American leftists, two vindictive and extremely partisan democrats from California and one from New York, with absolute contempt for We, the People, took it upon themselves to initiate impeachment proceedings. They did this without a simple majority vote by all members of the HOR.
Not to mention the previous administration's egregious attempt to covertly destroy Donald Trump, the PSN cabal in the House made a complete shambles of the process, turned it into a gutter level assault on not only president Trump but on our constitution and the 63 million Americans who voted for him.
For three excruciating years of covert domestic spying operations, an unconstitutionally appointed special counsel investigation, conspiracies, hundreds of subpoenas and witness testimonies, indictments, trials and convictions, and the ruination of some men's lives, all done in an attempt to find something, anything, with which to impeach president Trump, the cretins finally lowered the bar to a phone call based on a complaint by a still mysterious, unquestioned whistleblower. This individual failed to follow intelligence agency protocols for filing complaints, and instead contacted members of the House Intelligence Committee staff. The committee chairman had an orgasm. This opened the door for the committee to compile a list of diplomats to subpoena for testimony, none of whom had listened to the phone call.
On September 24, 2019, the SoH announced a formal impeachment inquiry would proceed. On November 6, 2019, the House Intelligence Committee chairman announced that "a public" inquiry would commence on November 13. Thirty six days later, after the House Intelligence Committee had marked up an impeachment resolution, on December 18, 2019, the SoH put the resolution before the entire House for a vote. The resolution passed 232 to 196. Every House Republican and two democrats voted against it.
Put simply, approximately 37 House democrats on two committees lowered the standards for impeaching a president to a level that might convict a trespasser in a county court. They established grounds for impeachment, marked up a resolution, and submitted the articles to the senate with no regard whatsoever for the feelings of the entire voting population.
In the extremely remote chance that the impeachment of president Trump should succeed, our system of government will expire, the senate will be a ghost of its former self, separation of powers will be nonexistent, and every future president could be subject to impeachment for nothing more than farting in a crowded room.
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