I Am a Loser . . . and So Are You

We are all losers, about to become more so, and it’s all self-inflicted.

If articles of impeachment are brought against He-who-shall-not-be-named, either of two outcomes make losers of us all.

1)  Were he to be acquitted in the Senate, after a wrenching and divisive trial, his “base” (which is not a homogeneous whole) would be emboldened and triumphalist, having “proved” the he is the greatest.  His defeated detractors would be embittered, might lose the election, might find even scarcer any ground for compromise and pragmatic problem solving. Congress would be even more gridlocked.

               2) Were he found guilty by the Senate, after bitter and destructive debate, the Republican Party would be torn asunder; the white, traditionalist, anti-immigrant portion of his base more embittered, convinced that they have been disenfranchise by those elitists, all the more easily to be radicalized against knowledgeable experts, newly arrived citizens, and the arrogant establishment.  The “what’s in it for me” part of his base all the more ready to use its money and influence to lever government to their selfish ends, all the more eager to find another less toxic politician/tool to be used to advance their self-interest – even among Democrats.  And the winners of a guilty verdict in disarray between triumphalists and rootless Republican turncoats now without a home in either party.  In primaries, those turncoat Republican senators could be replaced by even more distrustful, vengeful radicals, further polarizing us.

Meanwhile, whichever way it goes, the trust and respect of our foreign friends is undercut and eroded while our foreign adversaries gloat over this evidence that democracy is in the end self-destructive and that only oligarchic, homogenized autocracies and can bring focus and stability to a nation.

Whatever the outcome, we all become losers.

A slightly less damaging pathway, as unfeasible as it may be in these fevered times, is to eschew seeking articles of impeachment.  Rather, hold the hearings, air the evidence, and then stand back and rely on election to settle the matter.  Let we the people decide.

The 1850’s and 60’s were more viciously polarized than now.  But in the 20thC and 21stC, is this the most dangerous of times?  My family, like all American families, have been through crises.  The resurgence of the KKK in the early ‘20’s derailed my grandfather’s career, but he recovered and gave my father good civic values. Though born in it, I don’t recall much of the Great Depression though I saw its mark on my frugal mother; it took a World War to recover the nation’s mojo.  As a teen, I saw first-hand the effect of the McCarthyite and HUAC tempests on families of public service patriots.  I lived through and wrestled with the generationally divided 1960’s and 70’s.  But those were episodic crises, serious ones to be sure.  This is different -- more fundamental, a structural attack on what America expects its leaders to stand for and how its Democracy is to work.  

In these times, we are all losers no matter who “wins.”

What can one do? Support hearings but argue against impeachment.  Let we the people vote. I have written my Representative Adam Smith and my Governor Jay Inslee, chair of the Democratic Governors Association, urging them to support full investigation but stop short of articles of impeachment.  More voices raised always help: speak up; don’t let the daily craziness wear us down.  And don't assume that this will just pass and America be the same again.  This is different; we are all losers.