A DAY OF DECISION
Today, Wednesday, 18 December 2019, is a day for the history books. The United States House of Representatives is set to vote on the impeachment of the president of the United States, Donald Trump. It is voting on impeachment for only the third time in American history.
This is a solemn and grave moment in the 230-year history of our republic. Our country is in a constitutional crisis. Evidence shows that the president has violated his oath of office to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. That same constitution gave the Congress the power to impeach and remove a president from office for treason, bribery, and other high crimes and misdemeanors. After weeks of the presentation of the evidence, it is clear to all reasonable people President Trump is guilty of bribery and obstruction of justice.
What is at stake here is nothing less than the national attachment to the Constitution of the United States. President Trump has boasted that he can do anything he wants under his office. He cannot under the terms of the Constitution which has a tripartite government under checks and balances. So, the country is at a crossroads. We can validate a rising executive rule in disregard of the Constitution or we can validate the Constitution. It really is as simple as that.
Unfortunately the nation is badly and dangerously divided with some forty percent of the people in favor of President Trump's rule. Trump has behind him some powerful forces, namely a great deal of social media, Fox News, much of talk radio, and most importantly, a servile Republican Party, Wall Street, the evangelical establishment (and who knows how much foreign help). Not long ago, the Grand Old Party stood for definite, old-fashioned principles: balanced budget, law and order, family values, small government, strong foreign policy, opposition to Russia, individual freedom. No more. The days of Ronald Reagan are gone. Republicans have made a Faustian bargain with Trump to defend him completely in return for huge tax reductions to the one-percent, racism in the form of anti-immigration policy, packing the courts with young conservative judges, and rolling back countless democratic reforms. No one exemplifies this complete reversal more than Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. The Republican party has repudiated its revered principles for short term gain from a demagogue.
All along in the run-up to impeachment Republicans have done everything possible to disrupt and de-legitimize the constitutional process. Their tactics were deny, delay, and yell. This is meant to negate the power of impeachment in the minds of the citizenry. Apparently they are going to vote straight down party lines on impeachment. So, we have a national crisis in which a large and powerful minority is trying to change our national political system to make it an authoritarian strong man government, in other words, to make an elected monarchy. The other side is larger but not as well-organized, focused, and well-funded, but they are resolved to defend the Constitution of the United States and the democratic republic values enshrined in it. Do not underestimate the importance of this moment in history. Either we Americans are going to keep the Constitution or we are going to move toward fascist authoritarianism.
To be sure, impeachment is not removal. If the House votes impeachment, the president will be put on trial in the Senate. The Republicans have a majority there. All along the Republicans have refused to take this impeachment process seriously. The Senate leaders, as McConnell and Graham have said publicly they do not take it seriously either. They said they will railroad it through in the Senate to acquittal as fast as they can. We should take them at their word.
Today, the battlefield for the future is in that beautiful Capitol chamber of the House of Representatives. If you have been there, you know the room has two large portraits flanking the dais, Washington, representing the nation, and Lafayette, representing the world. Let us hope and pray that our 435 representatives assembled there today are mindful of the ingenious but fragile constitution that brought us to greatness both in this country and in the world and do the right thing.
For that, let us end with a prayer for Congress (BCP 821):
O God, the fountain of wisdom, whose will is good and gracious, and whose law is truth: We beseech thee so to guide and bless our Representatives in Congress assembled, that they may enact such laws as shall please thee, to the glory of thy Name and the welfare of this people; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Unfortunately the nation is badly and dangerously divided with some forty percent of the people in favor of President Trump's rule. Trump has behind him some powerful forces, namely a great deal of social media, Fox News, much of talk radio, and most importantly, a servile Republican Party, Wall Street, the evangelical establishment (and who knows how much foreign help). Not long ago, the Grand Old Party stood for definite, old-fashioned principles: balanced budget, law and order, family values, small government, strong foreign policy, opposition to Russia, individual freedom. No more. The days of Ronald Reagan are gone. Republicans have made a Faustian bargain with Trump to defend him completely in return for huge tax reductions to the one-percent, racism in the form of anti-immigration policy, packing the courts with young conservative judges, and rolling back countless democratic reforms. No one exemplifies this complete reversal more than Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. The Republican party has repudiated its revered principles for short term gain from a demagogue.
All along in the run-up to impeachment Republicans have done everything possible to disrupt and de-legitimize the constitutional process. Their tactics were deny, delay, and yell. This is meant to negate the power of impeachment in the minds of the citizenry. Apparently they are going to vote straight down party lines on impeachment. So, we have a national crisis in which a large and powerful minority is trying to change our national political system to make it an authoritarian strong man government, in other words, to make an elected monarchy. The other side is larger but not as well-organized, focused, and well-funded, but they are resolved to defend the Constitution of the United States and the democratic republic values enshrined in it. Do not underestimate the importance of this moment in history. Either we Americans are going to keep the Constitution or we are going to move toward fascist authoritarianism.
To be sure, impeachment is not removal. If the House votes impeachment, the president will be put on trial in the Senate. The Republicans have a majority there. All along the Republicans have refused to take this impeachment process seriously. The Senate leaders, as McConnell and Graham have said publicly they do not take it seriously either. They said they will railroad it through in the Senate to acquittal as fast as they can. We should take them at their word.
Today, the battlefield for the future is in that beautiful Capitol chamber of the House of Representatives. If you have been there, you know the room has two large portraits flanking the dais, Washington, representing the nation, and Lafayette, representing the world. Let us hope and pray that our 435 representatives assembled there today are mindful of the ingenious but fragile constitution that brought us to greatness both in this country and in the world and do the right thing.
For that, let us end with a prayer for Congress (BCP 821):
O God, the fountain of wisdom, whose will is good and gracious, and whose law is truth: We beseech thee so to guide and bless our Representatives in Congress assembled, that they may enact such laws as shall please thee, to the glory of thy Name and the welfare of this people; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
