The Real Reason For
Impeachment
By Robert Reich
To watch this video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FpTrkSN-xc
In today’s political climate, the question of whether or not to impeach the President of the United States is often thought of in political terms.
But there is a much
deeper concern at the heart of the question.
An impeachment inquiry
in the House is unlikely to send Trump packing before Election Day 2020
because Senate Republicans won’t
convict him. And it’s impossible to know whether an impeachment
inquiry will hurt or help Trump’s chances of being reelected.
Does this mean
impeachment should be off the table? No.
There’s a non-political question that Congress should consider: Is enforcing the United States Constitution important for its own sake — even if it goes nowhere, even if it’s unpopular with many voters, even if it’s politically risky?
There’s a non-political question that Congress should consider: Is enforcing the United States Constitution important for its own sake — even if it goes nowhere, even if it’s unpopular with many voters, even if it’s politically risky?
Every child in America is supposed to learn about the Constitution’s basic principles of separation of powers, and checks and balances.
But these days, every
child and every adult in America is learning from Donald Trump that these
principles are bunk.
By doing whatever he could
to stop the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016
election, including firing the head of the
FBI, Trump told America it’s okay for a president to obstruct
justice.
Goodbye, law.
By issuing a blanket refusal to
respond to any congressional subpoena, Trump is saying Congress has no
constitutional authority to oversee the executive branch. He’s
telling America that Congress is a subordinate branch of government rather than
a co-equal branch.
Forget separation of
powers.
By spending money on his
“wall” that Congress explicitly
refused to authorize, Trump is saying that Congress no longer has
any constitutional authority
over spending.
Goodbye, checks and
balances.
By unilaterally
shuttering the government in order to get his way, Trump told us he
has the constitutional right not to execute the laws whenever it suits
him.
Farewell, Congress.
By directing the Attorney
General, the Justice Department,
the FBI and the Secretary of the Treasury to
act in his own personal interest rather than in the interests of the American
people, Trump is saying that presidents can run government for
themselves.
Adios, Constitution.
By unilaterally threatening to cut off
trade with the second-largest economy in
the world, Trump is telling us he has sole authority to endanger the entire
American economy. (Make no mistake: If he goes through with his
threat, the U.S. economy
will go into a tailspin.)
The core purpose of
the Constitution is to prevent tyranny. That’s why its Framers distributed
power between the president, Congress and the judiciary. That’s why each of the
three branches was designed to limit the powers of the other two.
In other words, the
Framers anticipated the possibility of a Donald Trump.
Fortunately, they also
put in a mechanism to enforce the Constitution against a president who tries to
place himself above the law and to usurp the powers of the other branches of
government.
Article I, Section 2
gives the House of Representatives the “sole Power of
Impeachment.” Article I, Section 3 gives the Senate the “sole Power to try all
Impeachments.”
Trump surely appears
to be usurping the powers of the other branches. Under these circumstances, the
Constitution mandates that the House undertake an impeachment inquiry and
present evidence to the Senate.
This may not be the political thing to do. But in order to safeguard our democracy, it is the right thing to do.
This may not be the political thing to do. But in order to safeguard our democracy, it is the right thing to do.
Robert B. Reich is Chancellor's Professor of
Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley and Senior Fellow at
the Blum Center for Developing Economies. He served as Secretary of Labor in
the Clinton administration, for which Time Magazine named him one of the ten
most effective cabinet secretaries of the twentieth century. He has written
fifteen books, including the best sellers "Aftershock", "The
Work of Nations," and "Beyond Outrage," and, his most recent,
"The Common Good," which is available in bookstores now. He is also a
founding editor of the American Prospect magazine, chairman of Common Cause, a
member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and co-creator of the
award-winning documentary, "Inequality For All." He's co-creator of
the Netflix original documentary "Saving Capitalism," which is
streaming now.