Newsplaining

By: 
Ethan Stoetzer

Conserve through impeachment 
     Since the modern conservative movement in American politics began in the mid-1930s, conservatives have had to ask themselves. What is it that we, as Americans, wish to keep whole and true?
     What is it that you seek to conserve?
     In the 1930s, it was stopping the beginning of the welfare state under the new deal. They wanted to conserve the idea of personal responsibility and the free market as a weapon against communism, and the perceived power-grab of packing the Supreme Court.
     In the 1940s, they sought to conserve neutrality, and avoid entering World War II, developing NATO, and the United Nations. In the 1950s, they sought to conserve business practice, entrepreneurship and the right to personal property. In the 1970s, conservatives sought to conserve the environment, with the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency, under President Richard Nixon.
     But what now is it that you seek to conserve?
     With the institution of American democracy at stake, conservatives should conserve by the impeachment of President Donald Trump.
     While the majority of society creates norms, they are mostly agreed upon for the sake of benefiting the greatest number of people, Trump has violated those norms. From refusing to disclose his tax returns (a presidential tradition since President Carter), to sharing classified intelligence with the Russians — who are teaming up with President and Dictator Bashar al-Assad of Syria, while Trump is waging a proxy-war against Assad — damaging relationships with Middle East intelligence communities in the process. Trump is allowed to do those things, but he shouldn’t. Just like I’m allowed to address people in expletives, but I shouldn’t — it’s impolite.
     America has a tradition of an independent FBI that operates within its own realms to ensure that not even the President of the U.S. is above the law. Trump has fired recent director of the FBI James Comey, admitting that he did it because Comey was investigating the Trump team, and because Comey didn’t call off an investigation in former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.
     Trump also refused to fire Flynn upon hearing that he had spoken with the Russians about U.S. sanctions, and lied to Vice President Mike Pence about it, making the White House vulnerable to blackmail.
     Trump has violated the integrity of the White House Press briefing, an American institution since Woodrow Wilson in 1913, by sending out Press Secretary Sean Spicer to spin the truth on Trump positions, only to have Trump tweet against the lie less than 24 hours later. Trump is violating the institution of science and research, calling scientific research “fake, but accurate” and declaring war on the media. The only previous president to do that was John Adams when he tried to pass the Alien and Sedition Acts to punish the press — which were ruled by the courts as unconstitutional.
     With this many infringements on the American Office of the Presidency, I ask what is it that we are conserving?
     Conserving the Republican controlled White House? Conserving the proxy-war on the welfare state? What exactly can conservatives be conserving? The total disregard for responsibility in the passage of the American Healthcare Act and the lack of answer-seeking, debate filled legislature is crippling American faith in government, as we know it. Need I remind conservatives that a parliamentary system, with one ruling government party, favors liberals more than it favors conservatives? 
     How much better would it be for our country to be run under Mike Pence? Remember that conservatives still control the White House. It’s not like, should Trump be removed, they lose it. Should Pence be part of any collusion, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan gets the seat. Is that a total doomsday scenario for the GOP? I don’t think so. That looks like the Republican dream ticket: Ryan in the White House, McConnell in the Senate, and Republicans still in the congress.
     And for those that say liberals should fear Pence and Ryan to be worse, beware the status-quo bias, a frame of mind that stops us from trying anything knew because it threatens what we currently have.
     The many sub-groups of the left aren’t fuming right upset because Hillary Clinton lost. They’re upset because Donald Trump won. History shows that any party that has had a two-term presidency has a high probability of being replaced by the opposing party in the immediate election, dating back to Harry Truman in 1945. The odds were stacked against the Democratic Party from the start.
     The left isn’t upset that Clinton lost; they all had doubts about their candidate, but out of the numerous candidates within the GOP, they thought there was a chance going against Trump, and indeed there was. Clinton won the popular vote by over 2.9 million ballots. While the efficacy of the Electoral College is a column for another time, it’s the system we have now, so there’s no point in whining about it. Trump won, and that’s what has the left up in arms.
     If it were Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz even, the left would have had a tall order in 2016, and many of them would concede that a well-organized presidency under any of those candidates would be preferable to the scenario now. They’re upset that Comey, the friend-turned-enemy-turned-unpredictable friend, the only person with an on-the-record investigation into collusion with the Trump team and the Russians, was removed from power because he was investigating Trump.
     The U.S. would be better off if Pence or Ryan were in that White House, as would every other American institution. It’s time that conservatives like Chuck Grassley, John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan conserve their democracy, their political capital and their institutions and decry Trump’s behavior.
     Otherwise, what is it that we will be conserving in the end. 
   
 
 
 

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