Whatever you may think about former President Donald J. Trump, the latest impeachment dramatization serves no purpose whatsoever in healing a deeply divided and heatedly polarized nation.
Charges that President Trump "incited insurrection" which led to the disgustingly disgraceful Jan. 6 assault on our nation's House were clearly a big stretch from the start, considering that the president had specifically called on marchers to go over to the United States Capitol to "peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard."
As for "incitement," we now know that the FBI had warned Capitol police days before Jan. 6 of threats indicating possible "extremist-driven violence." This report contradicts earlier claims that security officials were caught off guard and unprepared when rioting lunatics breached the building.
It is also evident that the acts of hooliganism began during, not after, President Trump's address to the massive, peaceful assembly a mile away. It is not remotely plausible to blame Trump for whipping them up to incite violent mob frenzy.
Nor did President Trump call for any "insurrection," which is generally defined as an act of revolt, typically involving violence against civil authority or an established government.
Trump was not staging a coup, nor calling for an act of rebellion against the government. Likewise, tens of thousands of individuals and families from all over America that day rallied in support of a legal dispute over final certification of electoral election results, as is their right.
Fact of the matter is, those who were peaceful at the rally certainly are not alone in negative suspicions and sentiments regarding 2020 electoral vote counts.
Polls show that more than 70% of Republicans, among the 75 million who voted for him, believe Trump legitimately won the election. Their concerns were bolstered by petitions to the U.S. Supreme Court issued by attorneys general of 19 states led by Texas to review alleged widespread election abuse in four key battleground states — Pennsylvania, Georgia, Wisconsin and Michigan — explicitly listing evidence of alleged irregularities that could have flipped the results in each of them if proven true in court.
On its very face, whether or not the impeachment to remove a president from office who had already left is even constitutional, why would the Democratic Party even bother pursuing the matter?
They already knew well in advance of starting the process that they likely do not have enough votes in the Senate to hope for a conviction.
One non-exclusive explanation among several is that it is simply political bloodlust.
After all, the specter of impeachment was on their agenda even before Trump was seated in the Oval Office to reverse the 2016 election results.
On January 20, 2017, just minutes after his inauguration, The Washington Post announced in a headline, "The campaign to impeach President Trump has begun."
Likewise, Democratic leaders also stated that impeachment would be necessary to prevent Trump from winning re-election. In 2019, Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, told the media that he was "concerned that if we do not impeach this president, then he'll get elected."
Another theory is that a second impeachment proceeding, even a failure sequel, might somehow prevent a future successful Trump run for presidency by tarnishing his brand.
This begs the question, if they didn't truly regard Trump as a serious continuing threat, would they really care if he ran again?
In any case, Democratic leaders may have good reasons to worry about Trump's political future.
According to a Marist poll conducted in late January, after Trump left office, 90% of Republican voters surveyed said the Senate should acquit him.
Another survey by the Remington Research Group showed Trump's favorable popularity holding steady at an average 83% in several House districts following Jan. 6, including South Carolina's 7th District — home to Rep. Tom Rice, one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach the president.
As Charlie Shaffer, former chair of the Piscataquis County Republican Committee in Maine queried of Democrats who are pressing impeachment to damage Trump politically, "Why are you concerned with him running again? Let him go!"
Maybe Democratic officials are wagering that the impeachment horror show will further galvanize their Trump hatred base and simultaneously amplify pockets of Republican party division — a split-the-party gambit — to amp up their 2022 midterm and 2024 victory prospects.
Witness, for example, state party censures of Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wy., and Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., for their Trump post-election criticism.
And, maybe, the bright stage spotlight that is intentionally dishonoring Trump provides a sleight-of-hand diversion from what is happening behind the White House curtain, namely a fast flurry of frighteningly radical executive orders and actions offered as beholden election paybacks to the far-left Democratic-Socialist party wing.
Whatever the impeachment intentions, we can be assured that national unity isn't on any list.
And wasn't then-candidate Joe Biden's main campaign pitch all about restoring national unity and healing?
One might have hoped that the new president would have used this opportunity to offer a magnanimously generous gesture of ending this transparently vindictive show trial.
President Biden could easily have signaled his opposition to the charade by urging Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., not to transmit the House impeachment article to the Senate.
Instead, as ranking member of the House Rules Committee Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., pointed out, Democratic leaders chose "to race to the floor with a new article of impeachment, forgoing any investigation, any committee process or any chance for members to fully contemplate this course of action before proceeding."
There is no happy ending in this for either party nor, most grievously, for the spiritual health of our nation.
Larry Bell is an endowed professor of space architecture at the University of Houston where he founded the Sasakawa International Center for Space Architecture (SICSA) and the graduate program in space architecture. Larry has written more than 700 articles for Newsmax and Forbes and is the author of several books. Included are: "How Everything Happened, Including Us" (2020), "Cyberwarfare: Targeting America, Our Infrastructure and Our Future" (2020), "The Weaponization of AI and the Internet: How Global Networks of Infotech Overlords are Expanding Their Control Over Our Lives" (2019), "Reinventing Ourselves: How Technology is Rapidly and Radically Transforming Humanity" (2019), "Thinking Whole: Rejecting Half-Witted Left & Right Brain Limitations" (2018), "Reflections on Oceans and Puddles: One Hundred Reasons to be Enthusiastic, Grateful and Hopeful" (2017), "Cosmic Musings: Contemplating Life Beyond Self" (2016), "Scared Witless: Prophets and Profits of Climate Doom" (2015) and "Climate of Corruption: Politics and Power Behind the Global Warming Hoax" (2011). He is currently working on a new book with Buzz Aldrin, "Beyond Footprints and Flagpoles." Read Larry Bell's Reports — More Here.
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