With everything going on in the world, it's easy to forget impeachment was just 3 months ago.
But as we get into election season (however that looks this time) and gear up for November 2020, or whenever we get around to having the next election (yikes for typing that), we should take some time to remember this trainwreck of an impeachment, and whether we want to endorse Trump and the GOP as a whole for another whole 4 years of this shit.
The Ukrainegate shit is somewhat difficult to explain and isn't quite as easy to grasp as an Oval Office BJ, or even breaking and entering and wiretapping political opponents as occurred under Nixon.
But in the end, Trump's conduct in Ukraine was comparable to Nixon's, and possibly far worse. Trump's attempt at election theft also involved attempting to pressure a foreign government, in active hostilities with Russia, to dig up election dirt on a political opponent's son -- under the tacit and perhaps explicit threat of withdrawing foreign aid (the much-discussed "quid pro quo").
I was especially galled by the GOP Senate's total failure to call subpoenaed witnesses (e.g. Giuliani, Pompeo, Mulvaney, and Bolton), let alone calling Trump to testify under oath himself, as Clinton did. Remember Clinton's impeachment for "perjury" necessarily only came about because he actually *agreed* to sit for a deposition.
Everyone and his brother knows Trump would have perjured himself six ways to Sunday had he actually bothered to testify.
This whole ghastly impeachment saga demonstrated that impeachment, as a practical tool, is constitutional dead-letter in our hyperpartisan age, and that our only meaningful recourse for holding lawbreaking presidents accountable is through the ballot box.
Particularly if Trump wins re-election, that will spell the end of impeachment since all future Presidents, of either party, frankly, will likely resort to the same cynical attacks on process and total stonewalling even if caught red-handed.
Lately, I've been recapping some of my memes from that time period over here:
imgflip.com/m/Cringe_Hard
And sometimes making new ones like this one
They will try to make us forget
But Pepperidge Farms remembers
