I was asked, last night, what I think of Tom Steyer and NeedToImpeach.com. I don't know anything about Tom Steyer, beyond what I read today on Wikipedia. I'm uncomfortable with the idea that we need a rich guy to save us. It's a pattern: Ross Perot, Michael Bloomberg, Trump and, now in IL, JB Pritzker. All billionaires.
As to impeachment, I'm torn. The Russia stuff leaves me cold. I think it's a fantasy that everyone wants to be true. Hillary Clinton uses a private email server to circumvent freedom of information laws, gets hacked, leaving a trail of evidence that the Democratic Party primary process was a sham and, for a host of other reasons, manages to lose the election to an ignorant reality show host. Wouldn't it be satisfying if he was guilty of treason and the evidence was.... the act of hacking her emails? Vindication! ...Bullshit.
There is no reason to believe that the hacked emails, or attempts to hack, steal and alter voter data in various states, by Russia, had anything to do with Trump or, for that matter, Wikileaks. Did Trump's campaign attempt to obtain info, after the fact, from Russia? It appears so. Is that illegal? Maybe. Did they try to coordinate the timing of the release of info with Wikileaks? Maybe. Is that illegal? No.
The Russians may have been involved in hacking various Democratic accounts. They apparently have also tried to tamper with state electoral commission rolls. That needs investigated and dealt with. If Trump refuses to do that, that should be the crime. Collusion is just a feel good narrative.
I suspect there are financial crimes that he is guilty of too, unrelated to the election. Failure to execute the laws as president and tax evasion are real crimes. That's where any possible impeachment should be focused.
Should he be impeached? Will he be impeached?
I struggle with the first one. I loathe him and want him humiliated. But, let's assume he is impeached by the House and convicted by the Senate and removed from office. That gives us President Pence. Beyond Trump's ignorance and personality disorder (and I recognize how dangerous those are), would we be better off without him? Most of what Trump does on a daily basis is a freak show. Yes, we feel like we need a shower at the end of the day, but the reality is that the major destruction comes from the cabinet he's put in power. Trump is an ignoramus, in over his head. Pence believes in all this bullshit. I don't see an end to an advancing police state, racial strife or environmental destruction in Pence World. Plus, with Trump, people are focused on resisting. If he gets impeached, the attitude will be, 'we overthrew him!' and everybody goes back to being sheep.
I'm not convinced he will be impeached in any circumstance. The Republicans have a majority. They have shown, in both houses of congress, that they no longer have any sense of responsibility. The Republican Party is utterly without conscience. They currently are endorsing a senate candidate that, regardless if one believes the accusations that he likes having 14 year olds touch his Little Roy through his underwear, has publicly said (within the last three months) that his idea of when America was last great was during slavery. They are not going to impeach a guy who does their, and their donors, bidding. That leaves the Democrats. Let's assume they win the House. Nancy Pelosi, who famously declared impeachment "off the table", before the 2006 election, has now essentially done the same for Trump, when recently questioned about the NeedToImpeach campaign.
So, should he be impeached? Probably, just to confirm the rule of law. Will he? I doubt it, as long as our rulers are people like Paul Ryan, Nancy Pelosi and Mitch McConnell.
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