Impeachment: Here we go again. Plus: Biden 'too busy?' Super Bowl ratings down, and here's why.
By Gary Abernathy
Second politically driven impeachment trial kicks off
What happened at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 will always stand as a shameful moment in American history, and its connection with former President Donald Trump’s refusal to accept the results of the November election is indisputable. But the impeachment trial starting today in the U.S. Senate is a sham, the second such show trial in just slightly over a year.
Democrats in Congress are once again weaponizing for political purposes a constitutional process that is designed as a remedy for presidential misconduct. And what is the constitutionally prescribed remedy if a president is found guilty? Removal from office. It is preposterous to waste time on a trial where the remedy cannot be applied because the person on trial has already left office.
If a president were removed from office by a two-thirds vote of the Senate, the Constitution allows for a second vote to prohibit “the president” from seeking office again, and only a simple majority is required. But as things stand, “the president” is currently Joe Biden, not Trump. Prohibiting “the president” from running again cannot be voted upon unless he is convicted in the first place by a two-thirds vote, which everyone agrees will not happen.
And so, as basically acknowledged in this Washington Post story, the real point of the current trial is simply to force Republicans to go on record – the same point as the first impeachment trial slightly more than a year ago. Abusing a solemn constitutional process for the purpose of embarrassing members of the opposition party is a dereliction of duty that leaves little room for complaint when the tables are turned and similar measures are taken for political reasons in future circumstances.
Donald Trump’s fate will be decided by the American people should he try to seek office again. That’s how it should be – not through a partisan effort to legally prohibit him from seeking office and an attempt to embarrass Republicans through the abuse of the impeachment clause.
Biden ‘too busy’ after ‘running like hell’ for president
If President Biden was sincerely interested in unifying the nation, he would have urged his fellow Democrats to abandon this flawed course of action. Instead, the White House’s official line is that Biden is, as USA Today put it, “too busy” to pay much attention to the impeachment proceedings.
The same story quotes Biden as saying in a recent interview, “I ran like hell to defeat (Trump) because I thought he was unfit to be president.” If the kind of stay-in-the-basement campaign Biden conducted is his definition of “running like hell,” what’s his definition of being “too busy” to care about the impeachment trial – folding the laundry?
Super Bowl ratings down as political fallout continues
Super Bowl ratings were down significantly on Sunday, and theories abound as to why. My take is that millions of fans remain turned off by the “social justice” displays that have invaded the games themselves across all pro sports as the leagues try to pacify liberal critics. Past instances of kneeling for the National Anthem, splattering slogans across playing fields and clothing and other such examples have ruined what was once the main attraction of sports – an escape from the troubles of the day and the ability to put aside the worries of the world, including our political differences, to spend a couple of hours or so uniting around simple, childhood games.
While Sunday’s Super Bowl came off mostly free of heavy-handed messages (relatively speaking, anyway, and outside of commercials), it continued to suffer from the general fall-out of the past three or four years.
Social justice efforts are good, and athletes, coaches and even entire leagues participating in them are fine – except for the games themselves. When we infuse game time itself with protests, political messages or other such intrusions, no one should be surprised when fans stay home and viewers change the channel. And it’s tough to get fans to come back once they develop new habits.
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