Impeachment. Inappropriate just won’t do it.

Feb 06

Impeachment. Inappropriate just won’t do it.

I think I watch too much CNN. It often plays in the background as I do my work, vomiting the same political stories – interspersed with the occasional mass shooting or weather catastophe – 24 hours a day, seven days a week. White noise in the background helps me concentrate. And when I want to get real news, local, national or international, I change the channel.

The CNN white noise machine has been focused for the last four or five years on Donald Trump and his inappropriate behaviours. The number of times the word ” inappropriate ” comes up seems uncountable, though I am sure someone has counted.

I don’t care much for Donald Trump. He reminds me of some of the people who gather around my holiday table, who provide definitive statements with perfect confidence. Whether there is analysis or proof of these statements is irrelevant. They are simple and conform to their own logic and seem true to their guts.

I find myself also caring much less about those for whom every breath taken by the latest US President is a sign of deepest evil. It seems they have been well trained by the media, as the word inappropriate is used as a synonym for almost any negative.

Sitting at the table, I have learned to shut up or try to turn the subject away from US Presidential politics. Still, I find myself stifling laughter when liberal diners evoke the names of those who were their earlier devils, Bush, Bush 2 and Reagan as exemplars of “appropriate” behaviour. Not surprisingly, the more conservative eaters never evoke Obama or Clinton in the same way.

I suppose we can blame the mainstream media for many peoples’ association of the word inappropriate to criminal. In lieu of actual Trump criminal conduct, doing things in a new way, coarser, louder and ruder, has been held out as reason for everything from charges to impeachment.

Let us be clear, to many, appropriate has not worked. Appropriate has led to politicians working on behalf of the richest and loudest. It has led to the crumbling of our infrastructure as taxes are reduced. It has led to interminable wars, where questioning leadership was inappropriate and offensive. It has led to the idea that two ideas, whether intelligent and rational or idiotic, should be given equal voice. It has led to results so obviously irrational and idiotic that people have to either twist their brains or quietly step back in disgust.

Yesterday, Trump was acquitted. In less than a year, he has the opportunity to join Bill Clinton in the Re-elected Impeached President club. For those who don’t understand why, let me explain.

The reason Trump was not removed from office was more than because of the nature of Senate politics. It was because the high crimes and misdemeanours for which he was impeached in the House were actions which most people believe, and politicians know, occur daily in the capital.

That Trump tried to get an advantage over Biden from the Ukraine is not seen as a crime by most but to be expected.

Contempt of Congress, a feeling felt by the majority of Americans, was even sillier and recognized as a catch-all charge, to be used when a real charge cannot be made.

After years of the media shouting collusion and other charges from the rooftops, the impeachment charges seemed like jaywalking charges. Hardly a good reason to remove any President, even the current orangutan.

Watching the House and then Senate proceedings, what was really being said by the Democrats was that Trump is acting inappropriately. True, but not impeachable and, maybe, to his advantage.

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