Impeachment Questions

 

Dear Founding Fathers,

IS THIS REALLY WHAT YOU HAD IN MIND?

Our Constitution was written in 1787 by forty-one white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant ‘gentlemen of means’ with such education as their times allowed.

The world they knew was the world in which they lived. They assumed a gentleman’s oath was as ‘good as gold’ and being publicly shamed was adequate punishment for violators. They, however, anticipated evil was eternal and that scoundrels sought political power, and therefore made an accommodation to which they gave the archaic title “Impeachment”.

They also anticipated what they wrote was not final word on the subject and would need updating from time to time. Even provided for long forgotten and now much feared follow-up Constitutional Convention.

But, they did not anticipate, and probably should have, the rise of political Parties and the animus they would have each one toward the other.

And, most of all, what they did not, could not have done, was to anticipate the world in which we now all live.

Now we have a (former) President who has been Impeached, perhaps politically motivated, largely by one Party. He is obediently defended by the other Party, perhaps to preserve their own power and/or lives.

Now comes some questions which this writer would pose to said Founding Fathers, to wit:

1. Was a high crime committed? Lacking ability to join the millions who watched the proceedings of January 6^th, it is reasonable to assume all forty-one would agree that, yes, some crimes in violation of duly enacted laws were committed.

2. Were such crimes enabled, encouraged, and incited by an elected person (say, Barrack Obama) with the apparent authority to give appropriate permission, instruction, and direction? And, most important, were those actions and words themselves an attempted putsch? Legal opinions seem to vary on this subject, too often those opinions can be related to Party affiliation as reference above.

3. Can victims be the ‘grand jury’? Still stinging from their trauma, with about a week to recover, can any indictment (Impeachment) be valid if forced through primarily by victims?

4. Can witnesses be the jury? Every Senator asked to render a fair and impartial verdict has seen every aspect of events of said day either live or in re-runs.

5. Should accountability be imposed if semi-popular official is leaving anyhow? Under the general rule of law no consideration is granted for affection, personal circumstances, or past record. Driving 40 years without a ticket does not allow driving 100mph in school zone, even if my license will soon expire and I promise not to renew it.

6. Will it all come down to what is politically expedient? With apologies to Founding Fathers, Duh!

7. Will any verdict be accepted? Under common law as practiced in this country every accused is entitled to an objective hearing before a jury of their peers who, voting by secret ballot, render a just verdict. What now publicly transpires will be neither objective nor rendered by secret ballot. And, with all the publicity, where would we find that mythical impartial jury? Whatever the outcome of what our Founding Fathers set in motion in a long lost world, the coming events in the world we now all live will not unite us.

Dear Founding Fathers, is this really what you had in mind?

Just asking for some future generation, because there is always more to the story.