Who's the Real Conservative?
One of the many excuses cited by Republicans to explain their refusal to impeach Donald Trump is that “We should let the voters decide!”
This particular argument does not attempt to persuade you that Donald Trump is undeserving of impeachment—but, rather, to suggest that the entire concept of impeaching a president is undemocratic, radical, and revolutionary—and that removing a president is just too high a penalty.
This sudden fetishizing of “the will of the people” is an interesting, if ironic, turn of events for a party that just elected a president who also lost the popular vote.
It’s also an interesting stance for a party who (rightly, in my estimation) supported impeaching Bill Clinton, just twenty years ago.
Personally, I’m in favor of the Electoral College that elected Trump, just as I am in favor of the impeachment powers that should remove him from office.
The notion that these institutions (specifically included in the Constitution by our Founders) are un-American strikes me as absurd. However, if the “Let the voters decide!” ethos has won the day (and it has), then we should probably remove this undemocratic scourge from the Constitution.
I mean, if using government money to coerce a foreign power to investigate your domestic political rival doesn’t rise to the level of impeachment, then why clutter up this otherwise perfect document with extraneous verbiage?
The most infuriating part of this hasn’t been watching erstwhile conservatives suddenly embrace a populist, majoritarian view to justify their support for a morally compromised president, but watching them frame it as appropriate and consistent.
By reverse engineering their philosophy to comport with loyalty to the president, today’s Republicans are channeling three-time Democratic presidential nominee William Jennings Bryan, who famously declared: “The people of Nebraska are for free silver. Therefore, I am for free silver. I'll look up the reasons later.”
(The modern version being: “The people of Nebraska are for Trump, and therefore, I am for Trump.”
Not exactly a profile in courage, if you ask me.
This stands in stark contrast to Edmund Burke, who famously told his constituents: "Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion."
Who’s the real conservative?
In case you missed it on Matt Lewis and the News podcast ...
Jim Swift on Michelle Malkin's Firing The Bulwark's Jim Swift talks with Matt about Young America's Foundation's decision to cut ties with Michelle Malkin... > Click here to listen to the episode
Susan Glasser on Understanding Impeachment Susan B. Glasser is a staff writer at The New Yorker and a CNN global affairs analyst. During this conversation, she and Matt discuss what we learned from the House impeachment hearings–and whether any of it matters. They also discuss why the witnesses were more heroic and inspiring than the politicians... > Click here to listen to our conversation.
Read my most recent Daily Beast columns...
We Just Got the 'John Dean Moment' of Trump's Impeachment
> Click here to read the column
Do You Want Your Kids to Grow Up to Be Like Alexander Vindman or Donald Trump?
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