EXPANSION OF COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE ON CBC NEWS
"'Democracy-defining moment': House representatives debate Trump impeachment"
Well, maybe.
I think it more likely the impeachment effort will reveal how deeply divided the United States is.
The White House refuses to cooperate.
Leadership in the Senate - where such trials occur - has talked about calling no witnesses and shutting down the whole thing quickly, leaving Trump exonerated.
Where does that take anyone that is worth going?
America is a deeply troubled country. Divided, seriously so.
You might not recognize that from the way it tyrannizes over so much of the world with its unceasing imperial demands, but real differences on empire and the military are simply not part of America’s political division.
Likely, Trump will prevail in the Senate. Despite a few dissenting Republicans, there is little evidence of a serious undercurrent against him. Conviction requires a two-thirds vote in a Republican-dominated body.
Yes, Trump’s behavior vis-à-vis Ukraine, trying to use it to influence American domestic politics, has been inappropriate, but it is only inappropriate in a country where people adhere to civility and the rule of law.
And that country is certainly not the United States. Running an empire, and an increasingly harsh one in response to growing awareness of its own relative decline in the world, is the polar opposite to civility and respect for rule of law, but running an empire is the business that America’s establishment is in full-time. All of its establishment, which includes the major figures of both parties, the wealthy interests they all faithfully represent, and powerful, almost unaccountable agencies like CIA assisting their efforts.
A situation arose in Ukraine only because the United States fomented and paid for a coup against an elected government there in 2014. All of the controversy which swirls around Joe Biden arises from the fact of his having served as Obama’s proconsul to demand certain directions for the new government.
Trump’s phone call was wrong, but in the context of all the dirt that the United States has been mired in with Ukraine, it does seem almost small.
