When Congress returns to Washington, the impeachment saga will resume. With House Speaker Nancy Pelosi still holding the articles of impeachment, it’s anyone’s guess as to when the Democratic Party’s pursuit of President Trump will conclude. Pelosi’s decision to stop the process from continuing until such time as she herself deems appropriate is due to her desire for a “fair trial” in the Senate.
But this demand is impossible to ensure. Despite claims to the contrary, impeachment is just as partisan as any standard political maneuver.
At some point, the Senate will hold the long-awaited trial. When the time comes, a Republican-controlled majority will most likely acquit the president. It is reported that the GOP even expects bipartisan support for the president by way of possibly adding a few Democrats in the final vote tally. Although even if a small number of their colleagues cross the aisle, it can hardly be labeled a truly bipartisan action. Still, any defections are sure to upset the larger Democratic Party as a whole.
Pelosi requests “fairness” from Senate Republicans as if every action taken by House Democrats to this point has been without prejudice. But glaring partisanship is deeply rooted in the side she leads, and it is expressly apparent with impeachment.
Even before Trump was inaugurated, some in the opposition actively campaigned for his removal. Calling for impeachment in the desperate hope that high crimes and misdemeanors are found in past actions or would occur in the very near future effectively voids any current talk of impartiality. The cheap, somber nature of the Democratic reaction to passing articles of impeachment is in sharp contrast to this earlier thirst.
The eleventh-hour stall is meant to present Democrats as equitable national leaders in a time of political disarray. But only those with a short-term memory see them this way.
Viewing politics through a binary lens allows for the mistaken assumption that at all times, only one party is right. Democrats believe an investigation and a successful vote supporting articles against the president give their pursuit all the validation it needs. But in many ways, impeachment is like the Mueller inquiry: The president (and his subordinates) may have acted wrongly, but whether those behaviors are enough to qualify as criminal conduct is another matter entirely.
Sen. Ted Cruz said as much during a Sunday appearance on Fox News.
The process of impeachment is of a serious enough nature that both Democrats and Republicans should approach it with the least amount of party loyalty possible. In the current scenario, it requires that Democrats, eternally enraged at the thought of Trump as president, consider that his actions, while inappropriate, do not rise to the level needed to meet the definition of “impeachable.” Conversely, Republicans must admit that the president often behaves in haphazard and downright questionable ways and that inquiries into his actions may be justified. Unfortunately, this honesty is prevalent in neither party.
Pelosi’s command rings hollow since every member of Congress is partisan. In addition, it lacks sincere power as it comes from those whose mission for the whole of his presidency has been to remove Trump at any cost.
In the end, partisanship will reign supreme. This political reality demands that facts be studied and personal opinions about the man in the Oval Office, positive or negative, be set aside. As it stands now, those facts, while showing Trump to be incredibly reckless and perhaps deserving of censure in his dealings with foreign officials, do not rise to the level of impeachment.
Kimberly Ross (@SouthernKeeks) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog and a columnist at Arc Digital.
