As the House debates whether to impeach President Trump, which it will almost certainly do later today, one common line of defense both Democrats and Republicans have tossed around is that support for or opposition to impeachment has nothing to do with party loyalty.
“Please don’t imply I’m doing this just for my party,” said Rep. Tom Cole, an Oklahoma Republican, after one of his Democratic colleagues accused the GOP of putting politics above principle. “I’m doing this for what I believe is right, not for my political party.”
Democratic Rep. Jim McGovern, chairman of the House Rules Committee, said something similar: “I didn’t swear an oath to my political party. I took an oath to uphold the Constitution,” he declared.
McGovern might seriously believe the rule of law has been trampled, and Cole might be convinced that constitutional governance is at stake. But let’s not pretend impeachment isn’t political. This has been about party loyalty from the get-go, and no wonder: This particular conflict is innately partisan. The Democratic House is attempting to remove from office the Republican president, and as such, the battle lines correspond with the party lines.
Republicans will vote against impeachment because that is what the rest of the party will do, and Democrats, except for a few, will vote for it because that is what the rest of their party will do.
Any claim to the contrary is either naïve or disingenuous.
