Members of House of Representatives vote
on two articles of impeachment (H. Res. 755) (from here)
In THE STATE OF OUR NATION’S SOCIAL FABRIC IN 2019 — PART 1, we examined the meaning of an expression, the “social fabric”. Now we will consider the events of 2019 and evaluate whether they either helped to heal or further frayed our nation’s social fabric.
The Impeachment of President Donald Trump
What is the impeachment of President Donald all about? It means that a substantial percentage of the American people still refuse to accept Trump as our president. Because of the fear and animosity we have for each other, we see articles like this one, Commentary: Americans are at each other’s throats. Here’s one way out. (chicagotribune.com). The author of this article essentially discusses the same problem that Shapiro addressed in Part 1 of this series, but the author of The Chicago Tribune article wants us to believe he has the solution. What is his recommendation? We are suppose to tell each other not to hate.
How will telling “other people” not to hate work? What purpose does telling someone not to hate serve? Who is going to believe it is wrong to hate unless they already believe it is wrong to hate other people? What good does telling someone who already knows it is wrong to hate other people do?
Think about how that article starts.
For a brief moment this month, we started to hear the proper words to describe what is happening in U.S. politics. Not the usual, safe and tired words like “polarization” or “incivility.” But more accurate words.
At a news conference ahead of the impeachment proceedings, a reporter for a conservative outlet asked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., whether she “hates” President Donald Trump. She rebuked the reporter, denying that she hates anyone. Like many questions lobbed at politicians as they walk away, that one was a trap. But it made me wonder what would have happened if the same question had been asked in a different way, not with malicious intent but with genuine curiosity. (continued here)
Did the reporter who asked Pelosi if she hates Trump ask her a legitimate question? Judge for yourself (see Pelosi Snaps At Reporter Who Asked If She “Hates The President” (realclearpolitics.com)). How was Pelosi “trapped”? Instead of simply saying “no”; Pelosi said “no”, castigated the reporter, and then enumerated her grievances with Trump. Did she deny she hates Trump or try to justify it?
What was the reporter who asked Pelosi if she hates Trump offense? He was politically incorrect. The news media famously favors Democrats. Therefore, most of the news media insist that it is politically incorrect to ask a Democrat if they hate anyone. Because of their bias, most of the news media would have us believe only Republicans hate anyone. So, we have to ask. Is the point of the article is to remind Democrats to tell Republicans that THEY are not suppose to hate?
Given Pelosi’s response, it is probably pointless to tell “other people” not to hate. It justs makes them angry.
So, how should we react to the impeachment of Donald Trump? We should be angry because Congress is not dealing with substantive issues. We should be angry because our news media won’t properly inform us. Instead, partisan politicians and a partisan news media is too busy trying to destroy our president.
Neglected Issues
Consider some of the issues we should have been thinking about in 2019.
- Spending by Congress. Under the coverage of the impeachment controversy, with virtually no public discussion, Congress passed a huge spending bill in December.
- Immigration policy. We have millions of people (perhaps tens of millions) in our country illegally. Instead of calmly discussing what to do about the matter, we feud. Even though it is illegal, we have politicians encouraging illegal immigrants to vote. To get some control over our southern border, Trump had to go to a foreign power, Mexico, instead of Congress, for help.
- Crime. Government’s primary task is to maintain justice. Instead of maintaining the rule of law and keeping dangerous narcotics out of our country, our leaders and the news media feed us impeachment stories, hate crime hoaxes, and gun control paranoia.
- Foreign policy, including trade policy. The United States is the world’s number one superpower. What our government does with respect to other nations should reflect the desires of the American people. Instead, we have corrupt politicians selling us out. Their crimes need to be investigated, not Trump’s sometimes stupid tweets.
- Constitutional Government. We have massive disagreements over freedom of religion, the power of government to protect us from inappropriate discrimination, and how to run our schools. Unfortunately, instead of calmly discussing the issues, our politicians and the news media are trying to destroy their opponents. Imagine when the time comes for Trump to appoint the next judge to the Supreme Court. The hullabaloo in 2018 will probably pale in comparison.
To be continued.
Prince William-Manassas Family Alliance 
Tom,
Great post for wise rational knowledge people to discern instead of being conditioned or blinded by anger by biased, false, deceitful intriguers, who fear losing power of personal treasure, prestige, vanity, and everything that will be useless when they pass on to a final judgement same as every mortal will in time..
In other words, their “foolish chase after the wind” as King Solomon observed 3000 years ago
Regards and goodwill blogging.
Hi Tom,
I don’t come to your site very often, even though I really like it and agree with your views… Upon coming here today, clicking on your link in “My Favorites” in Internet Explorer, I was able to see your header, but the rest of the page was blank, no matter how many times I clicked on the “Home” link in the header… Upon trying the rest of your links in the header, they all worked… I finally reached your home page by scrolling down one of the pages with a side bar and clicking on the most recent posts… That worked fine… But, I wonder how many people do not keep searching… I feel this needs to be checked out…
We need to preserve the values of our Constitution… Thank you for your work…
Margaret
@Margaret
I don’t know what kind of problem you encountered. I write this blog using Google Chrome and check it out using Microsoft’s browser. Everything seems to work.
I appreciate you taking the time to comment about the problem. Try again, and let me know if it is still happening.
Note that your comment went into moderation. To limit the amount of spam, the first time someone comments here, their comment goes to moderation. Your subsequent comments should be immediately visible.
Hi Tom,
Thank you for your reply…
It seems like a Microsoft problem… I recently started using Edge quite a bit of the time, instead of Internet Explorer… All my Favorites in IE were supposed to have copied to Edge, but yours did not… So, I entered it and it works fine in Edge… But, in IE it does not work like it used to… In IE it has that blank home page problem…
They say Microsoft is trying to discourage the use of IE, so that might be the problem… Thank you for checking things on your end…
Have a great day… (I have closed my comments because of time constraints, but I used to moderate, also… It seems to be a necessity.)
@Margaret
Thanks. I suspect Microsoft is just not spending upgrading IE, and some of the S/W changes in the new browsers are not backward compatible.
Hope you have a Happy New Year!
I am not anti-American Tom but for the largest developed Christian nation on the planet the political mess is expected by I would say the majority of people in all the other developed countries. Sure we also get heated in our political arguments but it always seems to go that one step further in North America. Hate and bigotry has often been a feature but much more so since Trump has been your president. You can blame political ideals, individuals, extremists, the press, supporters and lobbyists but because so much of it has become venomous and hateful from all sides it is seen as a circus.
Politics and religion have in many cases become so intertwined it often becomes a “do or die” concept for some individuals rather than approaching them simply a political belief for the economic and social benefit of the country or simply having a personal religious faith.
The first utterances of anybody in public life are often categorised into a left or right wing camp, communist, liberal, fascist, democrat, conservative, republican or some other political interference not to mention if they are a Catholic, Mormon, Jew, Protestant, Muslim or of atheist status etc. No wonder your country is in political turmoil.
@sklyjd
There is something to what you say. America has never been a homogeneous people. We have always formed into many factions, and we live in a time when major factions distrust the other factions to respect their rights. That’s because we fear the power of our central government. Any serious student of history can figure out that the America’s Federal Government exceeded the powers given it by the Constitution over a century ago, and our leaders have become more and more willing to abuse that power. Therefore, who controls the Federal Government has become a huge prize.
On the other hand, I think you are missing something important. The politics of a constitutional republic has little to do with maintaining decorum. At its best politics is a food fight. At its worse it dissolves into name calling and no holds barred electoral contests. The politics of a constitutional republic is just one way for us to resolve our differences without killing each other. The system fails when one or both sides is unwilling to adhere to the spirit of the law. That happens when one or both sides no longer trusts the other to respect its rights. That usually means one or both sides wants more power than the law allows.
Because we have elected leaders who refuse to abide by it, America’s Constitution is in serious danger. Human beings are inherently prideful and sinful. Sometimes we have to learn the hard way the price of dishonorable conduct. In the 1860’s, Americans divided over slavery. Those Americans paid the price of civil war. I suppose that generation had more respect for decorum than this one, but they killed each other by the hundreds of thousands. Hopefully — with God’s help — we will be able to settle our differences with less violence and with a greater respect for truth and justice.
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