If all goes according to announced plans, public hearings on the impeachment of President Donald J. Trump will begin today. The hearings will be televised and I encourage you to watch as much as you can live. Do not depend on commentary from the Chattering Class.
The Washington Post dutifully reminds us this is “just the third time in U.S. history that an impeachment inquiry will be televised.” This isn’t news to Andrew Johnson who was impeached in 1868, before Milton Berle invented television. The last three impeachment proceedings have come at roughly 20 year intervals following the first 150-plus years with only one. Seems like the quality of presidential stock is declining.
Here are a few thoughts on what presumes to be the next few weeks’ news.
1. Impeachment is an inherently political activity. When you hear someone say about impeachment, “Oh, it just politics,” they have not said anything of substance. It is rather like saying elections are political. The political nature explains the typical along-party-lines slant of the questions: anti-tank missiles from the opposing party and cotton candy from the party in the spotlight. If you can ignore the tenor of the inquisitors and focus on the substance of the answers you will be closer to the truth than those whose living is made by riling up the masses.
2. Impeachment is constitutional. It does not matter which party controls the House or the party of the one under investigation, impeachment is a provision of the Constitution. It is the means to remove leaders who are so unfit or unqualified for office the country cannot wait for an election to replace them.
3. Impeachment is not a coup. A coup d’é·tat [French] is “a sudden and decisive action in politics, especially one resulting in a change of government illegally or by force.” Impeachment is not illegal and the only force in play is the force of law. Impeachment is the precise opposite of a coup. If a president is impeached by the House and convicted by the Senate, he or she should leave office without drama or spectacle if deference to the Constitution they have sworn to uphold.
4. Impeachment does not undo the will of the people. A presidential election expresses the result of an electoral college vote at a given moment. Every representative who participates in an impeachment proceeding (or senator a trial) is also elected by vote (excepting that rare cases of appointments to fill unexpired terms). Impeachment hearings fulfill, at least potentially, the constitutional authority to impeach. There is no doubt that every impeachment proceeding is against the will of some people.
5. Impeachment proceedings are not a criminal trial. A president or other official can be impeached without be criminally charged. This separates it from the political nature of the proceedings. Any criminal acts uncovered in the course of the proceedings would have to be investigated by the agency with jurisdiction. Since impeachment proceedings are not criminal trials there is no right to face accusers.
6. No president is guaranteed the office. Being president of the United States is not a birthright. If a President is impeached by constitutional process, too bad. He or she should have done a better job. Part of the president’s job is to lead his or her party. And if he or she loses their party’s congressional majority giving the other party a political edge opening the impeachment door? Too bad. He or she should have done a better job.
7. Neither impeachment hearings nor a potential impeachment catch God off guard. If you believe God “changes the times and seasons…removes kings and establishes kings” (Daniel 2:21), then you should believe the same God who sets up a David or a Cyrus also takes down a Belshazzar and a Herod.
Impeachment or no impeachment God reigns. The next verses in Daniel 2 read, “All the inhabitants of the earth are counted as nothing, and he does whatever he wants with the armies of heaven and the inhabitants of the earth. There is no one who can block his hand or say to him, ‘What have you done?'” The results of impeachment proceedings are among the least of our concerns. Trusting God regardless, however, is among our greatest.
Here’s to my interview with presidential historian Jeffrey A. Engel on the history of impeachment.
