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The outsider President

The impeachment trial of Donald J Trump was a showcase of a pretentious and dysfunctional American political system.

If one would have asked the average American citizen 10 years ago what the chances would have been of electing Donald Trump as the president of the USA, it would have been in the low single digits, most probably close to zero. There were good reasons for this. For one, his character is flawed. A few of his companies have declared bankruptcies, causing pain and suffering to all those who worked there. Lenders had to take losses but somehow, he emerged with a majority stake. Within the financial system he was treated with suspect, and most lenders would not give him new lines of credit. His Tax returns are never released, and it is speculated that he used obscure laws to avoid paying any Tax. He was recorded bragging about groping females, a crime in itself, which he just dismissed as “locker-room talk”. He spreads rumors and falsehoods, makes up facts with no evidence at all.

Yet, in 2016 he won the elections against Hillary Clinton, a hard-working seasoned politician who had a track record of working across the party lines to make progress. But the voters were yearning for an “outsider”, someone who is not seen as being part of the Washington elite. And so, they voted for Donald Trump.

During his tenure as president, Donald Trump did and said many things that were not statesman’s like. He ridicules the press, especially those who are critical of him. He mocks opponents and lampoons public servants who put up any resistance to his impulsive policies. Hi antics remind of cheap reality TV shows, not the president of the USA. While they were obnoxious, they were not law breaking.  But then he crossed the line. The president asked his counterpart in the Ukraine to start an investigation on his most likely opponent in the upcoming elections, hoping to dig up some dirt on Joe Biden. Mr. Trump coerced them into doing it, by withholding military aid to the Ukraine, even though they are an ally at war. Using the president’s office powers to coerce a foreign government to essentially interfere in local elections to gain personal favor is against the law. When this was leaked to the press, the presidency did their best to cover everything up. Nevertheless, the House of Representatives decided to investigate. In the process of gathering evidence, the White House refused to provide any documentation that could be used as evidence and reprimanded officials from testifying. But there was enough circumstantial evidence for the House of Representatives to impeach the president.

As such a trail was set in the upper house, the Senate. The Senate is essentially the third leg of the American democracy, a counterbalance to the abuse of power in the White House, because they have the power to impeach a president who has gone rouge. Each Senator swears an oath to uphold the Constitution, and to govern in the spirit of the founding fathers. They are meant to be independently minded, to rise above the party lines and to ensure that the US citizens needs and desires are addressed fairly by the US government, and that their individual liberties are not adversely impacted. As such it was, even if predictable, astonishing to see that only 1 of the 100 senators decided to vote with his own consciousness, proving at least partial independence. Mitt Romney of the Republicans was later chastised by Donald Trump and vilified by the right-leaning media. Yet he did exactly what was asked of him, apply his independent mind to the question at hand.

Clearly, there might  be numerous Democrats who would have truly believed that the president should be impeached on both counts, just as well as there might have been numerous Republicans how did not think so. But that there is no other Senator willing to cross the party line to show their independence indications that it was more important for the senators to vote with their party, than it is to display their independent mind. It thus questions the need to have a Senate in the first place.

But this would have not come as a surprise to those of us who followed the whole proceedings. From the outset, without hearing any argument or evidence, the majority leader of the House, Mitch McConnell said that he would support the president and work closely with the White House. That is like a judge saying that they would work closely with the burglar who was accused of breaking in and stealing to ensure his innocence. The Republicans then proceeded to not call any witnesses who might have shed more light, and who were barred by the White House to testify in the lower house. Clearly this was not the making of a fair trial, but a rushed through procedure where the outcome was never in question.

It seems that the voters who wanted to vote for an outsider, someone not associated with the Washington elite, someone who would clear up the system of cronyism have voted for one that is a master at the above, Donald Trump.