Yesterday’s acquittal of Donald J Trump showed both why Nancy Pelosi didn’t want to do it, and why regular Democrats did. All along, Speaker Pelosi knew it would end this way and that the whole episode could feel like a fool’s errand and a waste of time. Yet Mitt Romney’s surprising choice to vote in favor of conviction and removal on the charges of abuse of power yesterday shows why it needed to be done. Don’t worry, Mitt’s moment in the sun will be brief, although his time in the sunlight of the spirit may be longer, no one cares about that but Mitt and his God. What I mean is that truth matters. Constitutional oaths matter. Doing what we know is right regardless of what it gets us or the results it brings matters.
If you don’t see why it matters, I recommend Stephen Colbert’s opening monologue from last night. Its long so I started it right at the relevant part below:
Yet, at the end of the day. The impeachment is over. It’s time to move on.
I tend to agree. Over and over again in the impeachment trial, Republicans have claimed that the 2020 election (comfortably complicit with the president’s attempts to manipulate it in his favor) was the place to decide the president’s fate. So let’s be about the business of doing that.
‘We also have to have our own idea and vision. We can’t win the next election just being against Trump,’ said Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.). ‘We have to be for something,'” reports The Daily 202 in The Washington Post today.
What is now clear by low turnout in the Iowa caucuses is that many Democrats in this country are so concerned about getting rid of this incumbent that they are terrified to pick the nominee for fear of making the wrong choice. I am realizing now that I have wildly underestimated the fear and doubt that has taken hold in the electorate. I have NO doubt that turnout will be at historic highs in November, because then everyone will know who they have to vote for. But in the meantime, people are scared to act.
We know by now that Sen. Bernie Sanders won the popular vote in Iowa (if not the weird delegate thing). And we know what he is for. We know he is for affordable health care, college and day care for everyone in this country. We know he is for an increase to at least $15 an hour in the minimum wage. We know he is for bold climate action through a green economy. We know he has consistently voted to keep us out of endless wars.
Every single one of these policies will boost our economy dramatically and put thousands of dollars a year back in the pockets of working people. They are all easily affordable in the richest country in the world if the wealthy pay their share.
The president Bernie Sanders most resembles in program is Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a president so popular he inspired the institution of term limits after he got elected four times.
Please don’t let Wall Street and its many tentacles in the mainstream media fool you. Every single nationwide and key battleground states polls has had Bernie beating Trump either ahead of Joe Biden or slightly behind him. And now Joe Biden’s path to the nomination has all but disappeared. Buttigieg has been at the bottom of the pack in viability in every single one of these polls.
If your top concern is how to beat Donald Trump, you have your answer: Bernie Sanders.