Andrew Sullivan: This Is No Ordinary Impeachment
http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/11/andrew-sullivan-this-is-no-ordinary-impeachment.html?fbclid=IwAR31kc870ZBhTMAwzegY7JUFpWOwRcILR2porhDerkETXtjzzOPhqKnjusENov. 8, 2019
This Is No Ordinary Impeachment
By Andrew Sullivan
Photo: Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images
This is not just an impeachment. It’s the endgame for Trump’s relentless assault on the institutions, norms, and practices of America’s liberal democracy for the past three years. It’s also a deeper reckoning. It’s about whether the legitimacy of our entire system can last much longer without this man being removed from office.
snip//
Trump has fast-forwarded “regime cleavage.” He is appealing to the people to render him immune from constitutional constraints imposed by the representatives of the people. He has opened up not a divide between right and left so much as a divide over whether the American system of government is legitimate or illegitimate. And that is why I don’t want to defeat Trump in an election, because that would suggest that his assault on the truth, on the Constitution, and on the rule of law is just a set of policy decisions that we can, in time, reject. It creates a precedent for future presidents to assault the legitimacy of the American government, constrained only by their ability to win the next election. In fact, the only proper constitutional response to this abuse of executive power is impeachment. I know I’ve said this before. But on the eve of public hearings, it is vital to remember it.
None of this presidential behavior is tolerable. If the Senate exonerates Trump, it will not just enable the most lawless president in our history to even greater abuses. It will deepen the regime cleavage even further. It will cast into doubt the fairness of the upcoming election. It will foment the conspiracy theory that our current laws and institutions are manifestations of a “deep state” engineering a “coup.” It will prove that a president can indeed abuse his power for his personal advantage without consequence; and it will set a precedent that fundamentally changes the American system from a liberal democracy to a form of elected monarchy, above the other two branches of government.
I wish there were another way forward. But there isn’t. And this, though a moment of great danger, also contains the glimmers of renewal. Removing this petty, shabby tyrant from office goes a long way to restoring and resetting the Constitution as a limit on power and a guarantee against its wanton future abuse. It must be done. With speed, with vigor, and with determination.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Sorry if you've got some good Republican people in your city or state, but the entire local-state-national structure of government must be rid of as many Republicans as possible to weaken their grip on the levers of power and minimize their self-righteous sense of entitlement. And remember: you don't vote against Republicans by not voting; you vote against Republicans by voting FOR Democrats.
Vote straight Dem tickets. Vote local, state, and federal. Vote every time.
========
Anyone who still supports the Republican Party supports the disenfranchisement of millions of their fellow citizens just because we disagree with them. They are okay with stealing our votes, our voice, because we disagree with them. That's not good people in my book. I'm still polite to republicans I know, but I don't seek out their company & I look at them differently now. 
They're so righteous and indignant at what he did to their party. Of course, their party was shitty for my entire life but still, in a way, I will miss them when things go back to normal...
