NOT ENTIRELY WITHOUT PAIN OR STRAIN

Since last summer the question and issue of Trump’s alleged misconduct with Ukraine has been consistently in the news.

For quite a long time, Speaker Pelosi resisted initiating an Impeachment proceeding largely because she clearly understood that it would be controversial and almost impossible to complete because of the 2/3rds vote threshold required in the Senate.

When the whistleblower report became public, she changed course, with some reluctance by some of her own party, because she apparently came to believe that the conduct rose to the level of an impeachable offense and that impeachment was needed to safeguard the 2020 election and ensure that the American people had all the facts related to Trump’s misconduct before the 2020 Presidential election.

What followed was what we have been watching now for almost three months.

Unfortunately, events unfolded like a long, boring movie whose ending you knew before it began.  We started this process certain we wouldn’t “win”. Along the way, the existing evidence, new evidence and a brilliant argument by Adam Schiff briefly offered the prospect that we might, in fact, turn the tide. As a result, we let our hopes get carried away with an old-fashioned sense of Senators’ dedication to democratic principles over their self-interest, one that simply doesn’t reflect the body as it’s currently constructed.

Today, as the process appears to be ending with an acquittal by the Senate, Pelosi’s decision to go ahead appears to have been wise and smart.

Very few of us would disagree that the BEST judges of this controversial matter are the American people whose judgement will be forthcoming in November.

The difference, however, is that now the electorate in November will be very well informed about the subject. Without the impeachment process much of the devastating-to-Trump evidence might have gone unnoticed during the 2020 election.

That is why I believe the mission was accomplished. And, the current relevant polls quite clearly already indicate that the public has been getting the message.

Lamar Alexander, a retiring Republican Senator, appears to have been the straw that broke the back of the demand by Democrats to hear Bolton. He made it clear that, while he deplored Trump’s conduct, he wondered how impeachable conduct could be determined IF there was the possibility of mixed motives. That is an interesting intellectual question. I come down on the side that if there is any clear indication of a corrupt motive, it must be impeachable. But, I understand the question and debate.

So, I think those of us who favor impeaching Trump now must be patient AND also start planning in detail now how to present the material and evidence that is now visible and in the public record –which would not have been available if Pelosi had not unleashed the whole process—for consideration by the voting public in the 2020 election.

The pain and strain have been real because the case against Trump has been so clear and strong.

However, what matters most now is that whole story is clearly available for the 2020 election.

The Bolton disclosures on Ukraine as outlined in his book is already largely out and known by the public and surely will become more so.

For more than 200 years, history has proven the ultimate wisdom of America’s voters.

In 2020, that must be our saving grace.