On the subject of impeachment, I'll just copy/paste what I just e-mailed my rep about this:
"Hello, my name is ShironRedshift, and I am a constituent. I am hereby calling for Rep. Levin to begin impeachment hearings for President Donald Trump as soon as possible. Through the Mueller report and various other news reports and factors, it is clear at this point that the President is incredibly likely to have committed any number of crimes, including multiple while holding the office of President of the United States. In such a situation, it is the constitutional duty of the House of Representatives to begin the process of impeachment as soon as possible. The Constitution is unambiguous at this point. It is Congress's job to begin these proceedings when these type of circumstances arrive and I believe it's now more than clear that we have arrived at .
For Congress to not act in this kind of situation, for the House to instead look for some kind of loophole out of their moral, legal, and Constitutional duties, would be as great of tragedy as when Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell did precisely that several years back when he himself used weasel words and loopholes to get out of his own Constitutional duty to have the Senate hold confirmation sittings for then-President Obama's nomination for the replacement of Justice Scalia to the Supreme Court, Judge Merrick Garland.
It was tragic and shameful the way the Majority Leader weaseled out of his constitutional duties to deny President Obama his Constitutional right to fill vacancies to the Supreme Court of the United States, and it would be no less tragic or shameful for the House of Representatives to avoid their own constitutional duty at this juncture to bring a President who has almost certainly committed any number of crimes to justice as best as their able, and do that much more damage to the integrity of the Constitution in the process.
What the Constitution outlines is clear, and the Constitution does not care one iota about such things as politics or chance of success or failure, as indeed such things are entirely beside the point of what's right and what's wrong, what's needed and what isn't, what's justice and what is not, as it should be.
Imagine what the world would like if we did otherwise in the justice system at large. Imagine a grand jury not considering the facts of the matter, the facts of the case, but instead judging whether a case would move forward to a full jury simply based on the chance of a successful guilty verdict, regardless of any other facts of the matter. Like, for instance, imagine a case of police violence, where the officer is almost certainly at fault of using unnecessary and excessive force which results in an innocent life being taken for no good reason at all, in easily avoidable circumstances for the officer, as unfortunately happens on too many different instances. Now imagine that because the individual in this hypothetical is a black youth in a town that is 98% white with excellent relationships with their local police force and because of these factors the full jury if assigned would likely be quite similar and thus, purely statistically speaking, the officer would be incredibly likely to be found not guilty based on those type of factors, the grand jury decides to not move forward purely on those type of factors and statistics rather than the actual facts of the case and whether a crime was committed or not.
Would that be justice? Should that be how our courts and legal system, already with more than their fair share of problems and issues that need addressing, function? Prioritizing probabilities of success over the pure, raw facts of the case? Most certainly not, and nothing valuable would be gained by doing so. No matter how low the chance of success, to not even try at all, to not even begin to fight and give up before the word "go" is ever uttered would be to pile on injustice on top of injustice and just make the situation that much worse. Instead, that's reason to redouble our efforts, to try even harder and not give up until the very end, not let injustices pile on top of one another and let issues of injustice compound by being too reluctant to even fight.
The House of Representatives, in matters of impeachment, should be no different. What should matter is not such things as chance of success, or politics, or anything of the sort. Instead, it should be a simple matter of does the House of Representatives have cause to believe that an elected official has violated their oath of office by violating an article of the law. If that cause is there, if the House has reason to believe such a thing, then impeachment should logically follow, as that's the correct course of action on every front, whether legal, constitutional, or moral. Such things as chance of success or political implications or anything of the sort matter not. All that matters is whether there's cause to believe a law has been broken by an elected official or not, and in the case of President Donald Trump, there's more than sufficient reason to believe such a thing has occurred.
To not act in this situation would do the same kind of damage to Constitution and traditional norms as when Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to even so much as hold confirmation hearings for President Obama's pick of Merrick Garland for the Supreme Court, and that damage to the Constitution and norms of our country is no more right or justifiable just because in this case the people ignoring it would be the Democratic Party, one I strongly identify with, versus the Republican party, one which I obviously do not. Right is right and wrong is wrong regardless of party and in this case, both what's right and wrong and what the Constitution requires are very clear.
Therefore, I call for Rep. Levin to call for the impeachment of President Donald Trump as soon as possible, as given all the facts of the matter, that appears to be the only possible course of action at this point that makes any sense.
Thank you.
"
