A Swiss friend of mine, Martin, has asked for my thoughts on the current impeachment of President Trump and the details surrounding it. Since these thoughts are far too long for a reasonable Facebook post, I’m sticking them up here. Enjoy! 😊
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Hi Martin. Since you asked for my thoughts, I will share. Unfortunately, this post will be a fairly long one, since as with most things in life, neither this situation nor my thoughts regarding it are anything approaching black-and-white.
First of all, my thoughts on President Trump: I do not like the man. I didn’t vote for him in 2016, and I don’t plan to vote for him in 2020. I think he’s a jerk, and he definitely comes off as immature. In short, he is not the kind of person I want serving as President of the United States of America. (This could also be said for most of those who have run, in the past couple of decades. I really liked Mitt Romney in 2012, but I’ve even become disillusioned with him.)
That being said, I do agree with much of what he has done politically, certainly much more than I did with the actions of his predecessor. This is not to say that I disagree with everything that President Obama did, but as a social moderate and fiscal conservative, my positions frequently align more with Trump’s than Obama’s. Regardless, I fully recognize that the President is primarily a figurehead, and this does not change based on who is in office. But the current figurehead really has presided over a lot of great stuff, much of it to little fanfare. I believe this is due to the overarching liberal bias of mass media, mostly due to intolerant ultraliberals shouting down anyone who disagrees with them. (To be fair, ultraconservative media is just as bad.)
Hi Martin. Since you asked for my thoughts, I will share. Unfortunately, this post will be a fairly long one, since as with most things in life, neither this situation nor my thoughts regarding it are anything approaching black-and-white.
First of all, my thoughts on President Trump: I do not like the man. I didn’t vote for him in 2016, and I don’t plan to vote for him in 2020. I think he’s a jerk, and he definitely comes off as immature. In short, he is not the kind of person I want serving as President of the United States of America. (This could also be said for most of those who have run, in the past couple of decades. I really liked Mitt Romney in 2012, but I’ve even become disillusioned with him.)
That being said, I do agree with much of what he has done politically, certainly much more than I did with the actions of his predecessor. This is not to say that I disagree with everything that President Obama did, but as a social moderate and fiscal conservative, my positions frequently align more with Trump’s than Obama’s. Regardless, I fully recognize that the President is primarily a figurehead, and this does not change based on who is in office. But the current figurehead really has presided over a lot of great stuff, much of it to little fanfare. I believe this is due to the overarching liberal bias of mass media, mostly due to intolerant ultraliberals shouting down anyone who disagrees with them. (To be fair, ultraconservative media is just as bad.)
Now… as for the Biden/Shokin situation, there are two sides to every story, and Shokin’s side is extremely different than the narrative being pushed by the Left. Shokin has consistently claimed—both now and since 2016—that two active Burisma investigations were the reason for his dismissal. And like it or not, several facts surrounding his dismissal are suspiciously indicative of this. (This John Solomon piece is the most complete compilation I’ve found, but there are certainly other sources.) Obviously Shokin is operating in his own defense, so it’s not surprising that he would present a story that paints himself in the best light; but given the conflicting narratives, I don’t think an investigation is out of order.
So what does this mean from President Trump? Amidst continued cries of corruption—both past and present—he asked the new Ukrainian President to investigate the situation. There are two possibilities here:
- President Trump wanted to dig up dirt on a political rival. Others have pointed out that Vice President Biden is no threat to President Trump’s reelection, which is definitely a reasonable assertion. It’s not like getting rid of Biden will leave the President without a viable challenger. If Biden falls, there are much more dangerous candidates behind him. However, this in itself does not disprove the alleged collusion.
- President Trump—who, after all, was elected on an anti-corruption campaign—wanted to investigate corruption that coincidentally involved a political rival. I am not so naïve as to think he didn’t understand the political implications; that would be ridiculous. But the fact remains that just because an investigation into known corruption has the potential to implicate a political rival does not make that the purpose of the investigation.
Since posting this question, I have learned that many people complain that if President Trump is serious about fighting corruption, he shouldn’t be trying to reduce American aid that helps fight it. However, I immediately saw holes in that logic:
- First, President Trump is a Republican, the party that emphatically favors low spending and high autonomy, both personal and national. Republicans are loathe to throw money at problems that are ultimately someone else’s responsibility, and slashing foreign aid is completely consistent with this.
- Second, giving money to a corrupt government doesn’t mean the corruption is going to magically disappear. If the government is corrupt, they’re going to use our money however they like. (Here’s a decent piece I found on this phenomenon.)
Now, does any of this mean that President Trump is not guilty of exactly what he’s been accused of? Of course not. Does it mean that Vice President Biden is guilty of exactly what he’s been accused of? Nope, not a bit. But does it mean that investigating both situations—and both men—might be in the best interests of the people? I think so, yes. And ultimately, I would think that anyone with integrity would want to learn the truth (as best we can) about any alleged governmental corruption, regardless of the political party or even ambitions of the accused.
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