The Trump impeachment saga

By: Engr. Edgar Mana-ay

HOUSTON, Texas, USA – Last December 18 the Democrat-controlled House of Representative as manipulated by Speaker Nancy Pelosi approved the two articles of impeachments against Pres. Donald Trump which are:

1. Abuse of power pressuring the government of Ukraine to open politically motivated investigations by with-holding nearly $400 million of military aid and an oval office meeting
2. Obstruction of investigation by Congress by stone-walling strategy.

To the Filipino eye, these are really very, very minor and trivial misdeeds (indi salapakon), assuming it is true, for a President that will warrant a very expensive and divisive impeachment process.

Just like in the Philippines, Congress will now send the approved two articles of impeachment to the Senate who will investigate and act as juror or judge to render a verdict of guilty or not guilty. As everyone knows, an impeachment process is a political number game, since it will require a two-thirds vote in the Senate for a guilty verdict.

Of the 100 senators, 53 are Republicans and 47 are Democrats. To attain 2/3 vote for a guilty verdict would require at least 20 Republican senators to switch to the Democrats side, an impossibility to leave a party in power and considering the two-party system in the U.S. Adding 20 to the 47 would make the magic number of 67 senators required for a guilty verdict, hence an impossible Democrat dream.

The overstretch faced Speaker Nancy Pelosi knows this, so she is delaying the transmittal of the Articles of Impeachment to the Senate, making the most of uncertainty political mileage to shore up the sagging chance of Democrats to return to power in the next presidential election. By holding off on sending the articles, the Democrats would essentially leave the President hanging; stained by impeachment but unable to claim exoneration from a likely acquittal in a Republican-controlled Senate.

Pelosi, would, therefore, hold on to the impeachment articles as long as she can to keep Pres. Trump from being acquitted. Officially Pelosi reasoned she would want to see the procedure that the Senate will adopt but Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn) rebuffed her saying: “It is not her job to tell the Senate how to try an impeachment. According to the Constitution, the Senate has the sole power of HOW to try an impeachment.” So you see, dirty political games is not the exclusive domain of Filipinos, it is true all over the world including the Americans.

While Pres. Trump has brought tremendous economic progress to the nation and this assertion certainly will be challenged by half of Americans primarily because of his braggadocio style, still the ordinary American like my daughter who has a small plumbing contracting firm will attest that business has never been so good compared to the 12 years of Obama era. It’s in the style that our President Duterte differs from President Trump. While our President often swears and throw invectives,  threatens and order the killing of drug lords and ninja cops, still he projects a humble, decisive and sincere President having the welfare of the people always in his heart and that’s the reason why he is still overwhelmingly popular with the Filipino people.

Recent Pulse Asia Research Inc. shows a nationwide approval rating of 87% up by 9 points from the previous survey. He is most popular in Mindanao at an unbelievable 98% acceptance, 93% in the Visayas, 78% in the National Capital Region (NCR) and 83% in Luzon. This level of satisfaction rating was never achieved by any democratic leader at all times in this world.

But not so with Trump. Despite his economic achievements, plus his effort to “drain the swamp” of bureaucracy, his approval rating with the American public hovers only at 43%. As a visitor here, this writer cannot explain why this is so. A USA TODAY/Suffolk poll conducted found the Americans opposing Trump’s impeachment and removal by a slim margin: 51% of voters opposed a vote to convict in the Senate, and 45% approved.

The biggest casualty of the Trump impeachment saga is not Pres. Trump himself, but the impeachment process itself. As early as March, advisers of Speaker Pelosi told her that: “impeachment is so divisive to the country that unless there’s something so overwhelming and bipartisan, the process should not be attempted. Unfortunately, the urge to be back in power again using impeachment as a tool made Pelosi trod that stupid, unnecessary, useless, divisive, expensive and destructive path instead of simply letting the American voters decide this coming election.

Unlike the previous impeachment of President Nixon and Clinton, here there is no bipartisanship and there is already a preconceived verdict. Both parties are hardened in their respective position because the Democrats have failed to make a compelling, easily understandable case against Trump.

The alleged crimes are overboard (laughable in the Philippines), constitutionally weak and the process was rushed. It is the impression that the Democrats were out to get Trump from the very beginning, smack of mob lynching by the Ku Klux Klan in the 1940s. They have not made their case clearly to the American people who should be the supreme arbiter to their president.

Meanwhile, some Republicans have already pledged to impeach the next Democrat President just for revenge. This would complete the bastardization (pagbaboy) of the impeachment process from a sacred national check and balance tool to a dirty partisan political weapon.