I really was paying attention to the impeachment proceedings involving U.S. President Donald Trump.
I just couldn’t bring myself to watch them live.
After all, watching them would be a giant waste of time.
Kind of like the impeachment hearings and the vote by the U.S. House of Representatives was a waste of time.
I’m by no means a Trump supporter. I find him to be a loathsome, thin-skinned bully whose rhetoric involving anyone critical of him reveals a man who is a wannabe dictator.
The revolving door that we’ve seen with his cabinet and inner circle reflects someone who has brought zero sense of stability to the job.
But the impeachment hearings aren’t going to change a thing.
The Democrats had to do something before this term was up. With all of the wrongs that Trump has committed before and during his time as president, the Democrats had to pull the trigger on an impeachment measure at some point. And with less than a year before the next election, time was running out.
So they went with this matter of Trump using foreign aid for Ukraine in exchange for dirt on Hunter Biden, the son of Joe Biden, who might just be Trump’s opponent for the 2020 presidential election.
It’s an abuse of power and an abuse of office. But I get the feeling previous presidents have done worse and not be impeached. I get the strong feeling that Trump has done worse.
It definitely won’t be bad enough for the Republic-controlled Senate to proceed with giving the president the heave-ho, especially in an election year.
This whole impeachment thing has gone exactly as most predicted. The Democrat-controlled Congress begins with impeachment hearings. They bring in some people to testify against Trump. And then they pass the articles of impeachment against the president.
Unless these star witnesses would have said nothing wrong happened, the Democrats were going to impeach him.
So now it goes to the Senate. Maybe the Democrats were hoping that there would be the silver bullet in the hearings that would get the Republicans to punt their own guy.
That hasn’t happened.
The Senate will reject the impeachment articles. Trump will remain in power. Ho hum.
The Democrats will blame the Republicans for keeping Trump in power. The Republicans will blame the Democrats for bringing up this issue to begin with. Ho hum.
What’s frustrating is the amount of money and time that has been poured into all of these hearings. Everyone who has been involved with them could have done far more important things, like trying to improve the country.
Maybe the Democrats could have dedicated more time to finding something that Trump has done that could lead to his departure.
Trump’s a lot of things, many of which were outlined above. But he’s not without his strengths. He’s a shrewd negotiator who uses the U.S. leverage to get what he wants. He has proven to be a master of playing to his base. It’s why he has continued to hold these campaign-style rallies with his supporters, who embolden him when they cheer for something they agree with, and jeer when he brings up opponents and critics.
There’s a portion of the population for whom Trump can do no wrong. It’s why his approval rating hasn’t changed since these impeachment hearings began.
There’s a larger segment of the population for whom he can do no right. But it’s not a majority.
And then you have those in the middle, the ones who might be willing to give Trump a second term if they feel it’s to their benefit.
The Democrats are hoping that there will be something in the impeachment hearings that will turn the opinions of enough of the people in the middle ground against Trump. That’s why, to them, these hearings haven’t been a waste of time.
If nothing else, this whole mess gives me further appreciation for our democratic system. A candidate like Trump would have never become leader of this country. He would have never become leader of a mainline Canadian party with the preferential ballot we have for leadership races.
Sure, we have a bumbler for a prime minister now who fails as a budgeter, a policy-maker and a foreign representative of this country. Sure the Conservatives picked a leader who would have been in way over his head as prime minister.
And there are all sorts of issues when it comes to partisanship in this country.
But our politics are nowhere near as much of a mess as what the Americans find themselves in now.
If Trump is defeated in the next election, then the U.S. will see some improvements, such as perceptions of the country on the global stage, not that Trump or his base give a damn about what the rest of the world thinks of him.
Trump’s successor wouldn’t embarrass himself on a regular basis like Trump does, especially on Twitter.
But there are a lot of things that won’t get better, such as the divisions that exist in their political system. Those will remain.
