(09-26-2019 06:44 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  I'm kind of surprised no one has chimed in on the news from the past few days.

I've been pretty steadfast all along I oppose impeachment proceedings (or inquiries, or whatever they want to call it). The phone transcript did nothing to change my mind there. I haven't read the full whistleblower account yet so I don't feel comfortable commenting on that.

I've been opposed to impeachment for several reasons. One, I truly feel the top levels of U.S. Government are corrupt across the board. Yes, I believe Trump has been dishonest and corrupt, but no more so than most presidents (please don't ask me for evidence for this - you can probably find a post here or there among the 449 pages of this thread where I've mentioned some of my beefs). And I don't think I've seen anything that calls for impeachment.

Secondly, I don't think it's a good strategy on the democrats' side (and let's face it, it's a strategy pure and simple despite claims of politicians saying he's broken the laws). I feel like Trump is beatable based on social issues alone (putting climate change in that category). Plus I think the ongoing tariffs will continue to hurt his midwest farmer vote.

Finally, I just feel that even if Trump were impeached, and even more improbably, removed from office, I don't think it will be good for this country. It's going to create an even greater civil rift between the two political ideologies. Plus, you'll absolutely see tit-for-tat, and if a Democrat did win the White House next year, the Republicans will then do everything in their power to impeach that new president.

The one thing I do find interesting from today is that there are clearly laws in place which protect federal whistleblowers. And Trump absolutely has to proceed with caution in his criticisms of this CIA whistleblower. Talking about him as a spy, and talking about what the U.S. used to do with spies, is not a good start on that front. Let's see what transpires in the days and weeks to come.

The biggest thing I’ve seen come out of the complaint is that there is an accusation that the Trump admin has tried to cover up multiple calls with foreign leaders for political, rather than national security reasons.

The second biggest thing is that this confirms Trump cares nothing about maintaining the trust of the American people - if he did, he wouldn’t have come close to personally trying to convince a foreign power to investigate anything related to a political opponent.