Another Voice: To Walden: Raise your voice in support of impeachment

Impeaching a president is an extraordinary measure, to be considered under very exceptional circumstances. With an impeachment inquiry in progress, likely to be followed by a Senate trial, the weeks and months ahead will be uniquely painful and divisive. The consequences to country and world are unpredictable, but it is no surprise that we came to this.

 

I hold you unequivocally responsible — with the president and your Republican colleagues in Congress — for this national tragedy. Unlike the president’s, your responsibility comes from omission. Please let me explain.

 

Shocking as the results were, the 2016 election gave the president a mandate to govern. With majorities in the House and Senate, he had the opportunity to create and implement a productive vision for the country.

 

A year into his term, though, it was apparent that Mr. Trump was dramatically failing to discharge his presidential duties. It went beyond politics, to the very roots of our democracy. When I expressed this opinion in an open letter to you (Hood River News, January 2018), I was merely one of the many Americans who recognized the problem. I encouraged you to take a stand: “You too can be a part of the solution, Mr. Walden, by becoming a voice of strong and reasoned opposition to an unfit president and by fostering truly bipartisan legislation.”

 

You chose to do nothing. Emboldened by your passivity, and that of your colleagues, the president kept pushing the boundaries of decency and — possibly — law.

 

The 2018 elections proved that Americans were paying attention. Republicans lost the majority in the House, and — while re-elected in a safely red district — you lost part of your political clout. I hoped then that you would adopt a more bipartisan posture (Hood River News, December 2018), and you showed occasional, tantalizing flashes of that spirit. Still, where it counted, you continued to support this alarmingly unfit president. 

 

There was a time when a House censure could have sent a clear signal that the president needed to moderate his behavior and put country above party and personal interests. Opportunities abounded. One was when the president told four congresswomen to go back to the countries they came from. I again was not alone in considering such behavior unacceptable, when I asked you to “work, within your party and across the aisle, to introduce a House motion of censure to the president” (July 2019).

 

Once more, you chose to do nothing — even if censure would have been much less traumatic to the country than an already predictable impeachment process.

 

The spectrum of impeachment was, by then, clearly in the air. The Mueller report had concluded that Russia interfered in the 2016 elections, and planned to also do so in elections ahead. By refusing to acknowledge these and similar findings by U.S. Intelligence agencies, the president was putting the essence of our Democratic Republic in danger. Did that raise to the level of impeachable offenses? When I asked you to call for a bipartisan impeachment inquiry (June 2019), I was hoping the House could send two powerful messages: (1) America stands strong and able to defend its sovereignty and principles, and (2) In America, all are entitled to due process, but no one is above the law.

 

You clearly disagreed, and did nothing. Perhaps that silence convinced the president that Congress had no desire or will power to fulfill its oversight duty over the Executive Branch.

 

The president had thus no reason, on July 25, to not make a deeply disturbing call to the Ukraine president, where he seemingly offered to trade military aid (already approved by Congress!) for political gain. And he had no reason to fear releasing partial notes on the call. Or to be embarrassed by considering the call “perfect.” Or to not call publicly for the unmasking of the whistleblower whose complaint precipitated the crisis. Or to refrain from obstructing House-requested testimonies.

 

The call itself was just the tip of the iceberg, as the infant impeachment inquiry is already showing. But it took that call to break the resistance of Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif) to start the inquiry. The call is thus an important symbol.

 

A symbol of your failure, sir, to influence and moderate an unfit president. Your failure to protect the country from further, deeper, divides. Your failure to uphold the Constitution. What a heavy burden to retire with.

 

I harbor little hope that you will take advantage of your next, and perhaps last, opportunity, to contribute constructively to the present crisis. But you still can. And you should, for your country and your legacy.

 

Congressman, please raise your voice in support of the ongoing impeachment inquiry. Use your influence to let a Constitutionally-prescribed process take its course, unimpeded by obstruction from the president and the Republican Party. Learn what has to be learned, with an open mind. And vote on the eventual impeachment articles based on evidence, not disingenuous political posturing.

 

Respectfully, Antonio Baptista