An Open Letter

This is an open letter to House Democrats that I share here, hoping it will be read and shared by anyone who cares about the future of our country.

Dear House Democrats,

I ask that before you vote on impeachment next week that you put on your objective thinking caps.  I realize that this entire impeachment is the culmination of 3+ years of hatred directed at the President, but I ask that you stop and consider what your vote will mean.

I understand that many people find Donald Trump’s style to be abrasive and unconventional as far as the politicians and leaders that we are used to.  They dislike his direct and colorful speaking style, his tweets, his ability to say what he thinks in plain language without the niceties and falsities of typical politi-speak.  This may be enough for some people to hate him.  It is not, however, enough or a justifiable reason to impeach him.

I understand that he embarrasses many Democrats, first because he, an outsider, bested them in the 2016 election.  On top of that he continues as president to do things that they have only perhaps promised or dreamt of:  keep his campaign promises; improve the economy; record low unemployment; improved standing in the world; prison reform; equal and consistent enforcement of laws; standing up to the deep state; refusing to let unelected bureaucrats make policy and other decisions that it is his responsibility as the people’s elected choice to make.  He is doing what the people elected him to do, and his success embarrasses many Democrats. 

I understand that the feeling of embarrassment alerts one to one’s own failures.  It hurts and it can lead to a hatred of the one who has embarrassed you.  It is not, however, enough or a justifiable reason to impeach that person.

I understand that most Democrats do not like many of the President’s policies.  That is not abnormal:  the losing party usually advocates for different policies than the winning party.   That is what elections are all about:  the people side with one set of policies or another and in the instant case the policies of Donald Trump won.   That the people did not side with your policies does not make them stupid as many of your fellow Democrats assert.  The President, elected by the people, has both the power and the duty to enforce his policies; it is not an abuse of power for him to do so.  You may hate those policies and hate him for the way in which he enforces them, but that is not a justifiable reason to impeach him.

I understand that you cannot wait until the day that this President is no longer in office.  The way to accomplish that is to present to the people a reason why they should vote for policies that you are presenting rather than for his.  The office of president should not be based upon some sort of likeability/personality contest.  And dislike of personality is not a valid basis for impeachment.

I understand that the Democrats have seized impeachment as a way to rid themselves of this strong president, but there really is no valid basis to do so; its use here is a violation of every core value upon which this country is based.  

I listened to the hearings (both Intelligence and Judiciary committees) and it struck me that your Democrat colleagues all spoke with passion and emotion along with personal narrative about their distaste of the President and his actions.  But if you listened to the more rational and logical presentations of the minority, you cannot deny that there simply are no facts upon which to base these impeachment charges aside from personal distaste for the President, his personality and style, and his policies.  

The Democrats like to call personal opinion and hearsay “fact” and in a sense it is – there is a fact that person X has an opinion.  But that opinion is not a fact of what happened.  And the actual event facts necessary for impeachment are simply not there.

Indeed, many of the facts on which the Democrats base their more general hatred of the President and his supporters are nothing more than opinions or their interpretations or predictions or speculations of what words meant, not what they actually were.  The hatred stems from negative labeling or interpretation of actions or policies that do not conform with those that your party approves.  

It is this dislike of someone who behaves and believes differently than what is endorsed by Democrats that has led to a 3+ year campaign of daily attacks against the President and his supporters.  And, as Democrats realize that they may lose the 2020 election, they bring their dream of impeachment to the House floor in their desperate attempt to subvert the will of the people, not only in 2016 but in 2020 as well.

As you cast your vote on impeachment next week, you have the opportunity to not only halt the farce that this impeachment has become, you can also show this country that you have an objective and clear mind, that you can think rationally and for yourself, that you can overcome personal emotion and stand for what is not only right, but necessary to preserve the future of our country.

I know that the Democrats love to assert that they are somehow protecting the country and Constitution with this impeachment.  But that is a false and frightening talking point.  The Democrats have already displayed a shameful disregard of the Constitution in the manner in which the impeachment inquiry and committee hearings were held.  Not only has the disregard of Constitutional mandates and protections been rampant along with disregard and disrespect for laws, rules, and procedures, but also underlying the entire impeachment charade is an egregious disregard of the core principle of our democracy that it is the people who choose, via their vote for president, what policies they want pursued. 

A vote for these sham articles of impeachment is a vote to overturn the will of the people and with it our democracy itself, for such a vote will forever destroy the ability of the office of president to truly represent the people who have elected its inhabitant.

So, I urge you to put your personal (or party) hatred of Donald Trump aside, to put aside your dislike of his policies or your belief that you have better ideas and policies.  I urge you to look objectively at the evidence or lack thereof.  I urge you to consider what your Democrat party is doing to the country with this absurd impeachment crusade.   You took an oath not to your Party but to our country and our Constitution.  I believe that if you put emotion aside, clear your head, and use your thoughtful brain that you will understand how misplaced a vote for impeachment would be. 

For the good of the country you simply must vote NO.

Articles of Impeachment – Some Initial Thoughts

So the Democrats have drafted their Articles of Impeachment, charging the President with Abuse of Power and Obstruction of Justice.  They continue, like children, to act out their anger and hatred of the President.  Indeed, other than their hatred of the President with which they twist facts and their own impressions to create evidence of their complaints, the Democrats have little support for such charges.

Let us, however, consider where these charges should really lie.  There is far more evidence against the Democrats.

Here are just some of the Democrats’ Abuses of Power:

• Charging someone with a crime without evidence and only for political gain.
• The Democrats now admit that their impeachment of the President is a political move.
• The Democrats have had the charge of impeachment on the table since Jan. 2017; they have simply been searching for a crime and still do not have the evidence, but do have the need to impeach to try to keep the President from being reelected (many have stated that if they do not impeach him, Donald Trump will be re-elected).

• They are ignoring and violating laws, rules, and the Constitution.

• They deny due process to the President during their impeachment “investigations.”
• For example, Adam Schiff hides evidence, denies Republicans the ability to call witnesses,  and subpoenas the phone records of his Republican opponents without any reasonable reason for doing so.

• The Inspector General report released yesterday tells us that Adam Schiff’s  2018 memo vilifying Republican Devin Nunes and others and defending the Steele dossier and FBI tactics (and adored by media) was riddled with lies and false statements.

• Refusal, since the 2016 election results were declared, to accept the will of the people and abide by their electoral decision. Refusal to do their sworn Constitutional duty and respect and support that decision along with the executive branch of government and the office of president.

• This is a show trial to destroy an opponent, nothing more.

And, some examples of the Democrats’ Obstruction of Justice:

• Again, refusal to allow witnesses and minority presentations at their impeachment “investigations.”

• Meeting with the “whistle blower” before he came forward in an attempt to use him to create a case against the President, then refusing to call the whistle-blower as a witness, falsely stating that to do so would violate laws, and then stating that he and his testimony are not relevant (to a charge based upon allegations by the whistle-blower!)

• Repeatedly leaking various and often misleading information to the press in an attempt to sway public opinion in their favor and against the President.

• Refusal of Adam Schiff to testify or to release full transcripts of his secret “witness” interviews regarding impeachment.

• Adam Schiff’s reading and entry into the House record of a fake transcript of the Ukraine phone call.

• The many FISA abuses outlined in the just released Inspector General report, all attempts to create a crime where one did not exist so as to be able to charge and convict the President.

• The rush to impeachment itself – denying the ability to have full investigations in what is a serious matter for the country.

• This is not justice but another act in the continuing endeavor to effect a coup and overturn the results of an election.

The above lists only begin to scratch the surface of the abuses by the Democrats.

This is now all out war.  The blood thirsty Democrats move in for the kill – not only of the man they hate but also, with him, of America as we know it. It is not Constructional. This is not right.  It is not fair.  It is not justice.      

The Democrats are playing a dangerous game.  A game that can easily destroy America.

I don’t know if Democrats really believe their press statements.  I can’t believe that any rational person would.  I don’t know if they are simply overcome with hatred as it seems, so that their sole obsession is to remove a man they hate simply because he bested them in 2016, giving the country and the people who elected him policies that are making America strong in so many ways, accomplishing so much that Democrats have promised for years but been unable to deliver.  I don’t know if it is simply about power and their insatiable thirst for it.  I don’t know if they really hate America and its greatness.  I just don’t know what or why they are doing this.  But what I do know is that they must be stopped.

This is no longer about Donald Trump.  It is about our country and whether or not we want it to continue to survive along with its Constitutional values and protections that have given greatness not only to the people of America but as a shining example to the world. 

Presidents come and go.  We the people see to that via our voices in the election booths.  But our principles, our laws, our Constitution, our values all remain.  Allowing the Democrats to subvert that system for their own hate and power subverts our entire system and moves us far closer to a form of dictatorship than democracy. 

The Impeachment Show is a selfish presentation by selfish people who think they are better than the rest of us and therefore should be given the power to decide for us whom we should have elected.  I stand firmly against that view and I hope that others do the same.

Two Worlds

That we in America are co-existing in two different worlds is really no surprise to anyone who has been paying attention at all for the last few years, and certainly since Donald Trump was elected to become President Trump (President for at least one of those worlds; the other refusing to accept him as President).   But, this all really struck me again today as I listened to the House Judiciary Committee’s latest episode of the Impeachment Show.

Today we had staffers – staff counsel – commenting on the hearsay and opinion testimony that had been provided to Adam Schiff’s Star Chamber segment of the Impeachment Show.  It was so clear as I listened to the two different interpretations of the evidence (which we will remember is not first hand accounts of the “offense” under consideration, but accounts of what someone was told by someone else who heard it from someone else who may or may not have first hand evidence).  So, rather than coming closer to the truth we become further and further removed from reality.

But, it is interesting to listen to how both sides hold some of the same buzz words and phrases dear and use them to explain what is wrong with the other side.  For example, each side proclaims how the other does not care about America and is destroying our country by disregarding the Constitution. 

In my opinion, it is ludicrous for the Democrats to proclaim that President Trump does not care about America.  Who in recent memory has done more for our country and its people?  The economy is good, unemployment is low, those disaffected groups whom the Democrats have always pandered to are experiencing far better conditions than under the Democrats who would keep them dependent and depressed. 

There is hope in the country for many who have lost or at least not seen hope for many years.  America is blossoming after having been told for years that we should be ashamed and hopeless.  This is the President’s doing, so it is hard for me to understand how people can say he does not care about America.  But, they live in a different world where they look at life through different glasses.  Glasses that are a complete mystery to me.

The Democrats proclaim that President Trump is all about using his position for self-gain.  Again, I do not see what they see.  The President is trying his hardest to make America great again, for all its people.  He donates his entire salary, making nothing for the hard work he puts in.  His businesses as well as those of his adult children are if anything losing due to being under constant attack by Democrats and the media.  I do not see the self-gain that they see in their world.

As far as disregarding the Constitution, I see the Democrats as the ones who are shredding it daily and since the moment that President Trump was elected.  It is they who refuse to accept the will of the people, who believe that they have a right to overturn the results of an election because the people’s choice is seen by them as not the one that the people should have made.  Indeed, they are disdainful not only of the choice, but of the people themselves.  They have sought since 2016 to overturn the election and remove the President.  Yet, in America, under our Constitution, the losers must accept the will of the people if our democracy is to continue.  At least, that is the reality I know, though apparently not theirs.

Beyond overturning the people’s electoral voice, the Democrats have consistently attacked the President and his supporters and appointees with star chamber like proceedings that deny fairness and due process to those involved whom the Democrats are attacking.  We witnessed this in the Russia probe, in the FISA warrants, and most disgustingly in the Kavanaugh hearing to name just a few.  And, of course, in the current proceedings in which Adam Schiff seems to think he is a king who can do as he pleases, violate House rules, and deny all due process in order to reach a goal that he has already chosen.

Moreover, it is the Democrats who would silence every voice that opposes them.  It is they who are not tolerant and supportive of the diverse views that our democracy demands.  It is they who spew hate at everyone who does not join them in their hatred of the President while at the same time claiming that it is he who is hateful.

Meanwhile, how has the President thwarted the Constitution?  In our system of laws, he has gone to the courts, not made proclamations by fiat in response to seemingly unfair and unjust demands by the likes of Adam Schiff and his gang of Impeachers.  He follows the process.  Perhaps that is why so many of the unelected diplomats who thought they were in charge were so infuriated when the President removed them or at least some of their power.  Apparently, they had forgotten that the people elect the President whose duty it is and who holds the power to make the policy decisions that they thought it was their right to make.  Again, they seem to live in a different reality than do I.

What I see are politicians set in their ways and in love with their power who are angry that President Trump is not willing to support their continued disregard of the country and its people.  They are now dug in and determined to remove him.  Removal is their only goal and they are willing to shred the Constitution and even the country to do so. 

And so, they tell their stories of how the President is destroying America.  How?  Perhaps by not leaving so that they will stop their destruction?  They tell stories of the President’s (and his supporters’) evils – racist, hateful, etc.  How?  The President’s economy is helping minorities, raising them out of the depressed, hopelessness that has been their gift from Democrats.  He enforces laws equally, not based for or against someone on their identity. 

And, returning to the specifics of the current Impeachment Show,  the president has a duty to investigate fraud that may have been perpetrated on this country by another nation or by individuals within this nation who held power and used it for their own personal or family gain.  So, when the President told Ukraine that we (our country) wanted them to investigate both the 2016 election interference and the possibility that the then Vice President’s son had in some way benefited from the Vice President’s power and position, President Trump was doing his job.  That the then Vice President happens to now be a presidential candidate should not preclude an investigation into what might be at best an unethical act during his vice presidency. 

And, here is what I really don’t understand:  it is pretty clear that the then Vice President in some way used his position for his or his family’s personal gain.  There is no evidence that the current President has done so.  Yet the Democrats would have us ignore the facts, ignore possible ethical violations by the Bidens, and instead claim that it is President Trump who is doing so.  It is like the pop psychology assertion that we see others through our own eyes.  That is, the Democrats seem to be projecting their own behavior upon the President.

It is like Truth and Untruth in 1984: “Reality exists in the human mind and nowhere else.”  And, we clearly have two realities coexisting in this country.  I would label them as follows:  The one based on emotion and the belief that if you say and believe it enough, then it will be true.  I assign this to the Trump-haters and the Impeachers.  The other reality based on reason and logic I assign to those who demand real facts and evidence, not innuendo, supposition, and narrative based upon personal feelings.

For some Truth is simply what they want it to be.  They ignore real facts that contradict their fanciful and personal narrative.   This is the approach of The Impeachers.   They, in my opinion, are not rational.  Theirs is not Truth, but UnTruth, an UnTruth designed to suit their own personal ends.   Orwell writes in 1984, “There was truth and there was untruth, and if you clung to the truth even against the whole world, you were not mad.”  I hope that there are enough of us willing to cling to the reasonable, rational, and factually supportable Truth so that we can keep the country from not only going mad, but from the destruction that the continuing attacks of the Impeachers will cause.

Stacking Opinions

Just a few quick notes on the House Judiciary Committee hearing held today, Dec. 4.   I am not going to again go into lengthy discussion about the ridiculous nature of this Impeachment Show, but rather simply reflect on what we saw today.

First, today we saw not just opinion vs. opinion, but rather opinion based upon opinion vs. opinion based upon opinion.  That is, we had four law professors who have heard no evidence but who have heard or read opinions of others about what they feel about various actions of the President, give their legal opinions about whether those opinions they read/heard about those facts create a basis for impeachment.  Yes, it is ridiculous, isn’t it?

Let’s understand:  lawyers and especially law professors enjoy examining the law and rendering their opinions about it.  OPINION is the operative word here.  In the law, issues are issues because they have more than one possible solution.  Legal minds form opinions and put that opinion forward.  It may or may not be the opinion that will be adopted in a particular case.  Think of any simple court case.  The plaintiff or prosecution puts forth its opinion that the defendant has done something wrong.  The defense puts forth its opinion that defendant is innocent or not at fault.  Opinion vs. opinion.  A legal decision – guilt, acquittal, liability, or no liability will require fact, not opinion.

Opinions cannot be proven.  They are simply one person’s view about events.  They are not necessarily right or wrong.  As one of my law professors was fond of saying, there are no right answers, only wrong ones.  The wrong ones he referred to were those that were not well supported by facts and by clear and logical reasoning.

Legal scholars will not all agree on the meaning of a law nor on the proper resolution of a case.  This is why, for example, so many Supreme Court decisions are not unanimous.  More than one well-reasoned interpretation can be put forward.  So, while a law professor may sound very authoritative in proclaiming his or her opinion, it is not a fact, it is not a law, and it is not even necessarily correct.  If not grounded in evidence or if not soundly and logically supported, it might very well be wrong.

At the hearing today, however, we saw many Democrats asking their witnesses what was their opinion about the law (remember, that is not a definitive definition but simply one opinion about the law), then taking that law as fact, then asking the witness if the “facts” as defined by one of the earlier Intelligence Committee witnesses’ opinions, met the current witness’s interpretation of “impeachment.”  So, we have the Democrats starting with an opinion and calling it fact, then taking a professorial interpretation of law and calling it actual law, and then getting a professor to assert that the fact/opinion that he has only been told about meets his definition of law (which is really just his interpretation/opinion) and using that as a basis to impeach the President.  Yes, it really is that ridiculous.

But what troubled me today more than anything is what the appearance of these four professors told me about the future of the law and justice in this country.  Three of the four have well documented biases against the President and have been actively and monetarily involved in various campaigns against President Trump since he has been in office.  They clearly were letting their own biases color and determine their legal opinions about impeachment.  If that is what they are teaching their students, then there is little hope for the future of fairness and justice.  Witness Turley was the only one of the four who was able to render objective opinions that happened to not favor impeachment even though he himself is not a Trump supporter and is critical of many of his policies and actions.

It is that ability to divorce one’s own feelings from one’s legal analysis that is critical to justice.  To be clear, Professor Turley’s opinions are, just as those of the other witnesses, nothing more than opinion.  They are not fact.  They are not law.  But the difference is that they are based on objective examination of the relevant source materials and supported by sound legal reasoning.  While I am sure that the other professor-witnesses are also capable of such reasoning, it was fairly clear that they had not engaged in such objective analysis in this case.  There may well be logical support for their opinions, but that was lacking here because those opinions were so obviously based upon their personal hatred of President Trump. 

Professor Turley urged us all to “divide rage from reason.”  That is, there is so much hate that it is preventing the reasoned approach that is necessary for an impeachment consideration.  But it goes beyond that.  The rage, the hate that consumes the Democrats is preventing a reasoned approach to nearly anything in this country and especially to the continuation of our form of government.

So, I was deeply saddened to see the hatred overcome the three Democrat professor witnesses whose credentials should have made them able to distinguish rage from reason and hold heir personal opinions at bay while considering scholarly legal analysis, especially when that analysis may be used to affect the future of our nation and whether or not an election should be overturned.

These are legal scholars.  I expect them to understand the gravity of the undertaking when they are asked to testify about impeachment.  I expect them to understand that when they engage in scholarly discourse about the Constitution or law or past cases that they are expressing their opinions only and that they are not judges rendering decisions on facts that they have not even examined.  Yet if they are willing to accept and engage in such over biased reasoning then Lady Justice has surely lost her blindfold and the concept of a fair and unbiased hearing within the justice system is at serious risk.  This is simply not OK – for those who seek justice and for our Country which depends upon our judicial branch of government as one of the three pillars that sustain us and our freedoms.

So, the Impeachers have now built a case by stacking opinion upon opinion with no clear factual foundation.  Such a structure must surely collapse – hopefully before it takes the entire country with it.

The Impeachers also seem to be perhaps moving away from their focus group determined term of “bribery” and back toward the Mueller report – the report that took 2 years along with taxpayer dollars to investigate another ludicrous charge.  It was determined there was no obstruction there.  Yet obstruction seems to be back again.  Along with idiotic analogies to Nixon, suggestions that the President wants to be king (using the President’s minor son as the butt of a joke about this), and most anything else the President has done or said as meeting their witnesses’ opined definition of impeachment. 

Really, the only thing that is constant, the only thing that is substantiated by clear and convincing evidence, is the continuing rage and hatred of the Democrats toward Donald Trump.  It is time that everyone follows Professor Turley’s advice and “divide rage from reason.”  Then, and only then, can we move forward with the business of the country.

Just One Point as We Enter the Next Installment of The Impeachment Show

The next installment of The Impeachment Show begins Wednesday.  The continuing saga of an elite group obsessed with the fact that they lost to a man they hate, a man who is actually performing for the country and doing things that those elite have only promised for decades or simply written off as impossible.

In this episode, like the previous installments, you will be told over and over that the President is evil.  You will be told he is destroying America.  You will be told that if you support him you too are evil and if you don’t join the Impeachers then you will likely go to Hell (assuming you are still archaic enough to still believe in such foolish Biblical concepts that the elite have rejected). 

The Impeachers of course follow the belief that if they simply repeat something often enough then you will believe it to be true.  They see no need for facts or evidence.  Their narrative will control, even if it has no basis in reality. 

The episode will continue to show us how the Democrats’ obsession with destroying the President supersedes all else in their lives, including their job which is to represent the people, pass laws that benefit the country.  It has been a year since the President agreed to a new and better trade agreement with Mexico and Canada.  The Impeachers have still not found time to bring it before Congress for a vote.  They are obsessed instead with holding hearing after hearing designed to remove the President from office.

The Impeachers scheduled the current episode while the President will be abroad, conducting the country’s foreign affairs.  Their invitation to him to participate shows their focus is only on catching and destroying the President, for if he were to accept it would mean forgoing the business of the country, yet if he does not accept, they condemn him for that. 

They are focused on one thing and one thing only.  Destroying the President because he beat them in the 2016 election and is likely to win again in 2020.  Because their sole focused goal is destruction of a man they hate, they are blind to the fact that they are destroying the country in the process.  Not only sewing discord daily among the people, but actually encouraging the disregard and ultimate destruction of our Constitution, our laws, our traditional values, and our very way of life.

So, in this episode the Impeachers will bring in selected witnesses, including professorial types who will comment on the Constitution.  Of course it is doubtful that the witnesses will profess anything that is counter to the narrative of the Democrats, despite the fact that there are many Constitutional experts and scholars who do not stand with the Impeachers and whose testimony could surely reveal the many faults in their hateful narrative game that they are playing.

The Impeachers do not seem to understand that opinion vs. opinion does not result in some sort of guilty verdict.  For that one needs hard facts.  Indeed, America is all about people being tolerant of differing opinions, debating them and the policies they reflect, and speaking their support for those policies in the voting booth.  The Impeachers do not understand that a difference of opinion or hurt feelings that such difference may cause are not grounds for removing a president who was voted into office by the people.  In their obsession to remove the President, they ignore the fact that to do so overturns the will of the people, silences them, and directly contravenes our system of government.

This installment of the Impeachment Show is no different from its predecessors – fake dossier, campaign interference, collusion with Russia, Russian agent, etcetera, etcetera.  Those were just the stage trappings.  And this installment is not about quid pro quo or bribery or coercion or campaign interference or use of office for political gain.  It is about the same old thing and one thing only – getting rid of the President so that those elites, who think they know what is good for the people and should therefore be allowed to silence the voice of the people, can take power.

For that is what the Impeachers truly want.  Power to enforce their narrative upon each and every one of us, to silence those of us who disagree.  The destruction of the President is just one step in their ultimate quest for power.  With that destruction can come the destruction of the office of president and with that the destruction of three equal branches of government while at the same time it will destroy the very government of/for/by the people which is the cornerstone of our democracy.

So, the Drama returns on Wednesday.  The Impeachers vs. America.  Watch hard as they work to convince you that mere opinion without fact must control your life – as long as it is their opinion  Watch hard as they try to implant their narrative in your brain by cunning, and repetition, and by disrespecting your individual thoughts and values. 

Remember as you watch this show that this is your country, not theirs.  That is the one point around which this entire show centers.  The real question is will you cede your power and independence to the power hungry, or will you stand with the people and not let their many voices, the voices that are America, be silenced.