I was very disappointed the other day to see Trump’s job approval rate up to 51% right after the DC riot. Then a shower of good news followed since yesterday, all from the conservative side. This report from New York Post is comforting that Trump’s base, some of them anyway, is saying goodbye to him as they felt betrayal. Trump himself also acknowledged that he bore some blame for the Capitol riot. Finally, “the House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said on a conference call with members Monday that there is ‘undisputedly’ no evidence that people linked to Antifa participated in last week’s deadly siege on the Capitol.”
Justice is not served yet as there are uncertainties surrounding the latest impeachment. Trump is not giving up easily and after talking to Mike Pence on Monday, apparently received Pence’s promise for not invoking the 25th amendment against him, he picked up his old trick this morning, and denied any wrong doing in the Capitol riot. In his own words, his speech was “totally appropriate.”
Let Voters Decide Trump’s Future Candidacy?
Interestingly, I saw someone (a former deputy assistant AG named John Yoo) on the Fox TV interview yesterday asking why impeach Trump now and why not let American people decide four years later. This is an interesting and appealing question that deserves an answer.
My answer is that impeaching Trump and preemptively taking away his candidacy in 2024 is not punishing him as a politician but as a national leader who has crossed the line in his words and deeds. Fundamentally the impeachment is based on constitution, which says behaviors like Trump are impeachable. To let voters decide is to do injustice to other candidates in four years.
Democracy does depend on every player respecting and following the same rules of the game. A fundamental rule is to concede your loss when the evidence says so. This is not different from sports, in which both teams must agree with rules, such as awarding six points from a touchdown in the end zone. The rules are fundamental to the game, in the sense if they are NOT strictly observed and followed, there will be NO game at all, because viewers and players will never know which side truly won or lost, and people will lose interests in the game itself.
Trump’s real problem is that as a sore loser he refuses to accept the game result determined by American voters. Anyone is entitled to argue about the election outcome, which is even healthy for ensuring the fairness of results. However, everything has a limit. When the DOJ, federal judges, state election officials and finally the electorate college all declared or confirmed the result, any further protest will only threat the fundamental rules of the game. Trump did exactly that.
The other subtle line Trump has crossed is that he started from legal means to protest the election result, which is legitimate, healthy and noble move that does not endanger anyone. It’s like talking to the referees before game ends. It’s transparent and totally within all players’ rights. I would even argue that Trump can keep fighting before January 6th, for the simple reason that “a game is not over until it’s over” and the official ending time is January 6th. However, interfering the Congress certification — with violent means — this is where Trump has crossed the solid golden line and why he deserves the punishment. It is like after the referees made the decision and declared the winner, Trump urged his fans to come down from their audience seats to beat the referees!
American Football Association can forbid any team from participating all future games for a certain number of years. Had this been football, everyone would accept that, because everyone understands this is good for the game and good for all of us. But the impeachment is in the same spirit. We really have no choice but to punish the offenders. Doing anything otherwise would threat the very existence of the game itself, exactly like Mitch McConnel has explained to his fellow Senators.
Should Social Media Block Trump Completely?
I am not sure if this is necessary or even wise. As much as I loathe Trump, and I also understand the legal argument that the First amendment does not exactly apply to private entities like Twitter and Facebook, I still believe that the social media firms should be more careful about blocking or banning entire accounts.
What makes me thinking this way is based on my previous post on how to teach our kids to look at behaviors, not the person/people. We should punish only bad behaviors, not killing the entire voices. With today’s technology, it is easy to identify bad tweets from good and normal ones. Blocking the entire account goes too far and can trigger backlash, especially because the big tech firms do not exactly have a shiny reputation.
From the perspective of improving social welfare, allowing different voices can only help the country heal and draw people near each other. Like my previous post said, letting people talk to each other is better than seeing them fighting in violence. Just imagine Trump using his Twitter account today to call for “No violence!” That would be more efficient than Joe Biden says the same thing to Trump supporters.
By the same token, we should allow platforms like Parler and Grab to exist. Blocking them is perhaps the simplest solution, but does not help solve the social divide.
From the political perspective, finding a replacement for Trump from the conservative side is the job number one for the Republicans. It is not easy because for fanning the flames and stirring the hatred, nobody is better than Trump. Still, Republicans must prepare for a Trump-less world and the earlier they do so, the better for all of us.
By the way, Twitter could become a dangerous platform simply because tweets are short and many of us just jump to it and put down whatever came to their mind first. But speaking impromptu is risky because it goes to public too fast. What is first on your mind is not necessarily the best in your mind. You may regret what you have just said but it would be too late as it is already out there. I never tweet, only blog, because the latter allows me to think and draft and think again, fixing problem and changing words along the way until I am satisfied.
What About Giuliani & Cruz?
Rudy Giuliani should be punished because he has been directly involved for inciting the riot with a smoking gun in his hand when he yelled “Let’s have trial by combat!” minutes before the mob storming the Capitol. I know Bar Association is seeking to ban him, but he deserves more than disbarring for what he had done. If Trump deserves impeachment, Giuliani deserves prosecution.
Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley on the other hand are speaking within their rights and as Senators they are entitled to their opinions. The two are miserable, selfish and disqualified politicians, but as long as they did not go out of their way to encourage violence outside Senate, their fate should be determined by voters during the next round of elections.