The Republican strategy, clearly, is to undermine and delegitimize the impeachment inquiry. Republicans are portraying the inquiry as a hoax and an attempted coup by Democrats desperate to reverse the results of the 2016 election, unrelated to any actual presidential wrongdoing. The White House’s refusal to cooperate with Congress by sending legal representation to the impeachment hearings was explained by Trump counselor Kellyanne Conway as resistance to “colluding with an illegitimate process”.
Why are Republicans taking this approach? Largely because they have no other choice, given the considerable weight of evidence that the president did in fact abuse his power and obstruct Congress, as charged in the impeachment articles.
The poet Carl Sandburg is credited with saying:
“If the facts are against you, argue the law. If the law is against you, argue the facts. If the law and the facts are against you, pound the table and yell like hell.
In the short term, then, the Republican strategy of stonewalling and counter-accusations may pay off. The votes on impeachment in the House and removal in the Senate will almost certainly break along uniform party lines, making it easier for Republicans to portray the process as driven entirely by partisanship.
In the longer term, however, the Republican approach to impeachment will probably prove counterproductive.
The party’s critical weakness, as revealed by the 2018 midterm elections, is that it has lost the support of the college-educated and mostly suburban voters (especially women) who once used to reliably vote Republican. By attempting to sabotage the impeachment process and refusing to address the substance of Trump’s actions, the Republican party will further damage its image with these voters and make it even harder to regain a governing majority.
For all these reasons, Republicans in Congress, by turning the impeachment crisis into a circus, are likely to further alienate the swing voters who cost the party control of the House in 2018 (and may deprive it of Senate control in 2020).
Republican approach to the impeachment inquiry appeared recently in the judiciary committee testimony of the George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley,
who was the sole legal expert called by Republicans. conceded that Trump’s phone call to the Ukrainian president “was anything but perfect”
Recently, the Republican congressman Francis Rooney of Florida demanded that several members of Trump’s administration with direct knowledge of the president’s orders on Ukraine – including the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo; the acting White House chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney; and Trump’s attorney, Rudy Giuliani – testify in the impeachment hearings.
“Firsthand accounts like these,” Rooney said, “would affirm that the impeachment process is seeking substantive outcomes based on real facts and accurate information, rather than reflecting a more political objective.”
Republicans appear locked into their strategy of trying to dismiss impeachment as a partisan sham, despite the likelihood that this will make it harder to win back college-educated suburban swing voters. In hindsight, Republicans may come to feel that this play for short-term political advantage came at too high a cost.
Originally Posted by oldrider
Says a lot about "left/right" political parties when they share interchangeable parts? - policies and backers no different either! -
Time reveals all eventually.
I didn't think!!! I experimented!!!
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