By Dr. Ron Paul
Imagine if President Donald Trump spent his phone call with the Ukrainian president threatening to withhold military aid unless the Ukrainian government agreed to use the money to purchase weapons from a U.S. manufacturer. Does anyone seriously think that foreign service professionals and Deep State operatives would be so shocked and offended by Trump’s request that they would launch efforts to impeach him? Would Congress view this as “high crimes and misdemeanors” or applaud Trump for carrying out one of modern presidents’ supposedly most important jobs—acting as salesmen for the American military-industrial complex?
This hypothetical shows that impeachment is not about President Trump’s abuse of power. Instead, it is an attempt to make sure President Trump, and all future presidents, confine their abuses of power to items that advance the agenda of the political establishment.
Trump’s most consequential abuses of power have been met with the full approval of the majority in Congress, the mainstream media, and the Deep State. For example, when Trump launched military action in Syria without obtaining a congressional declaration of war there were no calls for his impeachment. Instead, most members of Congress were perfectly happy to let stand unchallenged Trump’s claim that the 2001 authorization for use of military force—a limited grant of authority to act against those responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks—gave him the authority to launch military action against a government that had nothing to do with the Sept. 11 attacks. The only times Congress rebukes Trump’s foreign policy is when he speaks favorably about pursuing peaceful relations with Russia or ending U.S. involvement in no-win military conflicts.
This hypocrisy extends beyond foreign policy. Many Democrats who claim that Trump is both a fascist and mentally unhinged are eager to ensure Trump can continue to conduct warrantless surveillance on every American by reauthorizing Section 215 of the Patriot Act.
Trump-opposing progressives in Congress are also eager to give Trump new authority to violate the Second Amendment. Even those progressives who say they believe Trump is a deranged fascist did not object when he endorsed “red flag” laws that give the feds power to, as Trump put it, “take the guns first, go through due process second.”
Perhaps the most sickening example of Trump’s congressional opponents’ hypocrisy is how many of those fretting about the safety of the Ukrainegate “whistleblower” are silent about, or supportive of, the Trump administration’s complicity in the inhumane treatment of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. They are also silent about the U.S. government throwing Chelsea Manning back into jail because Manning refuses to help the U.S. prosecution of Assange.
All modern presidents have exceeded constitutional limitations on their power and thus could have, and maybe should have, been impeached. The reason they were not impeached is that a majority of Congress members support allowing presidents to wage war abroad and destroy liberty at home without being “hamstrung” by Congress. The only real dispute is which party will wield power.
Restoring constitutional limits on government power and thus protecting liberty depend on spreading ideas and building a movement. Our lost freedom will only be restored when presidents and members of Congress fear being “impeached” at the ballot box for committing high crimes and misdemeanors against peace, prosperity, and liberty.
Ron Paul, a former U.S. representative from Texas and medical doctor, continues to write his weekly column for the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity, online at www.ronpaulinstitute.org.
Let him who has no blood on his hands throw the 1st stone!!! Trump has done more for this country than all the rest back to ’64 COMBINED
In Jan 2017… In the process of tRump ordered wholesale slaughter of 30 people, in Yemen, a US Navy Seal was killed & at least ten women and children in American commando unit attack. 8 yr old Nawar Al-Awlaki is the daughter of US-born preacher Anwar Al-Awlaki who was the first American citizen to be assassinated in a US drone strike in 2011, decried by civil rights groups as an extrajudicial execution that denied him his right to a fair trial. Two weeks later his 16-year-old son Abdulrahman was killed in another US drone strike. -ALL USA CITIZENS – W/OUT TRIAL! Nawar’s uncle and former Yemeni Deputy Minister of the Environment and Water Resources, Ammar Al-Aulaqi said: “[Nawar] was shot several times, with one bullet piercing her neck. She was bleeding for two hours because it was not possible to get her medical attention.”
HOW CAN ANYONE BE SURPRISED? BECAUSE WHOLESALE MURDER OF CHILDREN IS SO EXPENSIVE… House Demoncraps Join GOP to Hand Trump the largest war chest in world history a $738 Billion Military Budget brokered by Rump’s SIL Jared Kushner amounting to almost 3 times the cost of WW2. The House passed the NDAA in July 2019. Congresswoman and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Major Tulsi Gabbard had an amendment that she called her “No More Presidential Wars” resolution. It was removed before the House vote. The Senate Democrats who voted against war trough were Senators Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Ed Markey of Massachusetts, Jeff Merkley of Oregon, and Ron Wyden of Oregon. Dissenting Republicans were Senators Mike Braun of Indiana, Mike Enzi of Wyoming, Mike Lee of Utah, and Rand Paul of Kentucky. Democratic Senators Cory Booker of New Jersey, Kamala Harris of California, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, along with Independent Bernie Sanders of Vermont, all did not vote. Neither did former Republican Senator Johnny Isakson of Georgia. – washingtonexaminer. The number of world population that have been bombed out of their homes by USA is equal to the population of USA. In my travels I see, 1st hand, the surge of homeless Americans washing up on US streets that are victims of economic warfare adding to casualties of Rump’s economic strangulation foisted upon other nations and plunging US into unprecedented deficit. The fact that sanctions put Americans out of jobs and into the street has been well researched in the 20th century yet the US feral government keeps doing it. Unlike the USA… Iran, Syria, & Venezuela have popularly elected presidents and universal health care. Meet Iran’s woman Vice President. Never happen in USA.
Donald Trump has bloody hands and so are those that voted the tyrant into office.
Ron Paul is such a faker. He was a stalking horse for Obama, and Alex Jones built him up, a wimpy guy who never did anything — and AJ’s listeners went ahead and ran after Ron Paul, who was only out to divert any 3rd party challenge to Obama. He ran off with all the money we all raised to get him elected, and promised to endorse one of the other 4 great candidates running 3rd party. One week before the election he endorsed all four. What a traitor. He was in on 9/11 also.