Democrats (and Republicans) Must at Least Pursue Impeachment Inquiries To Uncover the Whole Truth.

America stands at the crossroads of freedom and non-freedom. Will we retain the right to determine our future as a free nation or will we have our future belligerently and arbitrarily trampled afoot by persons preferring to be dictators than compassionate public servants seeking liberty and justice for all?

Will we continue as a Democratic Constitutional Republic dedicated to the higher ideals, values and principles of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness where no man is above the law or will we descend into an authoritarian, autocratic state of tyranny where our cherished freedoms and ideals are finely shredded and abolished?

Democrats (and Republicans) must take “yes” from the American people as an incentive to begin impeachment inquiries to discover once and for all the whole truth of whether collusion, obstruction and cover-ups were committed by President Donald J.Trump and his political cohorts in the last presidential election.

With all that has been said about the President, nothing has been finally and conclusively proven. He is still innocent until proven guilty, notwithstanding the mountain of alleged information disseminated largely by his own words and actions which keep piling up to the contrary.

“It’s not what you know it’s what you can prove.” said Detective Alonzo Harris in the movie Training Day.”

Due largely to the D.O.J’s policies, and prohibitive rules citing that no sitting president can be indicted, Mueller’s report stopped short of explicitly accusing the President of collusion, but left open to further investigation by Congress the facts of whether obstruction of justice actually occurred. As it presently stands, the Mueller Report contains a ton of information about the possibilities and implications of possible corruption and obstruction by the president but the process of obtaining additional corroborative evidence from key players by the House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees have been stonewalled.

Impeachment inquiries would finally and ostensibly determine whether impeachment hearings and actual impeachment of the president are justified based on the Mueller report and all other empirical findings such as open and closed-door testimonies, court proceedings and decisions and the work of journalists, scholars and others who continue to diligently investigate what truly happened.

“Supporters of an inquiry argue that they are not necessarily seeking the president’s ouster but instead are pursuing a legal strategy — warranted by the stakes — to try to break Mr. Trump’s blockade of nearly every document and witness that Democrats have requested since the release of the redacted report by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, in April. Opening an investigation, they say, could increase Democratic chances of winning court orders to require compliance with House subpoenas.“But others are wary, saying it would be politically risky; impeachment implies an effort to remove the president from office, and Mr. Trump is primed to try to exploit any such effort politically. On Thursday, he called impeachment a “dirty, filthy, disgusting word.”But others are wary, saying it would be politically risky; impeachment implies an effort to remove the president from office, and Mr. Trump is primed to try to exploit any such effort politically. On Thursday, he called impeachment a “dirty, filthy, disgusting word.”

Still in the current climate is a cloud of unknowing hanging in the air and a “cancer still growing on the presidency, ” his administration, the present and future state of American Liberal Democracy, coupled with a flagrant refusal by the President and his cohorts to readily and openly share vital information with House and Senate committees and the American people at large.

Michael Shermer reminds us that the moral arc of the universe not only bends toward justice but bends toward truth. The laws of science, human nature, politics, the universe and civilization rest firmly on truth. The American people must know the truth and impeachment inquiries will substantially begin the process toward final conclusions in all related matters.

Reminiscing about the negative fallout from the Watergate hearings and the resignation of Richard M. Nixon on the American people, some contend that Americans can’t handle the truth but I believe Americans can handle it and yearn to know the truth. Without the heroic efforts of people like Sam Ervin, Howard Baker, and others hotly pursuing the truth of Watergate, our governmental system of checks and balances would have failed to bring justice from those proceedings.

In the words of J. Robert Oppenheimer: “There must be no barriers to freedom of inquiry. There is no place for dogma in science. The scientist is free, and must be free to ask any question, to doubt any assertion, to seek for any evidence, to correct any errors. Our political life is also predicated on openness. We know the only way to avoid error is to detect it and the only way to detect it is to be free to inquire. And we know that as long as men are free to ask what they must, free to say what they think, free to think what they will, freedom can never be lost and science can never regress.”

On another note, I fully understand Speaker Nanci Pelosi’s position on this issue. It is better to move cautiously and slow-walk the “dog” than rush full-bore into proceedings which can create a political backlash from the electorate with the “dog” pooping all over Democrats in the 2020 elections. But couldn’t some elements of the proceedings be fast-tracked? Could not some parts of the process be quickened and other parts slowed at the same time?

If Democrats act hastily in the process, they can run the risk of becoming political fodder for Republicans and could lose their political seats in 2020. I believe however, if they stand up for justice and do what is right by at least beginning impeachment inquiries, the American people will respect and applaud that decision and a similar momentum which swept them into a commanding majority in the House of Representatives last fall could possibly boost their chances of winning back the Senate and the presidency in 2020 because they will have taken bold steps to seek and lay claim to the ultimate truth by going where Republicans have dared not go.

In my humble opinion, if Democrats do not at least pursue impeachment inquiries to determine if impeachment of the president is justified; if they fail to execute their full responsibilities as a co-equal branch of government to unearth the truth as history and the rules of governance demand at this critical hour, they could receive the Lion’s share of blame for failing to stem the rising tides of the current political menace threatening to engulf and paralyze our nation.

Failure to reach political consensus by not facing the truth mandates calling a truce between Democrats and Republicans alike to make peace in a political system already reeling from feverish attempts to obviate and subvert the rule of law.

Scholar Michael Grant reminds us that one of many factors influencing the fall of Rome was perpetual civil wars and battles which weakened and eventually undermined its system of governance. The same fate possibly awaits us if we fail to correct course.

On the other hand, failing to act at all implicitly and potentially could mean giving the green light to reckless and unbridled corruption of political leaders in the future which might certainly portend even greater disaster for the republic.

The constitutional hallmarks of checks and balances in our American Representative Democracy were precisely constructed to prevent leaders from running awry and abusing power. Failure to pursue impeachment inquiries, even if such strategies in the short-term or long run appear to be imprudent, if not impudent, portrays Democrats (and Republicans who already appear timid) as political weaklings, devoid of the requisite moral courage to seize the day and right the ship of state.

Thus they must “beard the lion in the den,” so to speak, but instead will appear to have surrendered their moral authority out of fear by not holding accountable and putting in check the renegade or rogue factions of our government, which perilously appear to have abdicated and side-stepped their constitutional duties by refusing to challenge and call Trump to account, and by permitting the insidious and incremental dismantling and sell off and sell out of our government.

Current problems must be faced head on and who knows what irreparable damage has been already done once political order is restored to our nation?

S.W.A.T leadership methods call for leaders, organizations and nations to evaluate “strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats” to our democracy accompanied by P.E.S.T which also assesses all “political, economic, social and technical” problems and threats.

Responsible leaders must act. It is no exaggeration that failure to act responsibly puts our nation at risk.

One sure way to discover the truth, “the whole truth and nothing but the truth” is for Democrats and Republicans to begin open impeachment inquiries; to call the appropriate witnesses to finally clear the air to determine the facts; to pursue final corroborating evidence from all players and sources as to whether the President committed any crimes. Then the historical record can be clarified, the process of political redress qualified which the American people can verify.

The goal here is even more than discovering and knowing the truth but literally saving our democracy. It means restoring order, seeking and re-establishing equality, civility and respect for the law, and not allowing America to perish by arrogance, ignorance, tomfoolery, hubris or what M.L King Jr. called “conscientious stupidity.”

Instead, what we have now are crock-pots of talk bubbling over the air waves; a potpourri of accusations and recriminations, affirmations and denials, retorts and rejoinders ad nauseam. The American people must finally know the “who, what, how, why, when and where”of what really happened by pursuing formal and open impeachment inquiries by the institutional authorities possessing the power to render and execute final judgment on these matters which means Democrats taking the lead and effete Republicans stepping up and growing a set.

Too much is at stake. American Democracy, the Constitution and our freedoms hang in the balance. The future of our nation is at risk. Failing to act is acting to fail.

The maxim is true, “Ignore your rights and freedoms and they will go away,” which applies not only to the rights of individuals but the rights of governing powers and authorities, aggregates, and institutions called to constitutionally protect, preserve and defend our nation against all enemies foreign and domestic during times of crises and to ensure the survival of liberty, freedom and justice in America.

The handwriting is on the wall. Is it a forgery or is it credible tell-tale evidence of where our country is headed?

When a nation surrenders its national sovereignty to its enemies, ultimately such actions amount to an inside job, which means that people in the interior have in some furtive manner cooperated with those on the outside who seek their demise. And when the rights and powers of the people in having their say in the affairs of government in this nation are denied, dismissed and permanently derided, the end of the beginning and the beginning of the end occurs and all that the nation has stood and worked for, sacrificed, lived, bled and died for in all its years of existence, painfully perishes in the dung heaps and quagmires of needless, mindless and willful self-destruction.

Too many Americans have “given their all that we might have all,” to strengthen, protect and preserve this nation, and if Democrats (and Republicans) fail to act because they believe that a “McConnelized” Senate will unequivocally thwart the impeachment of the President in the face of possible overwhelming evidence that the president has colluded and conspired to obstruct justice and has cooperated with adversaries in rigging our elections, those persons will have died in vain which is not only politically suicidal but morally meretricious.

Where those hearings will lead, we do not know, but failing to act pro-forma and pursue the final truth could spell disaster for Democrats and Republicans and precipitate the destruction of the American political process as we know it. This is no exaggeration.

Even with the Republican failure to hold the president accountable up to this juncture, the heroic example of Representative Justin Amash and a silent few notwithstanding, I do believe that if confronted with irrefutable, unimpeachable evidence of President Trump’s violations of rules and laws, Republicans and Democrats will vote for impeachment.

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” said Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

The American people want strength, courage and wisdom not “fear and trembling and sickness unto the death” from their leaders, to paraphrase theologian Soren Kierkegaard.

Where caution is warranted, let there be caution. Where expediency is demanded, let us move ever so swiftly.

“Let us never negotiate out of fear but let us never fear to negotiate,” said John F. Kennedy which ultimately means possessing the moral courage to mount up with wings of courage by boldly confronting and navigating conflicts at home and abroad.

“Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war,” said Lincoln at Gettysburg.

As the battles for the heart and soul of American democracy continue in the political realm, and as we possibly descend toward Dante Alighieri’s ninth ring of hell with the potential disintegration of American Democracy and by the cold-storing of our cherished freedoms, Democrats (And Republicans) must fight for what is right in order to preserve, defend and protect our Constitutional Democratic Republic for the survival of our nation not only for the present but for all future generations of Americans.

If we fail to act for right, we open the floodgates of tyranny and inhumanity which will deluge and dissolve every iota of our democratic strength. The great experiment in democracy will sadly and regrettably tailspin into a fool’s paradise.

Thus again I say, Democrats (and Republicans) must initiate impeachment inquiries if we are to finally arrive at the whole truth of President Donald J. Trump and whether any violation of laws and rules were committed during the last presidential elections.

Impeachment inquiries will be the last best hope of ever knowing what really happened so the final historical record can be completely set straight.

The Latin word, credere, means to “believe in.” The ultimate goal of politics is justice; justice of the people, for the people and by the people. But once the American people no longer believe that its leaders and institutions possess the power to pursue and establish justice as a moral force and an ethical reality to right wrongs, perpetuate its highest ideals and values, and protect the nation from peril, then the principles on which that nation stands will no longer have the value, meaning, promise and power to sustain that nation amid competing and conflicting interests and the rising threats to its long-term safety, vitality and posterity.

So in the final analysis what will it be? Fight or flight?

The words of Frederic Bastiat in The Law, written in 1850, signal a stark warning:

“When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system which authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.”

“Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne,— Yet that scaffold sways the future, and, behind the dim unknown, Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own.”

RFRD