Editorial: Impeachment for Trump; expulsion for enabler Cruz
History will judge not only Wednesday’s disgraceful mob insurrection incited by an aggrieved and failed president but also our nation’s response to this assault on democracy.
Those who stormed the Capitol must be held to account. So, too, must those who created the tinderbox conditions — through baseless lies about voter fraud — that allowed fire to be set to a free and fair election, an election won by former Vice President Joe Biden.
Although there are only days left in his term, President Donald Trump must be impeached and convicted. Impeachment and conviction would disqualify him from future federal public office. It would put a hard stop to any future assaults.
While Trump has finally acknowledged the “new administration,” this has only come after the siege on the Capitol as calls intensify for impeachment. But even then Trump used rhetorical alchemy to characterize his effort to subvert the election as noble: “My only goal was to ensure the integrity of the vote. In so doing, I was fighting to defend American democracy.”
Pretty rich for a man who has treated democracy so poorly.
We don’t argue for impeachment lightly. But it is wrong to say holding Trump accountable for his anti-democratic actions somehow wounds our nation. His actions wounded the nation. That’s why impeachment is necessary.
Trump and his enablers have waged a sustained assault on our democracy, culminating in the physical manifestation witnessed Wednesday. Before the attack, he incited the mob to march on the Capitol: “You’ll never take back our country with weakness.”
He began the year pressuring state officials: “I just want to find 11,780 votes,” he told Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
He filed baseless lawsuits and repeatedly lied about election fraud. But the lie about voter fraud is the greatest deceit.
This is how democracies crumble. As Robert D. Putnam wrote in his recent book, “The Upswing,” “in a democracy when our side is defeated, we need to understand that to accept losing in the short run is essential to preserve the long-run goal of democracy.”
To impeach and convict with bipartisan support is to rebuke such anti-democratic behavior and ensure Trump never ascends to the presidency again. It would be a profound bipartisan show of support for democratic norms — something utterly lacking the last five years — and a stark message to would-be presidents. Do not go here.
This brings us to the junior senator from Texas, Ted Cruz. He must be expelled from the Senate. He, too, must be held accountable for his efforts to undermine the presidential election.
It was Cruz who gathered support of other senators and senators-elect to object to the formal counting of electoral votes, not because there was voter fraud but because of the “unprecedented allegations of voter fraud, violations and lax enforcement of election law, and other voting irregularities.”
It was Cruz who cynically said to Democrats on the Senate floor before the mob descended: “I understand your guy is winning right now.”
And it is Cruz who said only after the siege the “president’s rhetoric was irresponsible” and “we are now in the process of a peaceful transition of power to the next administration, the Joe Biden presidency.” He could have said this long before. After an insurrection is too late.
Let’s remember that 17 Texas Republicans, including Cruz, objected to counting Electoral College votes for Biden. Let’s also remember that silence in response to democratic harm is corrosive, and that in this regard, U.S. Reps. Chip Roy and Tony Gonzales, and U.S. Sen. John Cornyn were too silent about Biden’s victory for too long.
Why is it the most prominent Texas Republicans to speak up for democracy — Joe Straus and Will Hurd, true profiles in courage — are “former” elected officials?
It remains to be seen if the assault on the Capitol is a warning sign or a turning point for this nation. If we seek a turning point in support of democracy, then those who have damaged it must be sanctioned and repudiated.
*** This article has been archived for your research. The original version from San Antonio Express-News can be found here ***
