Milly Jackson
As the impeachment on President Donald Trump continues and becomes more heated, both Democratic and Republican parties are less concerned with what the impeachment process is about, and moreover attacking the opposite party to gain an advantage in the upcoming election. With this said, there are quite a few facts people should be aware of about the impeachment process, and what political parties are pulling the strings, before making assumptions.
“Regardless of partisan lines, what’s illegal is illegal, and no one is above the law,” said Mark Haver, a senior at Florida Southern College, and the President of the College Democrats organization at FSC.
Haver is fully supportive of the impeachment and passionate that there is irrefutable evidence convicting Trump of multiple offenses dealing with obstruction of justice, tampering with past elections, and many others, but it’s no surprise that this is not the only view held on campus. Politics are politics, after all.
“Overall I am against the impeachment, but understand the reasoning behind it,” said Brock Townsend, who is a junior involved with the College Republicans organization at FSC.
Townsend holds the belief that President Trump’s impeachment inquiry is a “double-edged sword,” and that jumping to conclusions and being impatient will not help the process or anyone involved. Townsend says he understands the importance of this inquiry and does not completely disregard it, but he believes that attempting to make judgments or decisions on Trump before the process is complete is foolish.
The problem with Trump’s current impeachment inquiry is not that he is being investigated for crimes that people believe or don’t believe he committed; the problem that arises is that an inquiry is more than this. With both of these different views on Trump’s impeachment, instead of deciding on biased news sites and different political party’s opinions, FSC students should turn to understand what the impeachment process truly is, and what it is in place for.
The impeachment process and removing a President is not an easy process, and the first step—the inquiry—is only the beginning. According to the National Center for Constitutional Studies the House of Representatives starts the process by setting up a panel to conduct an investigation to gather articles of impeachment, then the House votes (by majority alone) as to whether one or more of the articles are accurate. If the majority votes yes, the President is technically impeached; however, he is not removed from office just yet.
The Senate is then the jury in the President’s trial on whether the articles of impeachment that have passed through the House are true. The House presents prosecutors; the President provides his own defense, and the Senate works as the jury in every Presidential impeachment trial. Only when convicted in this trial is the President guilty, and removed from office with no chance of an appeal.
The impeachment process was not created to give political parties the upper hand or to be something exploited when there are disagreements, but with every step of this inquiry being done publicly, loudly, and harshly personal it is exhausting, confusing, and ridiculously demeaning in the way politics have become today. The impeachment has become more of a political stunt than what it was originally created for, which is keeping our President accountable as the elected leader of America.