01-03-2020, 04:24 PM
(01-03-2020, 01:36 PM)Classic-Xer Wrote:(01-02-2020, 03:55 AM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote:(01-01-2020, 05:00 PM)pbrower2a Wrote:(12-31-2019, 06:53 PM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote: I believe the Senate gets to vote on the rules of the trial, with 51% of the vote required. If they decide on a secret vote, Trump is schrod. The threat of retaliation is gone. As is, a Republican cannot win a primary if he opposes Tump, but will not be able to win a general election if he supports Trump. A secret vote would be one way to avoid that trap.
McConnell has real control on what the rules are so long as Republicans vote along Party lines. People will know who voted for rules that force a quick, partisan up-and-down vote that ensures a whitewash of the charges. Such will be remembered in Senate races in 2020. I predict a fix because I know the character of Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump all too well and recognize that current Republicans are moral cowards who expect ruthlessness to prevail.
I just suspect the Republican senators will not like to be pushed into a corner, and will find a way to work around it if they are being taken advantage of. There are a few more possibilities here than are currently being considered.
Well, the Democrats have gotten themselves in a bit of a pickle and the Republicans have no reason to oblige or even be nice to them at this point. So, who makes the decisions for your leadership these days? Anyone with a brain or anyone who has an understanding of the values of middle America these days? Do you know any middle Americans who are into the idea of public courts of opinions being all that needed to convict or remove an elected from office or any who are really interested in mob rule these days. I understand that the liberal Democrats are more third world oriented and have become accustomed to getting what they want from insecure/ squeamish people/ politicians but the time for that has changed.
It certainly isn't the definitive city-slicker Donald Trump, is it?
We did not elect Donald Trump to make great for only 2% of the People. Should Trump be convicted and removed, then it will be for some criminal misdeed. Impeachment moved swiftly in the House once Trump was shown to have held up military aid that Congress had already appropriated so that he could squeeze some partisan advantage out of a foreign leader.
Quote:Personally, I think a secret vote and an abrupt (acquittal) would be more damaging to them and their credibility than turning it around and placing the liberal Democrats on trail. There is a reason why Pelosi is doing what she's doing right now. I mean, they would have to do so in a way that traditional Democratic voters understand that the issue is not with them or their portion of the Democratic party these days.
Sorry, Classic X'er. A secret vote would make every Republican Senator look as if he were in on a fix. Turn the impeachment against the Democrats? Impossible. Trump is in the pickle and at this point he isn't getting out of it unless he resigns.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.