To impeach, or not to impeach

[pbrower2a]

(10-08-2019, 02:10 PM)Classic-Xer Wrote:

(10-08-2019, 01:21 PM)David Horn Wrote:

(10-07-2019, 02:41 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: Trump is asking other governments to invent conspiracy theories in order to smear his political opponents. He uses the office for his own financial gain. He should be carted out of the oval office and taken to jail.

True that!  Trump is the first POTUS to totally ignore the responsibilities of the office, while exercising powers for his own gain -- many that are specious at best.  If the GOP office holders who back him now continue until he finishes a second term, there won't be much 'America' to pass on to the next POTUS.

I think that your naive to believe that Trump is the first American President to use their power and influence to sway a foreign leader or a fellow politician  to do something for them that's in their personal interest to have occur or American interest. In Trump's case, he may have attempted but he didn't succeed so no law was broken.

Politics is to a considerable extent getting people (including elected officials) to concur to things that they might, Diplomacy to a great degree is  the art of getting foreign leaders to do what they might otherwise not do. It is persuasion. 

People can use persuasion for good or ill. Persuading someone out of work to take a job as a maintenance man at a bank is acceptable. Persuading someone to aid in robbing a bank is unconscionable. 

The President has no right to use his position to get others to enrich him or do political dirty work for him. What President Trump asked of the President of Ukraine is unimaginably wrong. He potentially placed another country in unmerited danger to aid his political campaign. 

Finally, attempts to do certain crimes are themselves crimes. Attempted murder, rape, kidnapping, armed robbery, drug dealing, treason, and extortion are themselves crimes. Conspiracy to commit another crime is itself a crime.