LETTER: An idea about handling impeachment

Posted

To the editor:

I’ve always marveled at the writings of Alexis de Tocqueville and thought if he had been an American citizen he could have easily been president. However, I didn’t know how in-tune he was to our new experiment in democracy until I recently read an 1835 quote from him that says: “A decline of public morals in the United States will probably be marked by the abuse of the power of impeachment as a means of crushing political adversaries or ejecting them from office.”

This makes me even more convinced, as suggested in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece last week, that the Constitution should be amended to allow any president who is impeached, but not convicted by the Senate, to be guaranteed another term in office to compensate for the inability to properly govern during his impeachment.

Such an amendment would have almost certainly resulted in no impeachment efforts against Andrew Johnson, Bill Clinton or Donald Trump because all three efforts were directed by their opposing parties.

I fear every future president will be impeached if the opposing party holds a House majority. Our children and future generations do not deserve this insult. Johnson’s opposition/veto to the Tenure Act, Clinton’s lying about being sexually gratified, and Trump’s beating the hell out of Clinton in the Electoral College are not justifiable reasons for impeachment.

And guess who loses from the political insanity...

Philip H. Johnson

Siler City