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Thank you to everyone who has supported and shared the attached thread. I wanted to follow up with some additional thoughts on the tricky issue of "unity," which has been the most common reason given for NOT impeaching.
So here we go with *another* long thread: https://twitter.com/harrisjalex/status/1348718851433795585
So here we go with *another* long thread: https://twitter.com/harrisjalex/status/1348718851433795585
To start, I should say that this is honestly the most difficult issue to grapple with here. You can agree that President Trump's actions were reprehensible and that he deserves to be impeached, but still question whether moving forward with impeachment is best for the country.
This is a question that takes real wisdom to answer, and good-hearted people will come to different conclusions. But I've been so encouraged by some of the conversations I've had these past 24 hours, so here's some more thinking on why I come down in favor of impeachment.
FIRST, one of the biggest problems behind the lack of unity is distrust, information silos, and politically motivated disinformation. The result is (at least) two Americas, with citizens on the far left and right living in totally different realities: Intellectual gerrymandering.
One of the consequences is that there is a group of people who won't be convinced, placated, or unified no matter what. As my original thread said, there's just no way to placate them. Anything less than Biden conceding the election to Trump will fail with this group.
So the question really is: What do we do to try to unify the people actually capable of being unified? And a big part of the answer is that people in positions of influence within the GOP need to start telling people the truth.
For example, I guarantee that every single GOP Senator (with perhaps *one* exception) knows Trump lost the election. They may have concerns over election security and voting irregularities on the margins, but in their hearts they know Biden won and it's not contestable.
But rather than say what they really think, most chose to stroke the President's ego and feed false beliefs about election fraud. The thinking, voiced anonymously or leaked by aides, was to avoid angering the President or his base.
And they justified this because it (A) helped them politically and (B) they didn't think there was any real risk to playing along for a few months until certification.
Well, that was obviously and horrifyingly wrong.
Well, that was obviously and horrifyingly wrong.
That failure of leadership was deadly, and it's why I have stressed the need for a bipartisan effort. If every GOP Senator who actually believes what the President did was impeachable voted that way and explained why, it would do more to unify the country than anything else.
It would be, as I've said, a truth-telling exercise to every person still capable of listening. It would powerful say that those on the left and right—despite all their differences—can agree that what happened on Wednesday was wrong and must never be allowed to happen again.
SECOND, the single greatest source of division in our country right now is the President himself. This is not minimize other significant sources of division (on both sides of the aisle), but I think the President's preeminence here is undeniable.
For four years he has constantly and intentionally played on fear and prejudice, coarsened our public discourse (and I don't just mean using "bad" words), emboldened dangerous extremists, and intentionally sowed division between different groups of American citizens.
He has broken foundational norms of the office and spearheaded an all-out attack on the public's trust in the democratic process and the rule of law both before and after the 2020 election. All of this led directly to what happened at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday.
I don't say this lightly, but the reality is that President Trump is a cancer—to the GOP and to the country. Removing him doesn't solve all our problems or immediately restore us to health. There will be a long road to recovery still. But it's the first and most urgent step.
If you agree with that (and I know many don't, but *if* you do), you have to impeach. Why? Because impeachment is necessary for the Senate to take the further step of barring Trump from running again, helping break his stranglehold on the party. We cannot do this again in 2024.
Yes, the political/electoral consequences of this move could be bad for individual Republicans and for the Republican Party in the near term. (Like chemotherapy.) But I think you have to accept that for the sake of the greater good and for the survival of the party.
THIRD, but relatedly, there have to be consequences to the Trump playbook that led to Wednesday. It's a little too simple to say "injustice requires accountability," because there are always exceptions (e.g., prosecutorial discretion, cases where mercy should triumph). But...
If there can't be accountability for what happened last week (and the President's role in it), there will never be consequences—and that's an invitation for more (and worse) of the same. That's been the story for four years. He'll keep going. Others will keep following his lead.
FINALLY, for all of us who are genuinely concerned about unity, it's critical to remember that people on the right are not the only ones who are angry, who think they have no common ground with the "other side," or who feel hurt and under constant attack for the last four years.
Unifying the country is about bringing both sides together, not mollifying the loudest voices in our party. To see GOP leaders willing to stand up here would go a long way to restoring trust and common ground between the political tribes.
And here's the corollary: To see GOP leaders continue to lack the courage of their convictions in this of all moments will only reinforce distrust and division. And rightly so.
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