The behavior of the left and right regarding Covid leaves me only semi-sure about one thing: We're screwed when the major killer pandemic comes around—the one with the 5% fatality rate or worse.
Re The Indictment, the solution envisioned by the Constitution for Trump's actions is impeachment and conviction, removing him from office, with another vote to bar him from running again, as provided by the 14th amendment, enacted to make it possible to ban leading Confederates from holding federal office. (Although, to be fair, it is not certain whether or not this clause applies to the president, or just other offices.)
In a less formal way, it did happen to Nixon, who according to the accepted lore, was told by the leading Republicans half a century ago that if he did not resign, he likely would be impeached and convicted. President Ford, in pardoning Nixon, cited as a reason that he had been punished enough.
This time around the Republicans did not support either the conviction or resignation option. So we are left with the mess that Trump could well be convicted of a state crime bumped up to a felony with jail time for violating a federal law that, if elected, he cannot pardon himself for. Situations like this are why few countries in history survive for 250 or more years.
Yeah, in a way it's amazing that this sort of situation hasn't come up more often. I wonder if somebody like Harding would have been prosecuted if he'd left office under normal terms. I don't have a sense of how enthusiastically Democrats at the time were calling for Nixon's prosecution - if that really might have happened without the pardon.
The behavior of the left and right regarding Covid leaves me only semi-sure about one thing: We're screwed when the major killer pandemic comes around—the one with the 5% fatality rate or worse.
Lol. Agreed. It hasn't gone very well this go-around. One thing about Covid, I'm not sure 'we' have learned anything at all from it.
Re The Indictment, the solution envisioned by the Constitution for Trump's actions is impeachment and conviction, removing him from office, with another vote to bar him from running again, as provided by the 14th amendment, enacted to make it possible to ban leading Confederates from holding federal office. (Although, to be fair, it is not certain whether or not this clause applies to the president, or just other offices.)
In a less formal way, it did happen to Nixon, who according to the accepted lore, was told by the leading Republicans half a century ago that if he did not resign, he likely would be impeached and convicted. President Ford, in pardoning Nixon, cited as a reason that he had been punished enough.
This time around the Republicans did not support either the conviction or resignation option. So we are left with the mess that Trump could well be convicted of a state crime bumped up to a felony with jail time for violating a federal law that, if elected, he cannot pardon himself for. Situations like this are why few countries in history survive for 250 or more years.
Yeah, in a way it's amazing that this sort of situation hasn't come up more often. I wonder if somebody like Harding would have been prosecuted if he'd left office under normal terms. I don't have a sense of how enthusiastically Democrats at the time were calling for Nixon's prosecution - if that really might have happened without the pardon.
Congratulations on Silas!!!