Elite Political Discourse Given Legitimacy To Donald Trump’s Acquittal
Introduction
The impeachment of President Donald Trump along the party line in the house o representatives and his acquittal by the Senate trial has drawn mixed debate concerning democracy and the future of America. After the discussion that took a whole day, the house of representatives voted to approve the first article of impeachment which charged Donald Trump with abuse of power .however the Senate trial acquitted he president which many viewed as a warning sign that the American political system is on the verge of collapsing
This is not the first time that the American president has been acquitted after being impeached. President Donald Trump is the third president of American history to be impeached by the house of represented only to be acquitted in a Senate trial . impeachment is a complex process in America. The primary debate has been if the offense is impeachable or not. However, abuse of power is more of a political; charge than a legal offense. The fact that its disposition is given to specific elected d official, they will have to make a political judgment. This judgment does not look at elements of the offense, like in the case of Donald Trump. Instead, they focus on whether the punishment correlates with the crime. Several political analysts and political figures have highlighted how many presidents misuse power have survived impeachment because of political decisions for the Senate to decide when to remove.
It is evident that there is no clear bipartisan public support for removing Trump .this is similar to Richard Nixon’s case where the impeachment failed to pass the house judiciary committee until it had majority support. Similarly, President Clinton acquittal was based on democrat voters who believed that it was imprudent to remove a president over felonies and instead focus on covering up for a political liability.
The various sentiment expressed by political figures in speeches has warned of the future of America being transformed into a right-wing Christian theocracy. In many ways, President Donald Trump has been termed as the tyrant because he is against the constitution he is expected to protect. Benjamin Franklin in his speech had warned America that quoting that “ rebellion to Tyranny is Obedience to God” similar in
In Federalist No. 47, James Madison also warned about demagogues and authoritarian like Donald Trump, who is perceived to have accumulated all power, including executive, judiciary, and legislative in the same hand, which to his definition is tyranny.
Public opinion polls and research show that Donald trump’s political cult is loyal to him. Fox News has been mentioned as the president’s right-wing propaganda machine used to distorted reality in the president’s favor. Donald Trump has been recorded to have told many public lies in the past. His hate-filled speeches continue to draw supporters primed for political violence through the president’s rhetoric behavior. This is different from what is considered a healthy democracy, which requires having a sense of reality and discerning truth from lies. However, Donald Trump and his supporters, including the Republican Party and the right-wing news media, have not accepted the basic principles of democracy since many believe they are enemies of freedom. To assess whether American democracy is under attack, this research question is: How has elite political discourse given legitimacy to Donald Trump’s acquittal after he was impeached by the House of Representatives on 18 December 2019. This research aims to understand how elite political discourse continues to legitimize corruption of the law t based on Donald Trump’s acquittal
Theory
The study focuses on republicans theory, analyzing their right-wing Christian theocracy approach its source of arguments and also explain the history of democracy and leadership. Newt Gingrich refers to the increasing authoritarianism of Republicans as common characteristics found among right-wing authoritarian leaders. According to Newt Gingrich, right-wing Christian theocracy theory defines authoritarians as leaders who are typical men and are exploitive, dishonest, cheat to win, highly prejudiced. He tells people what they want to hear. They also create false images to sell their ideas. Similarly, right-wing authoritarian followers share these traits, which explains why most republicans. Often act against the nation’s best interests; this also will explain why republicans have failed to criticize Trump’s racist ideologies and his wrongdoings.
Research method the research method will use content analysis to justify the research question. For this research purpose, content would mean written speeches in digital form. The research will focus on the concealed materials meaning that it would assess the meaning behind the expressions using this process. The research will identify patterns of speeches as part of the collected data from a set of texts, especially speeches from web content. the research content analysis will utilize a quantitative approach to assess the relevance of the messages to predict the public reaction
The sampling process involved identifying and selecting specific speeches and comments by President Trump, his supporters, The Republicans, and other political figures appearing on print media.
. The sampling process includes reviewing reliable online newsprints with speeches containing political comments and reviews. I will search using keywords such as democracy and authoritarians and impeachment to asses phrases appearing to is and analyze the meaning of these words in speeches to better understand the intentions and targets of different. Eventually, a total of 10 articles were identified for analysis .the articles contained statements and commentary by various key leaders who expressed their opinion about American democracy.
4) Analysis,
after reviewing the ten speeches and commentaries, it is evident that most leaders are concerned about the deteriorating democracy in America. The irony cited by the article is that most presidents have undermined the aim of having the executive branch accountable even though they claim to follow the constitution
. The content further reveled that meaningful and fair trials cannot be achieved through the Senate because the political system lacked open-minded individuals. This explains the reason why Republican elites did not bother hearing the testimony by John Bolton despite new evidence against Donald Trump being presented. It is like the Senate had already decided t acquit Donald Trump. Most authors of the article researched believes that the whole impeachment process is more of a political process .
One of the reiterated that the law is undefined thus legal text cannot have tangible meaning unless it is seen through the lens to particular priorities. This research confirms that the law is indeterminate based on several examples argued by Trump, .like in the case where Trump supported the 2002 law that authorized the Bush invasion of Iraq. These are some of the models derived from the research to prove how some president’s actions are justified despite not following the proper process of authorization. Regarding Trump’s impeachment, the study reveals that the senate design can become a clear manifestation of politics as usual. The research shows that political elites are responsible for crafting the outcome of the senate acquittal. This is because the president himself has the tendency of characterizing the opposition as bad and uses narrow partisan politics. From a republican perspective, the impeachment is more of an effort by democratic to remove a duly elected president. Despite more evidence surfacing each day, this proves that there are different competing narratives about the misconception of impeachment. Republicans have viewed Trump’s impeachment as partisan politics, which many scholars refer to as the legalization of national politics by the leader.
In my view, impeachment is a crucial feature that reveals a deeper separation of power, which is framed in different ways. This should not be just a legal procedure or a problem to b left for the judiciary to solve like it has been the case in trump trial.
During the trial, the constitution was frequently used as the primary reference document; this means that the impeachment power was designed to address specific parts of the constitutional failure, which if not a legal issue. The main challenge is whether the process is systematic failure or carelessness of the constitution.
The removal from office through conviction seems to be the possible outcome when addressing president misuse of power. However, neither the house of representatives or the Senate, even the supreme court, can offer punishment that is not politically inclined. I do believe that the constitution provides Congress and the executive branch with conflicting interpretations regarding impeachment. The president has some legitimate powers to keep secrets based on the national security; tension has existed which is reasonable this explains why Trump and the republican have distorted the whole impeachment process, which makes the process look partisan
The Senate acquittal of the president based on “executive privilege” is not the constitutional problem. However, the Senate’s refusal to review relevant evidence or witnesses during the trial is the main problem that seems to have threatened democracy and the constitutional order. This proves that the elite political discourse g has indeed provided legitimacy to Donald Trump’s acquittal after the House of Representatives impeached him. The findings offer valid evidence from political experts, the party representatives and constitutional analyst whom al believe that the continuous republican protection of the president and the acquittal of Donald Trump are both signs of constitutional decay.