Censure a better way than impeachment
That President Donald Trump strikes deep fear in the hearts of Republican members of Congress should be accepted as an unfortunate fact when consideration is given to his impeachment. One needs look no further than Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, who faces reelection in a deep-red state and who now serves as the president's emissary in the Republicans' latest effort to counter the House impeachment inquiry by requesting documents related to former Vice President Joe Biden's communications with Ukrainian officials.
A partisan House vote to impeach President Donald Trump over his wrongdoings that were convincingly illuminated by the recent House impeachment inquiry could very well be an unwise, if not a fatefully futile, course of action. It would not only surely fail in the Senate, which is held by Republicans beholden to Trump for their political survival, but it could also alienate independent 2020 voters and so jeopardize the opportunity to remove Trump from office via the ballot box.
The Democrats should instead use the information garnered from the House inquiries to write detailed articles for a resolution of censure based on the president's abuse of power and obstruction of these inquiries - an enumeration of his most egregious affronts to the spirit of the law and the Constitution, and to the honor and dignity of the office he holds. That in a nutshell appears to be a more realistic option for Congressional Democrats.
Frank G. Splitt
Mount Prospect