I have seen articles ranging from ‘we should impeach him now’ to ‘it is a pipe dream that Trump will be impeached.’ I believe that the Democratic Party should push hard for impeachment based upon the Emoluments Clause as quickly as possible. I believe this for the following reasons:

#1) Pushing for Articles of Impeachment by the Democrats will force the issue onto the front burner. Of course the Democrats as a minority in both the House and Senate cannot force the Republicans to Impeach the leader of this Republican Administration, but it will force them to deal with in in a way that will generate headlines across the spectrum. What I have learned from years of teaching and posting on Facebook is that the sheer volume of news thrown at people every day makes it very hard to keep a focus. And, repetition is essential to the process of learning. There are daily outrages emanating from this current Republican Administration that make it difficult to focus on the actionable ones. Conway making up the Bowling Green Massacre; the Republican Administration and its press agents continually pushing the utter fabrication that voter fraud is an enormous problem that demands immediate attention and probably cost Trump the popular vote. When they do this they set the agenda since the 24 hour media is headline driven, which keeps the focus off of the more serious issues. By saying they intend to draw up Articles of Impeachment, the Democratic Party will have to clearly articulate the connection between the current Republican Administration’s serious issues with running  businesses that derive profit from policy, both foreign and domestic. And it will force the Republican Party Establishment to address the issue if only to condemn it and try to minimize its importance. With the Democrats pushing the issue, the Republicans resisting it, the media will be given a daily focus for their news that will be primary and will drown out some of the noise coming from the diversionary tactics of the current Republican Administration.

#2) And perhaps #2 should be in 1st place, but in fact, it appears that there are elements of this Republican Administration that appear to be impeachable offenses. The business/political overlap, conflicts over which are being forcefully pushed by the administration’s minions (Conway urging people to buy Ivanka’s lines and criticizing Retailers who are dropping it; Spicer’s comments as Press Secretary critical of retailers’ dropping of Ivanka’s lines). In addition, there now stories that government agencies are planning on possibly renting space in the Trump Tower, and the conflict over Trump’s being  granted  a lease based on highly questionable terms by the GSA in the Old Post Office building in D.C.:

“If elected president, Donald Trump would bring with him to the White House unprecedented conflicts of interest, thanks to his sprawling holdings and various debts, including more than $100 million owed to a foreign bank. But his biggest conflict might be the $200 million hotel project Trump’s company is developing a couple of blocks from the White House in the Old Post Office Building, a historic property owned by the federal government and leased to the Trump Organization for 60 years. It seems likely, if not inevitable, that during a Trump presidency the federal government could find itself negotiating with the commander in chief—or his children—over matters relating to the new Trump International Hotel.”

Mother Jones, 10/15/2016

#3) Finally, the Democratic Party must be persistent in demanding a full investigation into the Dossier regarding the possible compromising of #45 by Russian Intelligence. The information regarding the validity is tantalizing, but right now, it can only be claimed to appear to have some validity. The problem is that, unless and until firm evidence links the dossier with Russian involvement in the election (which is no longer in doubt), the most salacious and perhaps least significant information is what gets splashed around, making the left look as silly as the fake-news sites that claimed that Hillary ran a sex ring in a Washington D.C. pizzeria. Whether or not Russia has video of Donald Trump taking “golden showers” in a Russian Hotel room doesn’t really matter as much as the fact that Trump was a regular visitor to Russia and has had a fairly well-established relationship with Putin. And it is certainly not specious to claim that Putin, the Global Master Manipulator, former head of the KGB, had a very large interest in tracking #45’s travels to Russia, using unsecured phones and computers. And finally, if any of this is true, it is of absolutely critical importance to track the information down. The head of this current Republican Administration has proven himself to be a man who could euphemistically be said to have a questionable character. So, his behavior overseas, which as a private citizen was his own business becomes the country’s business if it poses a potential hazard to the survival or security of our nation. That there is potentially impeachable conduct should any or all of the Dossier’s content prove to be true is absolutely beyond question.

Since the impeachment of Andrew Johnson, Abraham Lincoln’s VP, who took office at Lincoln’s assassination, impeachment has only been used twice. Once as a threat that caused Nixon to resign over Watergate, CREEP, etc, and one other time against Clinton, not, for having had a sexual relationship with Lewinsky, but for lying about it. An important note here: Few people understand exactly what Impeachment is: To be impeached means to have charges levied against a President for “high crimes or misdemeanors.” The charges are filed in the House of Representatives, and the Impeachment trial takes place in the Senate. The Senate is actually transformed into a court which tries the charges of impeachment. Very important fact: Only TWO presidents have been impeached, (Johnson and Clinton) and neither was convicted. Johnson’s impeachment failed by one vote and Clinton’s wasn’t even close because it was largely split down party lines. Using the word impeach as a non-political term means to challenge someones character. The accusations against Bob amounted to an impeaching of his integrity. 

Impeach: 1) to accuse a public official before an appropriate tribunal of misconduct in office 2) In law: to challenge the credibility of; to impeach a witness 3) To bring an accusation against 4) to call in question; cast an imputation upon; to impeach someone’s motives 5) to call into account

The fundamental strategy now of resistance to this current Republican Administration will be successful to the degree that it is credible, fact-based and persistent. All else is distraction or for barroom banter. And there is certainly a place for the barroom banter. It helps to distract us from the need to be so rigorous in our efforts in the public sphere and also, as Mel Brooks said about criticism of The Producers: Making fun of tyrants and other bad people helps us to strip them of their power.

But there is a time and a place.