(Political Notebook)
From the Democrats of Hemet – San Jacinto
The impeachment process of Donald Trump has been in the news since the House of Representatives officially began the process in early November. While items such as assassination, missiles hitting a U.S. Base in Iraq and the collateral damage from the assassination of a civilian airline being downed have pushed news of the impeachment process into fourth place, it will be coming back to the forefront when the Senate takes up the trial process. Understanding the constitution is vital to understanding the framework for how this process will proceed. Mitzi Carver of our local Democrats wrote the following as an explanation of why the impeachment process is necessary.
THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION: THE SUPREME LAW OF THE LAND
By Mitzi Carver
Secretary of the Democrats of Hemet-San Jacinto
The government of the United States was created through the writing of our Constitution in 1787. In this document, our Founding Fathers set up our democratic form of government with a balance of power between three separate parts: Congress (legislative branch), the Courts (judicial branch), and the President (executive branch). The purpose of separating power between these three branches was to prevent our government by the people from falling under the rule of any one person–such as King George III of England was in 1776. Avoiding any form of a dictatorship was one of the highest goals set by the Founding Fathers at the Constitutional Convention. As a result, our Constitution is the supreme law of the land–not any one citizen or one group of citizens.
To be sure our public servants work to serve the people of the United States, they all take an oath of office which requires the officials to uphold, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. This is their primary role as our public servants. This means these elected officials accept the separation of powers between the 3 branches of our democratic government and will work to maintain checks and balances on the actions of the other branches. This is exactly why impeachment procedures are included in the Constitution. Impeachment is a tool for the legislative branch to monitor and correct any abuse of power by an elected official.
As Americans, we must support our Constitution above any political party or elected official in order to maintain the democratic government created through this amazing document, which is truly the Supreme Law of the Land.
An additional point should be mentioned. The Constitution states that a Chief Justice of the Supreme Court will preside over the trial. While Chief Justice Roberts is more conservative than I would prefer he has demonstrated that he is vitally concerned with the integrity of the Court and will go to great lengths to protect it. I point this out because there is a high probably that the leader of the Senate, Mitch McConnell and Justice Roberts will be at odds over the issue of witnesses. From all appearances the Senate majority leader does not want witnesses. I think we all know that when a witness takes an oath before any court they swear to tell the truth and the whole truth and the whole truth will not come out without several first hands witnesses appearing before the Senate trial. I hope the Chief Justice understands that the integrity of our system of justice will be severely negatively impacted if the whole truth does not come out. He is the presiding officer of this trial and he can rule that witnesses need to appear. The Senate majority can call a vote on this issue but I doubt very many Republicans will vote to overrule the Chief Justice in an election year. At least I hope they will.
Dick Gale
President of the Democrats of Hemet – San Jacinto
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