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My politics are to the left of the center. I believe that the Presidency or current occupant of the White House is among the worst things to have happened to the United States. I would relish his removal.
Nonetheless, I oppose impeachment. There are, I think, good moral, political, social, and psychological reasons to do so. And there is an alternative.
The Moral Imperative: The Right Versus the Good
Let’s start with the moral reasons. Are there good moral reasons to impeach? To the extent that the President committed "high crimes and misdemeanors"—the Constitutional standard for impeachment—one can easily argue that the right thing to do is to impeach.
Has the president committed acts that can rise to the Constitutional standard of “high crimes and misdemeanors”? Does he deserve to be impeached? In my view, well, yes.
But there are also moral reasons not to impeach. The moral domain is not simply the province of what is right or wrong; it is also the arena of what is good or bad as well. Impeachment might be the right thing to do, but it may not be the good thing to do. There are many right and good things that we can choose to do—the problem is that we cannot always choose to do them all at once.
We are living in a time of deep political polarization. The election of Trump to office is not the cause of that polarization; it is the result of it. Those who find Trump’s reign repugnant have a right to be angry. However, removing Trump from office will not repair the political problems and social ruptures that put him there. In fact, it's likely to deepen them.
What would be good for the country is to seek ways to resolve the nasty problem of political polarization among partisans and elites. This is a situation in which what is good for the country outweighs what may be seen as the right thing to do.
Our Political Need: Bridging Divides
What would be good for the country is to seek ways to resolve the problem of polarization. This is a tall order. However, a good starting point might be to see that during the 2016 election, swing voters did not so much vote for Trump as much as they voted against the Democratic party.
To the extent that this is so, it would make sense to try to identify why swing voters in Florida, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin voted for Trump. And then, having listened closely and found some answers, seek to identify how to meet the concerns of those voters in ways that are consistent with shared values. It is likely that if this were done, we would discover that many swing voters find the current leftward turn of Democratic party to be distasteful.
Whether correct or incorrect, many independent voters are likely to fear that Democrats want to take away certain rights (to personal health plans, to guns); that their economic prospects have been curtailed; that the priorities of various identity groups have been placed before theirs; that they feel "talked down to" by left-leaning politicians; and so forth.
As a result, in our current climate of mistrust, incivility, and winner-take-all politics, the impetus for impeachment is more likely to divide than unite. Impeachment is unlikely to convince voters who have been hesitant to vote for Democrats to do so. Instead, it is likely to reinforce their existing distaste for Democratic positions. In short, the move can backfire.
But even if it doesn’t backfire—say the Democrats win the impeachment fight—they will almost certainly embolden their adversaries in ways that will foster increasingly bitter and entrenched forms of political warfare. Either way, impeachment is not a formula for healing; it is fuel for fomenting still more entrenched social conflict.
An Alternative: Bold Problem-Solving and Moral Humility
Americans are polarized. We are angry with each other. We aren’t listening to each other, because we don’t respect each other. Each side is certain that the other side is morally wrong. For either side to reach out to the other is to risk being seen as endorsing the morally repugnant views of the other.
We have come to identify ourselves in terms of our political beliefs. That is, we no longer have political beliefs; we are our political beliefs. When this happens, egos and identities are put on the line. If I am my political identifications, and if we are morally right and they are morally wrong, all we have left is a vicious power struggle. This doesn’t end well.
The alternative to impeachment is to place the goal of healing the nation above the goal of being right or wrong. It involves seeing it is possible to have strong beliefs and moral humility at the same time.
It involves seeing that reaching out to “the other side” does not mean giving in to “the other side”—that it is possible to assert one’s own interests and beliefs boldly while simultaneously seeking to understand why in the world “the other side” thinks and acts the way they do. It involves trying to find novel ways to bridge political divides—ways that no one has yet thought of because we are too squeamish about engaging each other on the deep levels at which it really matters.
Despite the political polarization of party elites, there remains a vast political center. This is not often discussed in our current political climate. Let’s initiate some conversations with and among the vast political center. Let’s take each other’s concerns seriously. Let’s care about “the other side” and try to understand that their needs and beliefs make sense to them, if not to us.
Let’s try to find new ways to understand what really matters to each side. Genuine respect and care can go a long way. Good-faith efforts can allow us to seek new solutions to entrenched problems—solutions that no one has thought of yet, because we have been too busy trying to beat down the moral impurity of “the other side.”
The time we will spend on impeachment can be spent seeking new ways to address the problems of voters who feel alienated by those at both political extremes. The process of impeachment—no matter how much it is deserved—is likely to reinforce than remove our national divide.
Don’t impeach Trump—contain him. Then do the hard work of trying to respect your opponent. Common ground is created—not simply found. And so, it is not necessary to give in to the other in order to work with the other.
That is the alternative to impeachment—and all that motivates it and comes from it.
