All the Dems Want for Christmas Is Impeachment!

One line of defense the Republicans have been pushing the past few weeks (and months) is that the Democrats have been planning on impeaching President Trump ever since June 2019 (when the infamous call took place), or ever since he took office, or ever since he was running for President (as soon as it became evident that his bid for President was serious and more than a publicity stunt). The reasoning seems to be that the decision to impeach is unfair because they've wanted to impeach from the very beginning.

Watching the impeachment hearings and listening to the arguments on both sides really makes me want to go to law school. I write arguments and counterarguments in my head while watching and then get frustrated when the real lawyers make arguments different from my own. Oh, well. I'm not a lawyer, but I am a trained and card-carrying philosopher, which has its own claim to demonstrating some finesse with reasoning and argument-making.

One of the philosopher's favorite tools of reasoning is the thought experiment—a method of reasoning wherein we imagine something being the case and then deduce what sort of consequences would follow if it were, in fact, the case.

So, imagine a cop who, before going on duty, exclaims in the police station locker room, "I'm going to make an arrest tonight!" Let’s say he hates criminals—not an unreasonable assumption for someone who is expected to enforce the law. Other cops in the vicinity roll their eyes and laugh. No cop can *know* that he or she will make an arrest on any given night.

Some cops within earshot are annoyed; they think it's unfair of this one macho cop to claim in advance that he'll make an arrest—they even suspect he’ll be sure to make an arrest, just so he can brag about it and tell everyone, “I told you so.”

That night, during his first hour on duty, the cop gets hit, head-on, by a drunk driver. It's a low-speed accident, so the cop is able to get out of his patrol car, approach the other driver, and see that she’s passed out from the impact, head on the wheel. The car stinks of alcohol, and there’s a half-gone whiskey bottle on the passenger’s seat.

The cop revives the driver, extricates her from the car, and conducts a breathalyzer test, which she fails miserably. She gets arrested.

Now: Is the arrest unfair because the cop declared earlier that night that he was going to arrest someone?

Could anyone reasonably make that argument? I don't think so. The arrest is still warranted because the woman broke the law.

Now come back to the case at hand. Let's grant the Republican position that Democrats have had impeaching President Trump on their calendars for months or years (or since the Donald was conceived if you like). Does this position at all negate the fact that President Trump committed impeachable offenses?

If I were a lawyer representing the Democratic contingency, when the Republicans charged that my clients had wanted impeachment all along, I would say sure; I bet some of them did. Some people felt that a reality TV star and real estate developer didn't have the right background to become President of the United States. Some people even felt strongly enough that Trump would be problematic as President that they wanted him impeached, come hell or high water.

And then Trump made their dreams come true. He made it almost too easy. He committed multiple crimes and multiple impeachable offenses for which he has no clear defense. And I would conclude, “I rest my case”—the legal equivalent of a mic drop.

Ultimately, it doesn't matter what the Democrats wanted or hoped or wished would happen. Donald Trump committed several acts that constitutional legal experts have identified as impeachable. And lots of people agree with the experts. I think we know that no matter how hard we wish Santa Claus were real, he’s not. Wishing something doesn’t make it come true.

The Dems’ wishes didn’t cause impeachment; the Donald did.