<
https://www.techdirt.com/2026/03/16/americas-diminished-place-in-the-world-and-the-consequences-of-not-impeaching/>
"It has long been clear: Trump needs to be removed from office before he can
inflict even more damage than he already has. But he doesn’t just need to be
stopped; for America to have a future he also needs to be repudiated.
Impeachment speaks to each need, to both make clear his behavior is beyond
anything we would ever tolerate as well as remove his capacity to continue it.
But by not even attempting to impeach him, or any of his malign administration
officials, he not only remains able to wreak more destruction but he now does
it with Congress’s blessing. Instead of being repudiated, his behavior is
endorsed. Because one could fairly conclude that if anyone in Congress had an
issue with what Trump is doing, then surely they would try to do something to
stop it with the power they have. Yet, with the so far sole exception of
Representative Green, who has actually tried, twice, to file impeachment
articles against Trump, no one—from any party—has filed any against anyone.
Obviously many in Congress do in fact object to what Trump does—there are
tweets and speeches saying as much. But it’s all sound and fury signifying
nothing. Tweets and speeches do not amount to any sort of useful action. And
through inaction the only message we’re sending is that no one thinks it is
worth doing anything more.
A stunned and increasingly wounded world is now coming to terms with the
realization that Trump’s disqualifying misbehavior is the sort of thing can
happen in America, and moreover, the sort of thing that will be
allowed to
happen in America. His abuse of power—as well as his warmongering, war criming,
corruption, ignorance, incompetence, racism, and range of other
unconstitutional, illegal, and even criminal activities—is apparently something
not just possible under our constitutional order but enabled. As we watch an
addled monster drive us all towards disaster, with the rest of the U.S.
government willingly along for the ride and no one with the constitutional
authority even trying to apply the brakes, one is left to conclude that, at
best, our vaunted Constitution must not provide an effective immune system to
address Trump’s antidemocratic malfeasance, or, worse, that Americans are fine
with all of it, because, even if there were a mechanism to stop him, there’s
apparently no one with the authority to trigger it who thinks it’s worth
bothering with. Both conclusions paint a very different picture of what sort of
country the United States is than most had previously imagined, and it is this
re-envisioning of America that will affect how others let the country and its
people live in the wider world even after Trump is finally gone."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
