Chasing the White Whale

For John, BLUF:  We are going through a governmental spasm, triggered by Speaker Nancy Pelosi.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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The House votes to impeach Trump

From The New Neo, 13 January 2021.

Here is the lede plus two:

The charge is “incitement to insurrection.”  Which is appropriately Orwellian, since there was neither “incitement” (see this) nor an “insurrection” – except to the degree that any protest against the government that involves any violence at all could be labeled an insurrection.  You can find the legal definition of “insurrection” here and further explanation here.

There have been countless anti-government demonstrations by the left that have resulted in violence, both at the federal level in DC and at the state level all around the country.  No one has ever been charged with insurrection in connection with these events, as far as I know.  Protestors from the left have occupied the Capitol and the Senate offices, have disrupted the Kavanaugh hearings, have accosted Republican senators in the halls, have clashed with police in DC and set fires, have mobbed Republican office holders and threatened them as they left the Republican National Convention.  Leftist mobs have done even worse in states and cities around the country.  Has anyone who did this, or who actively encouraged them in any violence, ever been charged with insurrection or incitement to insurrection?  If they have been, I certainly haven’t read about it.

Nor should they be, in my opinion, because that sort of charge is a dangerous road to go down unless some very extreme conditions are met.  But the left has no trouble going down it in order to try to get Trump, even though there was nothing special that distinguishes what happened at the Capitol in terms of the amount of violence (broken windows, clashes with police).  In addition, although we know the aim was to protest and disrupt the vote to accept the electoral votes for Biden as president, that’s all we know.  They didn’t seem to be armed with guns and there’s no indication that the vast majority of even those who were physically fighting with police were intending anything other than a disruptive protest, which has certainly occurred before.  At any rate, not only did Trump not “incite” them to violence, he actually called for a peaceful demonstration.

It is a long post, but worth the time.  This action needs to be calmly understood, and we need to sort out the parts.  What has happened is that Speaker Pelosi has been willing to prevert our understanding of the Constitution and the law, ruining it for the rest of us.

To be clear, I think this Impeachment action is a misguided kneejerk reaction that misses the target.  It also puts off the required reconciliation.  It took us decades to get reconciliation following the American Civil War.  In this day and age, with the British no longer there to give the world peace, we need to come together relatively quickly.

One of my relatives related Speaker Pelosi to Captain Ahab, in the Herman Melville novel Moby-Dick?  I think that is apt.

Regards  —  Cliff