Lemonade out of Lemons By M. E. Boyd Esq., “Miss Constitution”

#twill #tcot #sbalich #maga #leadright #constitution #impeachment

CONSTITUTIONAL CONVERSATIONS

           Lemonade out of Lemons

                              by

     M. E. Boyd Esq., “Miss Constitution”

Miss Constitution hopes you were able to hear Alan Dershowitz and his terrific civics lesson to the United States Senate and the American people delivered during the Impeachment trial of the President. Dr. Dershowitz is a retired Constitutional law professor from Harvard and a life-long Democrat who nevertheless is calling out an improper and dangerous process begun by the Speaker of the House a short time ago to remove the President of the United States from office.

Miss Constitution’s concern is that in “winning” the vote to acquit in the Senate no attention will be paid to a flawed process that will be a huge loss for our country and irreparable damage to the power of the Constitution itself. Part of the Constitution’s power is that it is so revered and so respected as the Supreme Positive Law of the Land that honorable persons do not try and damage it. Dishonorable persons have no compunctions. Its only protection is the reaction of the Sovereign (We the People) and virtuous public servants who fall on their swords if they must. The Sovereign’s method of protecting this most precious of our governing documents is to remove persons from office who would do it harm with a resounding slam of the door behind them.

As articulated by Patrick Philbin, assistant counsel to the President, (and Miss Constitution’s favorite of the President’s attorneys), failing to address process issues will result in what he calls a NEW NORMAL of regular partisan Impeachments of a President. What makes this Impeachment process unconstitutional?

1. It is not bipartisan. Because it is not bipartisan there are no “checks” or restraints on House managers in their language and their willingness to destroy the system for immediate political gain. Were both parties convinced that the President had met the very high bar for removal there would be Republicans as part of the House managers presenting their case. This would automatically put a check on what was said and how it was said.
2. It eliminates the Doctrine of Consent of the Governed. This doctrine, enunciated first in the Mayflower Compact of 1620, articulates the concept that the People decide who shall govern them. Partisan politics presents reasons why a candidate should or should not be elected and the voters decide who they want to lead them. Removal of a candidate for office by Impeachment takes this decision out of the hands of the voter. The current President could not be on the ballot for the upcoming election were he to be removed by the Senate.

To be clear – a Constitutional Impeachment process of a President of the United States may be necessary on very rare occasions to protect the nation from harm. An unconstitutional Impeachment process of a President of the United States weakens the Office of the Presidency especially in the arena of foreign affairs. The President is the SOLE ORGAN OF FOREIGN POLICY, not bureaucrats who are there to inform and advise and then carry out the wishes of the President in conjunction with any shared power with Congress. A weakened President of the United States creates power vacuums in the world that are often filled with persons of a level of humanity that Miss Constitution does not want to put an adjective to. All Presidents protect the sausage-making of policy decisions fiercely through Executive Privilege that has been upheld  by the Supreme Court of the United States. No foreign dignitary is going to speak candidly to a President of the United States whose staff and other colleagues do not honor confidentiality. The result is often poor policy and disastrous results.

But we are where we are – an unconstitutional process was begun by the House of Representatives and the issue is now in the Senate.  What to do?

FOR NOW—

The only way the current situation can be handled without permanent damage to the Constitution is that a few Democrats vote for acquittal thereby making this whole thing bipartisan in the end. This would send a message to the House that their actions were improper and will not be tolerated. Sometimes politicians must fall on their swords for the sake of the nation. Lemonade out of lemons.

FOR THE FUTURE –

If a future Impeachment process is begun in the House without a whole House bipartisan vote, the issue should be referred to the Office of Legal Counsel in the Department of Justice so that a determination can be made of any Constitutional issues outside proper process and the matter determined by the Supreme Court, if they agree to take the case. In other words, an improper Impeachment of a President of the United States should never get to the Senate in the first place.

Miss Constitution would also recommend that we begin teaching (honestly and factually) civics, American history, philosophy, and economics to our future citizens beginning in first grade through high school. It takes a long time to learn the delicacy and complexity of our system and we will not always be able to count on Dr. Dershowitz to be there to teach it to us.

Copyright©2020 M.E. Boyd, Esq., “Miss Constitution”

APPLES OF GOLD – Voices from the Past that Speak to Us Now by M.E. Boyd is available at www.amazon.com