Sunday, Feb. 9, 2020 | 2 a.m.
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The impeachment trial of President Donald John Trump is over. Its end was written from the beginning and, therefore, the acquittal is no surprise.
I am told that those Americans who watched all or most of the proceedings amount to what is commonly referred to as an insignificant few.
And why were so few people interested in one of the greatest civics lessons of our time? I think it is because we have lives. And obligations and responsibilities. And we have very little time to watch what we know will come to naught at a time in our national politics where most things mean nothing and where nothing good seems to get accomplished.
So America hardly paid notice to an event that earlier generations remained glued to their seats to watch. An impeachment proceeding, thankfully, is something very few Americans have ever had the opportunity to witness, but witness it they did.
Our failure to pay attention could be described as a failure of citizenship.
History will pick apart every aspect of the impeachment effort. We need not do that here and at this time. But I suspect some of us — those who learned all about civic affairs, government and American history as young students — will not be around when the definitive history of this time is actually written.
And when the history of this time is set right in a fact-based, dispassionate manner, those who are around will not have been as well-versed in those same areas of study as were their forbears who would be more than willing, however unable, to avail themselves of such worldly matters.
So, in the spirit of trying to educate those who believe in learning about such things, I am reprinting a part of a speech made on the U.S. Senate floor toward the end of President Trump’s impeachment trial.
The words speak for themselves and their message — from a historic and educational standpoint — will, I believe, withstand the test of time as our democracy and the American people continue to lurch to and fro in our quest for a more perfect union.
The speech follows:
“...The Republican Party of Nixon’s time broke into the DNC, and the president covered it up. Nixon, too, abused the power of his office to gain an unfair advantage over his opponents, but in Watergate he never sought to coerce a foreign power to aid his re-election, nor did he sacrifice our national security in such a palpable and destructive way as withholding aid from an ally at war. And he certainly did not engage in the wholesale obstruction of Congress or justice that we have seen this president commit.
“The facts of President Clinton’s misconduct pale in comparison to Nixon and do not hold a candle to Donald Trump. Lying about an affair is morally wrong and when under oath it is a crime, but it had nothing to do with his duties in office.
“The process being the same and the facts of the president’s misconduct being far more destructive than either past president, what then accounts for the disparate result in bipartisan support for his removal? What has changed?
“The short answer is we have changed. The members of Congress have changed.
“For reasons as varied as the stars, the members of this body and ours in the House are now far more accepting of the most serious misconduct of a president as long as it is a president of one’s own party. And that is a trend most dangerous for our country.
“Fifty years ago, no lawyer representing the president would have ever made the outlandish argument that if the president believes his corruption will serve to get him re-elected, whether it is by coercing an ally to help him cheat or in any other form, that he may not be impeached. That this is somehow a permissible use of his power. But here we are. The argument has been made, and some appear ready to accept it. And that is dangerous, for there is no limiting principle to that position.
“It must have come as a shock, a pleasant shock to this president, that our norms and institutions would prove to be so weak.
“The independence of the Justice Department and its formally proud Office of Legal Counsel now mere legal tools at the president’s disposal to investigate enemies or churn out helpful opinions not worth the paper they are written on.
“The FBI painted by a president as corrupt and disloyal.
“The intelligence community not to be trusted against the good counsel of Vladimir Putin.
“The press portrayed as enemies of the people.
“The daily attacks on the guardrails of our democracy so relentlessly assailed have made us numb and blind to the consequences.
“Does none of that matter anymore if he is the president of our party?
“I hope and pray that we never have a president like Donald Trump in the Democratic Party, one that would betray the national interest in the country’s security to help with his re-election.
“And I would hope to God that if we did, we would impeach him and Democrats would lead the way.
“But I suppose you never know just how difficult that is until you are confronted with it. But you, my friends, are confronted with it. You are confronted with that difficulty now, and you must not shrink from it.
“History will not be kind to Donald Trump. I think we all know that. Not because it will be written by Never Trumpers, but because whenever we have departed from the values of our nation we have come to regret it, and that regret is written all over the pages of our history.
“If you find that the House has proven its case and still vote to acquit, your name will be tied to his with a cord of steel and for all of history. But if you find the courage to stand up to him and to speak the awful truth to his rank falsehood, your place will be among the Davids who took on Goliath.
“If only you will say enough.
“We revere the wisdom of our founders and the insights they had into self-governance. We scour their words for hidden meaning and try to place ourselves in their shoes. But we have one advantage that the founders did not. For all their genius they could not see but opaquely into the future.
“We, on the other hand, have the advantage of time, of seeing how their great experiment in self-governance has progressed.
When we look at the sweep of history, there are times when our nation and the rest of the world have moved with a seemingly irresistible force in the direction of greater freedom — more freedom to speak and to assemble, to practice our faith and tolerate the faith of others, to love who we would and choose love over hate, more free societies, walls tumbling down, nations reborn.
“But then, like a pendulum approaching the end of its arc, the outward movement begins to arrest. The golden globe of freedom reaches its zenith and starts to retreat. The pendulum swings back past the center and recedes into a dark unknown.
“How much farther will it travel in its illiberal direction and how many more freedoms will be extinguished before it turns back? We cannot say.
But what we do here in this moment will affect its course and its correction. Every single vote, even a single vote by a single member, can change the course of history.
“It is said that a single man or woman of courage makes a majority. Is there one among you who will say enough?
“America believes in a thing called truth. She does not believe we are entitled to our own alternate facts. She recoils at those who spread pernicious falsehoods.
“To her, truth matters. There is nothing more corrosive to a democracy than the idea that there is no truth.
“America also believes there is a difference between right and wrong, and right matters here. But there is more. Truth matters. Right matters. But so does decency. Decency matters.
“When the president smears a patriotic public servant like Marie Yovanovitch in pursuit of a corrupt aim, we recoil. When the president mocks the disabled, a war hero who was a prisoner of war or a Gold Star father, we are appalled. Because decency matters here. And when the president tries to coerce an ally to help him cheat in our elections and then covers it up, we must say enough.
“Enough.
“He has betrayed our national security, and he will do so again. He has compromised our elections, and he will do so again. You will not change him. You cannot constrain him. He is who he is. Truth matters little to him, what is right matters even less and decency matters not at all.
“I do not ask you to convict him because truth or right or decency matters nothing to him, but because we have proven our case and it matters to you.
“Truth matters to you. Right matters to you. You are decent. He is not who you are.
“In Federalist 55, James Madison wrote that there were certain qualities in human nature, qualities I believe like honesty, right and decency, which should justify our confidence in self-
government. He believed that we possess sufficient virtue that the chains of despotism were not necessary to restrain ourselves from destroying and devouring one another.
“It may be midnight in Washington, but the sun will rise again.
“I put my faith in the optimism of the founders. You should too. They gave us the tools to do the job, a remedy as powerful as the evil it was meant to constrain: impeachment.
“They meant it to be used rarely, but they put it in the Constitution for a reason. For a man who would sell out his country for a political favor. For a man who would threaten the integrity of our elections. For a man who would invite foreign interference in our affairs. For a man who would undermine our national security and that of our allies.
“For a man like Donald J. Trump.
“They gave you a remedy, and they meant for you to use it. They gave you an oath, and they meant for you to observe it.
“We have proven Donald Trump guilty. Now do impartial justice and convict him.”
Editor’s note: This was written by Congressman Adam Schiff, D-Calif. I acknowledge him at the end out of concern for those who might not have read this far had they known the author. This is about the message, not the messenger. And it is this message, I believe, that will endure. His words and warnings are not dissimilar to those we have read throughout our history when our country was faced with a simple choice of right and wrong. When courage not cowardice guided those choices.
Brian Greenspun is editor, publisher and owner of the Sun
