{"id":723644,"date":"2019-09-26T12:55:04","date_gmt":"2019-09-26T18:55:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=723644"},"modified":"2019-10-22T08:27:29","modified_gmt":"2019-10-22T14:27:29","slug":"impeachment-can-work-if-torres-small-others-show-courage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2019\/09\/impeachment-can-work-if-torres-small-others-show-courage\/","title":{"rendered":"Impeachment can work if Torres Small, others show courage"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
U.S. Rep. Xochitl Torres Small (Courtesy photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

COMMENTARY:<\/strong> I\u2019m old enough to remember when Republicans complained about corruption during Bill Richardson\u2019s tenure as governor. I\u2019m old enough to remember, during Bill Clinton\u2019s impeachment, when they said morality and character matter. In both instances, Republicans were on the right side of history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the GOP\u2019s transformation into a partner in Donald Trump\u2019s crimes \u2014 which are immensely worse than Richardson\u2019s and Clinton\u2019s misdeeds \u2014 is stunning. It\u2019s also a serious threat to our republic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most House Democrats are now on the impeachment bandwagon. The newest revelation, that the president asked Ukraine\u2019s leader to interfere in the 2020 presidential race days after he froze nearly $400 million in military aid to the country, seems to be more motivating than the intentional traumatizing of migrant children<\/a>. The allegation that the White House has been hiding troubling records of Trump\u2019s phone calls in classified files<\/a>, which is revealed in the Ukraine whistleblower complaint, is horrific. Trump\u2019s threat<\/a> to people who supplied information to the whistleblower is too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So we\u2019re finally attempting to take the presidency from a man who is destroying the nation for personal gain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I understand the politics that led many Democrats, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, to approach impeachment cautiously. The votes to remove the president may not exist in the Republican-controlled Senate and the public hasn\u2019t shown support for impeachment. Some fear moving ahead could create an electoral backlash against Democrats in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I understand why my congresswoman, Democrat Xochitl Torres Small, remains on the fence, for now one of a handful of House Democrats who aren\u2019t supporting the impeachment inquiry<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She represents a right-leaning district where opposition to Trump doesn\u2019t play well. She needs some Trump voters to back her re-election bid against a Trump-supporting Republican or she\u2019ll lose. I assume that\u2019s a factor in every decision she makes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Torres Small is the first woman and person of color to represent my congressional district. She\u2019s smart, hard-working and likable. She\u2019s my girlfriend\u2019s friend (and for the sake of disclosure, her office has paid my girlfriend to do some contract work). She represents a border district at a time when the borderlands are under siege from our own federal government<\/a>. There are many reasons I want her to succeed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But this is no time to prioritize the next election over stopping a corrupt leader who\u2019s actively hurting people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ukraine aside, the president has obstructed justice<\/a> by interfering with the investigation into Russia\u2019s interference in the 2016 election. He\u2019s blatantly profiting off the presidency<\/a>, which is illegal. His campaign violated finance laws<\/a>, allegedly under his direction. His administration separated thousands of children from their parents to discourage further migration by intentionally traumatizing kids<\/a>, which should be an international crime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With his actions and words, Trump shares responsibility for the deaths of people in El Paso, Charlottesville and elsewhere, and for violence against Muslims<\/a>, migrants<\/a>, journalists<\/a>, liberals<\/a> and others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\u2019s pushing us closer to a recession or worse. He\u2019s banging the drums for war. He\u2019s helping incite division that could spark an armed conflict at home<\/a>. He\u2019s rejecting all efforts to save our society from climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A groundswell of outrage has powered the slog toward impeachment among Democrats. In New Mexico, U.S. Reps. Deb Haaland<\/a> and Ben Ray Luj\u00e1n<\/a> joined the fight last month. Luj\u00e1n, a Pelosi disciple, backed impeachment under pressure from his primary opponent in the U.S. Senate race, Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver, who has been a strong proponent of impeachment<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The political calculation is more complex for Torres Small, whose 2018 victory was a surprise to many. Now she has a record to attack. The idea that she can win enough Trump supporters after two years of carefully managing her image is a stretch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She has sometimes taken strong stands, like condeming racism and violence following the white supremacist terrorist attack in El Paso<\/a>, lamenting the deaths of migrant children in federal custody<\/a>, and complaining about the president diverting military funds to build the wall<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But when you\u2019re not working to remove a president who shares responsibility for those tragedies, some folks will spot a wink-wink at the end of those statements. Trump winks to his base all the time, so they\u2019re conditioned to see it happening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s the cost of re-election? Undermining our Constitution? Harming the borderlands and our country? Members of Congress who don\u2019t defend the nation from this very real threat are complicit in Trump\u2019s crimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Republicans Trump hasn\u2019t chased out of Congress<\/a> usually back him uniformly, often in defiance of morality and even logic. Trump is a master at bullying people into compliance. But I still believe it\u2019s possible to break his hold on others. There must be some Republicans who actually believe what their party said about character during Clinton\u2019s impeachment — even if Sen. Lindsey Graham isn\u2019t one of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are signs some Republicans might be willing to do the right thing. Sen. Mitt Romney was the first to express concern<\/a> about Ukraine. Sens. Ben Sasse and Pat Toomey have joined him. Rep. Will Hurd tweeted<\/a> concern about the whistleblower complaint Thursday, saying Congress needs to \u201cfully investigate\u201d the allegations. Rep. Mike Turner had stern words<\/a>: \u201cI want to say to the president, \u2018This is not OK. That conversation (with Ukraine\u2019s leader) is not OK.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The optimist in me says impeachment can work, that whistleblowers and Democrats taking a stand will build momentum and enough Republicans will follow that we can remove this threat from office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s my hope. For it to become reality, swing-district, fence-sitting members of Congress from both parties, including Torres Small, must keep their promise to \u201cdefend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

History will remember this moment.
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is no time to prioritize the next election over stopping a corrupt leader who\u2019s actively hurting people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":723653,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192,10],"tags":[3307,116,3658],"class_list":["post-723644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","category-haussamen-columns","tag-donald-trump","tag-washington","tag-xochitl-torres-small"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/723644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=723644"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/723644\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":725046,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/723644\/revisions\/725046"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/723653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=723644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=723644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=723644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}