Heaven forefend! Trump is 'impeached forever'

Following the House of Representatives' vote on articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump last month, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., made the rounds of establishment news venues, triumphantly declaring that Trump had been "impeached forever." In dealing with a mind like Pelosi's, it's difficult to ascertain with certainty precisely what the addled, seditious hag meant by this, but it is probable that she was referring to the stain impeachment will ostensibly leave on Trump's legacy. Henceforth, Trump will be counted with those very few of our presidents who suffered the ignominy of impeachment – damned for all time.

Or not. Following the impeachment vote and the mincing jubilation of Democratic lawmakers, Trump detractors across America celebrated; on social media, leftists trolled Trump supporters and gloated like 5-year-olds.

It was actually quite gratifying to witness the letdown experienced by a lot of these people when President Trump was not immediately perp-walked from the White House in chains. It quickly became apparent that many of them had no idea what impeachment actually means.

Now, that's not altogether surprising. Leftists cemented their power in key sectors over the last several decades in an incremental fashion. As a result, those who suffered under an increasingly abysmal educational system, increasingly biased press reporting and incessant propaganda simply have precious little knowledge with regard to how our government works.

That would be their loss, so to speak, were it not for the fact that Beltway Democrats have been fairly successful at re-making how our government works – in their own twisted image. In the articles of impeachment approved by the House, President Trump was charged with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. For those unclear on what that means, in this case, it means essentially whatever House Democratic leaders say it means.

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Since I've covered it previously in this space, I won't go into the fact that in pursuing impeachment of the president on such grounds, the Democrat-controlled House has become a manifestly lawless body. I will also refrain from belaboring the fact that such brazen affirmation of their lawlessness came as no surprise to me, given their enabling of Trump's predecessor and his myriad crimes. Finally, I won't rehash the fact that the latter tangentially implicates GOP lawmakers, which necessitates a close eye being kept on Senate Republicans during the impeachment trial.

Getting back to the questionable discomfiture of being "impeached forever": Pelosi's statement and, indeed, the stigma of having been impeached would carry far more weight had congressional Democrats not effectively changed what impeachment means over the last few months.

Prior to the impeachment proceedings against Trump, impeachment was a process that addressed high crimes and misdemeanors allegedly committed by those in high office. By their very actions during the House proceedings, congressional Democrats demonstrated that impeachment was no longer to be based on this criteria or the rule of law, but on the motives of whoever happened to be in control of the House, no matter how capricious these motives might be.

I'd say that this is somewhat analogous to awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to Barack Obama for doing absolutely nothing, as occurred in 2009. When you bestow a prestigious award upon an undeserving individual, whether it's the Nobel Prize or a grade-school participation trophy, you completely negate the significance of that award in perpetuity – in other words, forever.

Similarly, when you falsely accuse an individual of a crime or crimes, or retroactively criminalize non-criminal behavior, you negate the significance of prosecution itself, as well as severely diluting applicable legal statutes.

President Bill Clinton was impeached by the House in 1998, but he was not removed from office after trial in the Senate. Without getting into the legal and political machinations taking place at the time, while Clinton did indeed perjure himself as regards his relationship with Monica Lewinsky, lawmakers did not believe that this rose to the level of crimes necessitating the removal of a sitting president.

Leaving aside the cultural implications of Clinton's impeachment – he will long be remembered by many Americans as having ushered in the age of "character doesn't matter" – the process was little more than a bump in the road for Clinton in the operational sense. Given that the man possesses absolutely no sense of shame, we didn't even get to see Clinton look chagrined when it was all over. Impeachment did not stop Clinton from advancing his agenda, amassing millions of dollars when he left office, nor getting to run around the world playing elder statesman for the rest of his life.

So, if Clinton's impeachment was a mortal wound to the impeachment process, Trump's impeachment is likely to be the coup de grâce, particularly if he is not convicted in the Senate. Never again will our chief executives fear impeachment to the same degree as in the past, nor will Americans ever again view impeachment as carrying the same level of dishonor. What's far worse is that future presidents may have to commit capital crimes before they merit the efforts of the House Judiciary Committee, given Democrats' insistence on crying wolf as regards Trump's alleged crimes.

All of this being predicated on the motives of whoever happens to be in control of the House at any given time in the future, of course.