AS I SEE IT
By Neal A. Shipman
Farmer Editor
Almost as soon as Donald Trump was elected as the 45th President of the United States in 2016, members of the Democratic party as well as many others began calling for his removal from office. For the past three years, the President has been the constant target of charges accusing him of colluding with the Russians during the presidential election, accepting payments from foreign dignitaries and many others.
Unfortunately for the Democrats those charges, while garnering a lot of attention by the national media, have so far proven to be unsubstantiated. But still the Democrats have continued to turn over every stone in search of something that they could find that would prove to be an impeachable offense.
And now the Democrats are saying that Trump committed an impeachable offense by threatening to withhold U.S. support for the Ukraine in a phone conversation with that country’s leader unless that country investigated the son of Democratic president hopeful and former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden.
Whether or not Trump did actually make that request of the Ukraine president has been the subject of months of closed door hearings by the Democrats. But last week the U.S. House of Representatives Democrats approved a resolution on a party line vote that will open future hearings to allow the public to hear the latest round of challenges.
It is good news as the public will finally get to hear what is being said by both sides in the hearings instead of just getting the one-sided discussions that promote a move to impeachment.
But there are two big questions that remain as the hearings go public. One, is the public really that interested in watching or listening to the hearings? And second, will anything that is said during those hearings change the public’s opinion as to whether or not the House of Representatives should move forward with formal impeachment proceedings?
My guess is the answer to both of those questions is probably no.
I believe the general public has long grown tired of the constant news coverage over the past two years where one charge against Trump is played out only to be replaced with a new charge after the previous has been discounted. To many people, it appears that the Democrats are just throwing as many charges as they can find against the President and hoping that one sticks.
Second, is taking the hearing process public going to change anyone’s mind about impeachment? Again, probably not. President Trump has had those who love him and those who hate him from the time he was elected. And those levels of support and opposition have been proven out time and time again by national polls.
As is seen in the majority of political opinion polls, those who either support or oppose the impeachment of Trump is clearly divided along party lines with 80 percent of Republicans opposing the impeachment, while an equal percentage of Democrats support removing him from office. And as a nation, 45 percent of voters lean toward impeachment, while 41 percent oppose it.
The Democrats and others who are pushing for an impeachment have every right to do so. But as poll numbers show, Americans may be getting weary of the entire process and would rather make their decision as to whether or not Trump should be re-elected to a second term in the 2020 election at the election box.