The Left Case for Impeachment
Impeachment is about more than Donald Trump — it has the potential to undermine the right-wing forces that stand behind him. Socialists should see impeachment as an opportunity to attack a movement that poses a long-run threat to the Left’s very existence.
The House Judiciary Committee votes on the two articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump on December 13, 2019 in Washington, DC. (Drew Angerer / Getty Images)
The urgency of removing Donald J. Trump from the presidency seems to escape some on the Left. Coverage of the progress toward impeachment is conspicuously absent from the front pages of leading left websites.
To be sure, an obsession with impeachment can be tedious. We seek more than a restoration of the Obama-Clinton order, much less the elevation of President Michael Pence. The House Democrats’ main complaint about Trump seems to boil down to his being a bad Republican. Both the Left and center can do better, especially with some coordination, a bit like what we old folks used to call a popular front.
I share the pervasive boredom with the House Democrats’ national security focus, a frequent theme in their attacks on the president. It may please the remaining neocons and #NeverTrumpers, but we don’t need to dwell on how to fortify NATO or support Ukrainian authoritarians against Russian kleptocrats (or vice versa).
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