LET THE PEOPLE DECIDE

LET THE PEOPLE DECIDE

 BY SCOTT JOHNSON IN 2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, DONALD TRUMP, RUSSIA INVESTIGATION

I recently quoted Seth Lipsky’s unsigned New York Sun editorial “The president in a vise”observing of the Mueller prosecutions: “This is part of an effort by the Democrats and their collaborators to overturn a presidential election that they thought they would win.” The editorial expressed my thoughts exactly. By the same token, so does the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette editorial “Let the people decide: A special prosecutor shouldn’t negate an election.”The Post-Gazette editors write at some length. This long excerpt below concludes the editorial:

Let’s be honest, all of this is about squeezing, delegitimizing, and, if possible, ultimately removing Donald Trump from office. Neither of these cases [against Paul Manafort or Michael Cohen], and none of the case being built with the president as target, so far as we know, are about Russian interference in our elections, or political corruption. They are not about justice. They are about politics. They are about “getting” Mr. Trump.

Many Americans think Mr. Trump should be removed from office for bad manners, for political and personal immaturity, and for degrading our politics and diminishing the presidency. But none of those is a crime, just as cheating on your wife is not a crime and employing snake oil salesmen is not a crime.

The voters elected Donald Trump. Why not trust them to decide if he should have majorities in Congress in 2018 or be removed from office in 2020?

Recall that many of them, a majority in the requisite states, knew he was far from a perfect person when they elected him in 2016. But he has given them lower taxes, fatter 401(k) accounts, a more muscular war on terror and a start at fair trade. Those people feel he has kept faith with them. And they will lose faith in the system if he is hounded from office by a prosecutorial coup.

Remember when candidate Trump said he might not accept the outcome of the election and liberals, properly, were aghast? Remember when he led chants of “lock her up, lock her up” at his rallies and the pundits (properly) said: My God, are we a banana republic in which the losing candidate goes to jail and the justice system is wholly politicized?

Well, what Mr. Trump threatened is actually being done to Mr. Trump by his enemies. The left and the deep state have not accepted the result of the election and have used every available means, including the Justice Department and the justice system, to say, in effect: “Get him out; get him out.”

We go down this road at our peril.

First, there is the matter of prosecutorial excess, which we saw in the case of Bill Clinton and Ken Starr, too. What do bag men and high fliers have to do with Russia interfering with the election? Interference, it should be noted, that no serious person can believe changed the outcome of the election.

Then there is the matter of a prosecutorial society. Do we really want to live in a polity in which a thousand little Javerts are always on a crusade against the sinners and the ne’er-do-wells? The New York prosecutors who broke Cohen reportedly did so in part by floating the possibility of jailing his wife, who had signed joint tax returns. That is known as a “prosecutorial pressure point.” So one wonders, paraphrasing Shakespeare, whether the cure for the disease of corruption is worse than the corruption.

But, lastly, if a special counsel or special prosecutor can negate a presidential election, we really are a banana republic and the republic is truly dead.

Donald Trump is a passing thing. Whatever good or harm he can do is fleeting. Not so the extra-constitutional remedies for him. Those will reverberate and corrode our national soul.

The whole thing here is worth reading.

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2018/08/let-the-people-decide.php

The Media's Latest Scam: Trump's Going to Be Impeached Because of the Michael Cohen Plea

The Media's Latest Scam: Trump's Going to Be Impeached Because of the Michael Cohen Plea

 

BY JOHN HAWKINS 

President Donald Trump reacts after speaking during a rally Tuesday, Aug. 21, 2018, in Charleston, W.Va. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

One of the “it’s so horrible it’s funny” things about the Trump era has been all the “Wow! Pence better get ready because this time we’ve got him for sure” stories. Trump says something, a scandal breaks, the media reports that an anonymous person who may or may not exist has revealed a shocking crime and it's supposed to be all over! Yet, like Jason from the Friday the 13th series, Trump shrugs off the media’s ax to the forehead or Democrats’ shotgun blast to the chest like it’s nothing and he’s back doing what he does five minutes later while they pull their hair out.

The latest story of this sort is Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen pleading guilty to a number of crimes, all of them unrelated to Trump except for a campaign finance violation. Cohen paid off the porn stars Trump slept with and Trump paid him back.

First of all, is this a campaign finance violation at all? That is arguable because campaign finance laws, beyond the basics, are a murky, byzantine mess that only highly specialized lawyers can navigate and even they only get definitive answers when a judge rules.

Trump’s argument will probably be something akin to, “My personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, paid off those women I slept with and I reimbursed him. No campaign funds were used. Michael Cohen told me it was legally fine and I did it because I didn’t want to cause any embarrassment to my family.” Is this true? We can’t know for sure at this point, but it certainly seems to be an extremely plausible argument. That is doubly so because Trump has a history of setting up nondisclosure agreements and paying out what could be considered “hush money.”

Cohen claimed that this was done to influence the election, likely because he was promised less time in jail on his other charges if he’d be willing to agree to something that could be used to implicate Trump. If this were to go further, you’d be likely to see a he said/she said argument. Cohen, who’s just been convicted of numerous crimes, will claim his client knew he was breaking the law, did it specifically for purposes of influencing the election, and told him to do this. Trump will say that isn’t true and that he had no reason to believe anything illegal was going on because his lawyer, whose advice he trusted, told him it was perfectly fine.

All of this is on top of the fact that whether this is even a campaign finance issue is extremely dubious. Apparently, no campaign funds were used. Cohen was paid back and using your own lawyer to coordinate that kind of payoff seems reasonable. Pretty clearly, no married man would want that kind of information out there, so you can’t even definitively say it was done for the sake of the campaign.

That being said, some people might compare this to payoffs to a mistress from a John Edwards donor, but it’s not really the same thing. Trump ultimately used his own money to pay off the women via his lawyer. Edwards didn’t pay back his political donor, which made it much easier to argue that it was a backdoor campaign contribution. Yet and still, Edwards wasn’t convicted in court over that allegation and Obama’s Justice Department dropped the case.

So, if Democrats retake the House, could they move to impeach Trump over this? Theoretically yes, because impeachment is a political question, not a legal question. They could call for impeaching Trump over this just as Republicans could have called for impeaching Obama over the 2008 campaign finance violation his campaign committed. If Democrats took power, they could try to impeach Trump for jaywalking if they wanted, but they wouldn't have enough votes in the Senate to get him out of office and it’s a dangerous course of action politically. Republicans learned that the hard way when the House impeached Bill Clinton and faced a political backlash from the American people. Barring stunning evidence of crimes that have yet to be publicly revealed, if Trump gets pushed out of the White House, it’s not going to be because of Robert Mueller claiming that he engaged in obstruction of an investigation into a crime that didn’t happen or a dubious campaign finance violation; it’ll be because he loses at the ballot box.  That’s how it’s supposed to be.

https://pjmedia.com/trending/the-medias-latest-scam-trumps-going-to-be-impeached-because-of-the-michael-cohen-plea/

SOCIALISM AS A HATE CRIME

BY SCOTT JOHNSON IN SOCIALISM

Socialism is a dark evil hiding under a mask of good intentions. Its millennial proponents have ignorance and stupidity going for them. James Piereson seeks to cure some of the ignorance in a New Criterion column with a twist “Socialism as a hate crime.” Piereson’s column renders The Black Book of Communism into a manifesto for the masses.

Piereson writes: “Socialism always and everywhere begins with humanistic promises and ends in barbarism.” The socialist virus infects the Trotsky of the Green Mountain State and his millennial disciples. It’s an epidemic. They now tout, for example:

• “Medicare for All”

• Housing as a human right

• A federal jobs guarantee with a minimum wage of $15 an hour

• “Free” tuition for higher education

Free! Everything should be free! No charge! Everything is to be freely dispensed. Everything but freedom. It boggles the mind.

“For a current example of the barbarous end game of socialist ideology,” AEI’s Mark Perry notes, “just look south to the escalating death spiral of misery, poverty and economic chaos in Venezuela.”

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2018/08/socialism-as-a-hate-crime.php

Want More Power To The People? Choose Capitalism

Want More Power To The People? 

Choose Capitalism

Capitalism encourages people to improve their lives by satisfying others’ needs and desires, 

by providing things other people want at a price they can pay.

By Andy Pudzer

AUGUST 21, 2018

The debate between capitalism and socialism is at least partly a debate over morality. The left claims benevolent socialism is necessary to protect the masses from the immorality of capitalist greed. Much of America’s youth appears to be buying into this myth.

A recent Gallup poll found that young Americans were actually more positive about socialism (51 percent) than about capitalism (45 percent). The percentage of young Americans with a positive view of capitalism has declined 23 points since 2010, when 68 percent viewed capitalism positively. That’s not surprising, given that most of these young people have been educated in a system controlled by progressives and fed leftist ideology as entertainment.

Filmmaker Oliver Stone personified the progressive notion of capitalist greed in the 1987 movie “Wall Street,” in which his character, Gordon Gekko—the Left’s stereotype of a capitalist—utters the phrase “Greed is good.” But, outside Hollywood, greed is not good, and capitalism is not based on greed. To the contrary, capitalism encourages people to improve their lives by satisfying others’ needs and desires, by providing the products or services that other people want at a price they can pay.

There’s a reason for the business mantra “the customer is always right.” To be a successful capitalist, you have to shift your focus outward, to the consumer. When I was the CEO of CKR Restaurants, Inc., the owner of the Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s restaurant chains, we spent millions of dollars every year trying to determine exactly what consumers wanted. Under capitalism, knowing what your customers want and offering it to them at an affordable price is the key to success. In fact, it’s the key to survival.

Capitalism is a kind of economic democracy, where consumers vote with every dollar they spend, determining which businesses succeed and fail. Look at the thousands of products in your local grocery store, shopping mall, or on Amazon, all vying for your attention. These products represent entrepreneurs striving to meet your needs as the way to achieve their own success. That may not be purely altruistic conduct, since capitalism depends on the desire of people to better their own lives, but it channels that natural desire into focusing on the opinions and preferences of a broad class of consumers.

In a socialist economy, rather than meeting the needs of others, you improve your life by getting more for yourself from the limited supply of goods, services, or benefits the government either makes or allows others to make available. Whether you get those goods depends on how well you please the political elites. People who are willing and able to make themselves useful to the powerful get special privileges, and since socialist systems produce so little wealth, everyone who is neither useful nor well connected stands in the inevitable bread line or waits her turn for gasoline.

In Venezuela today, under socialism there is a shortage of almost every basic consumer product. But you can bet that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s inner circle of friends, and the army troops that keep them in power, can get whatever they want. That’s the “benevolence” of socialism.

To distract from socialism’s history of failure, its proponents point to Nordic countries, Denmark in particular, where they claim that a new form of Democratic socialism has succeeded. But Denmark is not a socialist state. Rather, Denmark is a free market economy with an expanded welfare system.

You can argue about the costs of such a system and the point at which it reduces individual initiative, thus doing more harm than good. The Danes have been debatingexactly those issues for years. But only a capitalist free market economy can produce the wealth necessary to sustain such programs.

In a 2015 speech at Harvard University, Denmark’s prime minister stated: “I know that some people in the U.S. associate the Nordic model with some sort of socialism, therefore I would like to make one thing clear. Denmark is far from a socialist planned economy. Denmark is a market economy.” In 2016, a noted Danish economist told CNNthat Denmark’s major political parties would oppose many of democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders’ regulatory policies “as being too leftist.”

Rather than a heavily regulated socialist economy, the Heritage Foundation/Wall Street Journal’s 2018 Index of Economic Freedom ranks Denmark the 12th most economically free nation in the world, well ahead of the United States at 18th. It’s no coincidence that the impoverished socialist nations Cuba, Venezuela, and North Korea are listed as numbers 178, 179, and 180 out of the 180 nations the index ranks.

I have good news for young Americans today. Despite what you’ve been taught, the economic system in which you live is the best system ever devised for the poor and the marginalized. It gives them power, creates the opportunities that make them prosperous, and encourages everyone who wants to get ahead to satisfy the needs of others.

That system is currently driving a tremendous economic surge, lifting Americans from every class and race into a better life. It’s called capitalism.

Andrew F. Puzder is author of "The Capitalist Comeback," the former CEO of CKE Restaurants Holdings, Inc., a policy advisor to America First Policies, and a member of the Job Creators Network.

http://thefederalist.com/2018/08/21/want-economic-power-people-choose-capitalism/

DO DEMOCRATS WANT AN IMPEACHMENT FIGHT?

Patrick Buchanan predicts 'we are in for a hellish year'

image: https://www.wnd.com/files/2012/03/Patrick-J.-Buchanan_avatar.jpg

 PATRICK J. BUCHANAN 

 Print

 

 

“If anyone is looking for a good lawyer,” said President Donald Trump ruefully, “I would strongly suggest that you don’t retain the services of Michael Cohen.” Michael Cohen is no Roy Cohn.

Tuesday, Trump’s ex-lawyer, staring at five years in prison, pled guilty to a campaign violation that may not even be a crime.

Cohen had fronted the cash, $130,000, to pay porn star Stormy Daniels for keeping quiet about a decade-old tryst with Trump. He had also brokered a deal whereby the National Enquirer bought the rights to a story about a Trump affair with a Playboy model, to kill it.

Cohen claims he and Trump thus conspired to violate federal law. But paying girlfriends to keep past indiscretions private is neither a crime nor a campaign violation. And Trump could legally contribute as much as he wished to his own campaign for president.

Would a Democratic House, assuming we get one, really impeach a president for paying hush money to old girlfriends?

Hence the high-fives among never-Trumpers are premature.

But if Cohen’s guilty plea and Tuesday’s conviction of campaign manager Paul Manafort do not imperil Trump today, what they portend is ominous. For Cohen handled Trump’s dealings for more than a decade and has pledged full cooperation with prosecutors from both the Southern District of New York and the Robert Mueller investigation.

Nothing that comes of this collaboration will be helpful to Trump.

Also, Manafort, now a convicted felon facing life in prison, has the most compelling of motives to “flip” and reveal anything that could be useful to Mueller and harmful to Trump.

Then there is the Mueller probe itself.

Twenty-six months after the Watergate break-in, President Nixon had resigned. Twenty-six months after the hacking of the DNC and John Podesta emails, Mueller has yet to deliver hard evidence the Trump campaign colluded with Putin’s Russia, though this was his mandate.

However having, for a year now, been marching White House aides and campaign associates of Trump before a grand jury, Mueller has to be holding more cards than he is showing. And even if they do not directly implicate the president, more indictments may be coming down.

Mueller may not have the power to haul the president before a grand jury or indict him. After all, it is Parliament that deposes and beheads the king, not the sheriff of Nottingham. But Mueller will file a report with the Department of Justice that will be sent to the House.

And as this Congress has only weeks left before the 2018 elections, it will be the new House that meets in January, which may well be Democratic, that will receive Mueller’s report.

Still, as of now, it is hard to see how two-thirds of a new Senate would convict this president of high crimes and misdemeanors.

Thus we are in for a hellish year.

Trump is not going to resign. To do so would open him up to grand jury subpoenas, federal charges and civil suits for the rest of his life. To resign would be to give up his sword and shield, and all of his immunity. He would be crazy to leave himself naked to his enemies.

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oT1ObYRcMaoo7Du07S0H7PfmiZDqYA5FGXgLF4eY8ffXcdt/7XMzy/tpvpHXne/1en8eo3LOaEk1rIBAYii23YGuNxIm2Y4AUeJy1t4cRFp3Pl1Qt4YOUmVv5gAzf9y++5764NvP26U7n27UtwteHLVIPcsr2oi/CtphS3dYoczeBQJesJTcHxSw7uzHssaQ54dF+Nw0K2CiJKd2RJNJ0UJd8EQZC2mjFgE+zuzWlnZfPHTc8RajmH27kJdYqYUdomjtBapdH+AdBII1ALnmHdmoMcPFDnXe89lWv/dAmzTyym9l/isGEyKZ1slEAEvm84cVGJ996wgte+YSEr79zAj+7ayJrV+7hWFiPoSFNCAVsHreOrQqypkYkexYdtpFYmVsn4U0XfNR7dwOWWcsyje0OaPG90fVRIhhN0XiP/Uxszhx/gnv8DduMq/GXnT6mOY3bE2sexW54dnawSUhAk0bAvZDBW4yox7/vzZbztnSfRMaeEb0ATi3M6JUFlFzskAd8I8+Y18WcfehFv/tPFZDMertrgTw7tCBIgSZltDzBogwwZW4aCNVMrivLkwZB7tpZ5cEeF3ZWYJi81jofXJQ0dvOHTmxtYu9MlRXJNuD1biR++G++kM9ME4uMpNiF66A704C4kO8p2AIVGQGPYdwniEsRYRKB5Wobmjmz6Lq6R6zzlk3PKYwQCnfPyjRlCUetQp8PS8xxgEBV8T4SiL0gjinokplZV0WPIBBtLBGFhKcP6npDVXSHtGTM6cyrgrNKckUFPTMMaxFHKc0C6tOQKRA9+D2/OYjJXvWdkx0ylJDHh/V8j/vW9aQa7GSOLK8ggucb2AI3A1REfyuWY59bsI4kdZhTXUjk8KnC0gTneMs4pfiCcvLSV5vYMLm7YSxqBaUIlmxqkHTmfQASHcGxm5uSlNWt498mt/HhbFR2rCRRA6MwN7XXR/i40iZFMrnGPIpkcWq9Q+86nUOORvfJdUw+QJCb8n29Sv/2zKQWdLYxhLSrkmpDmBlPramjSjwmgWo749I1/YOfOKtmGge9IPbmBQWgabaFCwzZI+ygwQ16lkmbz2wYyRGTQRR0YyoaUQxpwqOqhZfasAjd/9TxaZuegHjey2uKUoDMNcMwq+JR8Q5yA7x0hEOYAd3xS2VTh0T01BBmzDiVdAheUfPzGW7p92xrZWMOIEVUkX0SrZerf+hioJXvVdY2RPUXAeODrhN/5NABSKKXG2BhiWqYjLdNS1WwPanvRJKFzdomFi5o5cCAkyBjChp3RHnh0Zj1mZAPaMoaMgbqD7siyp56wL7SDebiQRsJLvqEj4zMr59GW8cl5kLg0aXtPmLC37uiNLRbImTSmdcKJTcyem4dqjGpjC5oLwZsOAzPHjLzH7ILPut6IvHeEBpzitDsFdpRj1nZHrO4K+cbaXvLe2CnMsVNaAsOiliBd/hTcjg2jG4LOIYUGQL75cUDIvua9U6C0I7z/69Rv/UTKgBaaxwaGcwiCzJyP+I1lLzmIJF04q3gthrPPaed/H9tPOXHMygec3Z7j4mk5lpaytGd8st5Q09edsj+0rOkL+fX+Gk/01rEKZ7bmeOn0HMtKWWbkfHKe4KWprcSqdEWW5/sjfnuwzv92VdlZTfBEeNHyVrJtPq4rSmchVdAQ8echJp+CY06Tz9LmLKv3RxAcIfdyIMNsiiRNOoavPNPDfVurtGSEnGdGZWlFoBLC6R1ZZhYaVH2SYLeuTdf7sTqnUEKr/dRv/RSIIfvq645J5/C+r1L/zqdBvKPOGDiLBgH+guVD38XbwXYDGaiFXHTRNG6/LcMi3+Mt81s4qy1LxhOsU0KnVJKhtvBEmJf3md/kc0lHgd8crJJY5SUdTRQDgzql3thVOCBGhI6Mx6yOAhdOy/NkT4Hvbe1lTT3hgounpfEfmzQGmEsRlV0CkkvB0Zb1OLczx90bK1g7civjCFGm3Fs5sTngnUtb+M2uME0w0gHYHAIOoBY7Lp6Zo70xnOzO53G7NqUeyZiAtukMUqtQv/WTkERkr/7zSelaX3kz4W2fAQRpOgowANRhWjrxl1/Y+H+I1p8DWwMvhytHzF+U429fM5dT1oV0tgbUrNLbILwObQWrStTIuc0a4RUzUiM3dEpvZEct41SJ08IEIpzdnmeB7/H0/IBTlhfR3qgxYwi4MvgzMNlFwDDm9JzOHCcUPSqRTd3aUS4arqU/BUnHw6WWNJ4/Rr2iSpgoxUC4bG5hMJYTP/kLtNx9dL/PudRbUKjf/lnC+746YR3De75M+N3PgpjxAQNFncMsWD6YLKT1jWhlVWpTOZumHcYJl1zdSVuLT2/dEjsdsQt2uMiwK3RKX+zoix11O3aZ4eUSVXpDS6nJ59KrOwk8h4vixo44C0k/UjgDgrkjwbFieo7L5hSoJ4pzgo5yocLBqmV/dXKs3XDZUU7Y0hfz020Vbn6qO7UpdfR6BaG75rh4Zp4V03KDz/BmLUyXlPGYQuqQXB6cpgC550vj1rV+9y3Ub//XFBj54jiAQbpe+gHBpW8c9l0vJF0MkmA4XD1BZ3vY84oQTizBarR/H7VQ3WHPKKALAmwlBmkkTrtaeoxD08VgUmZ5EBx5X3jdwiIz8z6VKCW7Ds0jyYiwtS/hX5/opm6Pzfg4WLf81S/3c93P97KuO07ZuFHqFIV6kk6jb1taoiM/ZDAHL74U/9Tz083N40mlU0WyeSROCL/379RX3nLUIvW7bia88/OIupSOH9fuOUWTCH/pWQRnXDbUN4XToHAGaiuoWlQd6lKKPLi4iHdKDq24I+wmOgYR0JpiFmbJXF7CRglqGzqookk30nQWUnjxYJERalw2r8Ar5xcIE4d1h28XMKJ4Anc8389V9+7kHx45wB3r+nlyf0hPODGwLG3LMK/k0V23aUblGFsUBKWnlvCKeXleNq9pJAayeTLXXJ/mhlo7zpoVsrl0S8P3Pkf9rpvHvDP84U2E3/9CGlDL5MbvrSmIH5B97fuHvBQAU8K0vg68dkj6G2l6FpIEyTqyr23GzPHR8hQbdgPA6PDJXdOMFBSipDFjOLD9IE1I66vBbx0sNoIZynjC+5a38tieOlv6YoqjBNgGSJTV+0Oe2h/ii1AIYFrOZ27R54TmgBObA+aXfOaWfGYWAqblTLpfZdgLZz2hEjsCjzHTEg3QHzlmNnm870WtTM8f7mYHy84jvvzNxD/+Vnpexng7MJNHohrhDz6PCGRf/5cjfq7f9UXCH/4Hgmuwr+Of8rVWIXjZn+Cffsnh/VS8ENPyctyBO0C9QXtJQ5A2Q+bNJeIflrHbEyQ/Dkp0XPooptMnc20RmSFoPR7+KyRlZPpbkObLR+p66F5ZBb69poe/++0BrIPcEUixgWAZmlrSTsGhKIJv0qWgGAitWZ+OvMeMgse8ks+cos/je+r8eEuF2OmoBq7QOOwlUf7+7HY+fPa0MUHk9u+k+pl3Yjc9jRTbxjn1AyJoWAeU3Jv+huy1fwUo9e/fRLjy5rRf/InEZgStVzDzl1L82O1I64zR2y3aid3yIaiuAm/YcRONPF/tdkQ/qZKsiRGPw6PT40IEadZfongnB2Rf1YRMMxCNnJXU9iL5F+Gd+C9Iw0sZExwDcsPD+/jWM73kPMNkj+8aAI/VdBO1dQzuqveMkPdSOnc0BaxCX+h445IiN102g5aj5I8kzzxC7V/eg1b7oFCaGEDqdTBC7q0fARsTfv8m1CYNSn4CxF9UR/JF8h/55lHTFLX/Mey2j0C4G7wmRpzSE6QMVvJERPybCNfr0uz24e7KoXg5dP+SU0yzEJyXJTg3g/qSht+HF7RlCKZh5v8TpvmSw5tmLHBUE8dfPrSPu9eXyXlpjudU8KPD4wFj/Z64dKvDpfPy3Hx5J/Obg3E9O/rV3dS//GE0rKY74MatsDQiokmDo/eHssvGKVqrIPkCuff9K5mXXDOuMq77Pty2T0LSC96w3JPGRjTJCdqtxKsS7NoE10U68nXYfcMbVYAATJtglngEp/uYDoPWNSUvhwPKVsErYeb+A2b6taO3ypGOYCjHjg8+tJ+71veTESEbyHHduD6wMaqaOF4+v4kvXNrB/JbxAWNAoofvova1v0f7uzFNLWknj9uQHLb3ZVwKCziHVvqg1Eb+vf9E5iXXjq/sQJUH7yPZ/imI94JpatggAzEikIxARtCqojsddqdDD4BWND3ViUb+UJPgtQtmriCzBdNk0FjREctIw4W2Fci0Y+Z8BK/jzWO/3tFO9qnGjo//9gC3remnGivNWTPlx14MxMz6I4cnyjVLSnzqounMKk4ukho9/mPCb30St/15KBTT5WGqUS2CRnW02o8372Ry7/74pLdCuJ6fo9v+Ga2tS4978hrL2TCdxSfNRzaSbrNNFE3S2/BBgkZijtPBM+OGCjc+XAiuArmTMPM+gmm/6sivON4zwb6xuodbnuhlbVdE3hOKGTOQXzP59m181GJHNVZOaA64bkUz15/RSm6cB7aMJXbj04Tf/3fi3z0ISZSeI+r5xwiSxrpvY7TcB0GG4OyXk33Lh/CGx08mIVp9BrfjC2jXT9NtC35LiggdMCQYzGnCMJSo0QiJoI2lY4RZIY2Rl0DSByaDtF2OzPkApnjm0d92IqcJ/mFvyDee6uVH68vsKVsKGUMpM3Rw3NFSUAfAIKScfzVWypGjLedxxcIm3rOimZfMm8K8z3qZ8KE7iX5+O27T6pQ3KZSGEoPg6GAZvsTEIVrtBwFv0QqCl72VzOVvRnJFpkRsGd3/feye70D/E+l3fjOYYVn+E9HXRSmfgkNKKzAz3goz/gQZxmUc8VETPYc0dvDQ5gr3rC/ziy1VtvXGWIW8b8j6aRKKMYcb01ZTnqpuHbXEgQqzSh4Xzyvw+pNLvOzEAqXs8UlcttufJ3nsf4gf+wl28zNotYz4AWRzKUllDs3La0zpNj2CQaM6amNMrohZuJzgvCsJzr0SM/ek46KvVp9HD96PHrgPLa9KA2ImSE8l9gKGNmKPKAXYFBC2lhInpgjF5Zhpr0amvwYpLJuQHpM6pBagEjuePRDx+K4aj+6os2Z/xK7+hEqsRPZQ01jxPaHgGTqLhlOmZzl/To5zZuc4bUaWttwLk3/mdm3CblpNsuZR3IansHs2Q7kPjeuoG6mzGJNGe4utmJkLMCedTnDq+XgLlx+26/54idY2QXk1rvfXaN/vob4J4u7UdsAy0vcz6Qzjt0J+IaZ0JtJ6ERRXIPnJgXjS4BguB2uW/VXL3krCzr6EfRVLf+SIHPgGihnD9LyXMqZFn+kFj86mP1ZCImhYRXv2p+ee79+Jdu3BlXsH97tIJocUW5FpMzEdc5HmaUhrxwu21eEwcTU03AvxATTcAeEuNO4CTQk8JI8EbZCdjWTnQNCBZDrBO7bzz6cEHIfKAOk1kNTsi0yaSHtBRDVNeHGpRSfpUTuTPxfj+CuccjIMxJO8xgEyU6vv/wcuA2vi6uy+swAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==

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No, given his belief that he is under attack by people who hate him and believe he is an illegitimate president, and seek to bring him down, he will use all the powers of the presidency in his fight for survival. And as he has shown, these powers are considerable: the power to rally his emotional following, to challenge courts, to fire Justice officials and FBI executives, to pull security clearances, to pardon the convicted.

Democrats who have grown giddy about taking the House should consider what a campaign to bring down a president – who is supported by a huge swath of the nation and has fighting allies in the press – would be like.

Why do it? Especially if they knew in advance the Senate would not convict.

That America has no desire for a political struggle to the death over impeachment is evident. Recognition of this reality is why the Democratic Party is assuring America that impeachment is not what they have in mind.

Today, it is Republican leaders who are under pressure to break with Trump, denounce him, and call for new investigations into alleged collusion with the Russians. But if Democrats capture the House, then they will be the ones under intolerable pressure from their own media auxiliaries to pursue impeachment.

Taking the House would put newly elected Democrats under fire from the right for forming a lynch mob, and from the mainstream media for not doing their duty and moving immediately to impeach Trump.

Democrats have been laboring for two years to win back the House. But if they discover that the first duty demanded of them, by their own rabid followers, is to impeach President Trump, they may wonder why they were so eager to win it.

Read more at https://www.wnd.com/2018/08/do-democrats-want-an-impeachment-fight/#EhLGihMyxXj328zA.99