Table of Contents
To the editor:
As Democrats’ odds of retaking both houses of Congress rise, the temptation to impeach Donald Trump will rise with them. Rank-and-file Democrats should firmly resist such temptations. Instead, ask primary candidates and elected officials to commit to three things: constrain the president wherever possible, investigate and hold his Cabinet accountable and above all, focus ruthlessly on affordability.
For nearly 70 years, America’s brand of liberalism, which made this country the greatest nation on earth, has faced relentless onslaught from right-wing populism. Long before Donald Trump there was Barry Goldwater, the retail chain prince who sold himself as a self-made, rugged individualist possessed of preternatural “common sense.” Ever since, liberals have had to confront his ideological descendants pushing ideas that have a certain hokey appeal but are completely divorced from reality.
These ideas poison our politics by telling people what they want to hear or by selling them a fantasy. Lower taxes pay for themselves. Immigrants are stealing low-wage jobs but also buying all the million-dollar homes. Don’t let the government get its hands on Medicare. Or here, in Marblehead, where our own spin is that building housing will lead to higher property taxes (how is that working out, by the way?).
President Trump is the logical end point of this worldview. Now, by forcing the noses of all Americans to the glass for as long as possible, we have an opportunity to discredit for a generation this strain of right-wing populism and its appeals to our lowest instincts and its contempt for our constitutional freedoms.
And as Americans’ revulsion deepens, it will not be Democrats who are most motivated to move on from President Trump but Republicans. Will Marco Rubio or JD Vance want to campaign in 2028 under President Trump’s shadow? Democrats should not make their lives easier by spending political capital to attempt a third impeachment. If Rubio or Vance want to campaign free of Trump’s legacy, let them be the ones to end it. The 25th Amendment is right there.
If this were to come to pass, if we were to see the fire of right-wing populism completely consume itself, those who stood on its periphery for warmth will need a new fire with which to warm themselves. That is when we, Democrats, ought to practice the tolerance we so eagerly preach and make space for our fellow Americans to stand alongside us.
America does not heal, let alone return to greatness, on the back of a narrow Democratic 2028 presidential victory and a thin margin in the Senate. Reform, real reform, like reintroducing the fairness doctrine, ending Citizens United and eliminating partisan gerrymandering requires a victory like 1964, or dare I whisper its name, 1932. The arch Yankee patrician, FDR, stood on the shoulders of virulent Southern segregationists, the sons of slaveowners, to bring about the New Deal. We need only stand beside Americans whose faith, as they understand it, preaches a culture of life.
We need only stand beside Americans who genuinely fear the prospect of a tyrannical government and want to arm themselves in defense of such an outcome (honestly, I can understand why the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti would convince them they’re right on the merits).
Is this the strategy that feels good? Maybe not. But it is the strategy that does good. No impeachment: the only way out, is through.
Nick Ward
Rolleston Road
