One of the latest “ideas” about how to get rid of President Trump quickly comes from a couple of restaurants in New York, which are in close proximity to Trump Tower.
It seems that these eateries are pursuing a lawsuit against the new President because they feel they can no longer compete against the world class restaurant that is located in Trump’s tower. What they want can be summarized in two outcomes. One, to force the President to sell his diner, making sure the name is also altered. This would satisfy their demands. But, knowing how those who are so adamantly opposed to The Donald really think, the plaintiffs’ actual motive comes in their second “demand”. If the President were to resign immediately, that would satisfy them.
My take on it is the first demand is irrelevant — they want him out of the Oval Office! Since taking office, this is just another in a string of calls for Trump to get out. According to many on the far left, he is an illegitimate President. Some say since Mrs. Clinton “won” the popular vote (a plurality, not a majority), he really doesn’t deserve the office. Others are now saying that the Russians influenced the election of Trump, and detractors are claiming he should be stripped of his victory. With an unfavorable rating underwater, it seems that to remove Trump would satisfy a lot of Americans.
So, just to do a little exercise in how to rid ourselves of a President will show how difficult it is, and even how ridiculous the idea has become.
First, there is the unthinkable. Kill him. Now this is not so unthinkable, given the history of our Republic. Four times Presidents have been removed by violence. In 1865, Abraham Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth. In 1881, James Garfield was killed by a pistol used by Charles J. Guiteau, a disgruntled office seeker. Twenty years later, in 1901, William McKinley died at the hand of Leon Czolgosz, an anarchist.
And in 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald (according to non conspiracy theorists) used a rifle to kill John Kennedy. This method of removing an unpopular politician had two unfortunate consequences. First, the perpetrator was quickly dispatched to the hereafter, Booth by being hunted down and killed, Guiteau and Czolgosz by execution, and Oswald by being shot by Jack Ruby. The other outcome was far more injurious to those who disliked those Presidents. Both the country and politicians of the minority party rallied to the successor President and came together for the good of the Republic.
This method of President removal is anathema to all except a very small percentage of the nation, and therefore is not be countenanced by any civilized people.
Impeachment has been mentioned by many as the preferred means to get rid of Mr. Trump. This has the attraction of being a Constitutional method of retiring the President prematurely. And, it has been used by the nation, so there is precedent. First came the unfortunate Andrew Johnson. He was a Democrat added to the 1864 ticket to help Lincoln win reelection. When he became President on Lincoln’s death in April of 1865, he managed to alienate many in the controlling Republican Party. In 1868, charges of impeachment easily passed the House of Representatives, but when the Senate voted, conviction fell one vote short of removing the hapless Johnson. The other time impeachment was used was in 1998 against Bill Clinton. Reasons for this exercise in President removing included lying under oath (about his Oval Office adventures) and obstruction of justice. Neither charge received more than half of the votes of Senators, well short of the 2/3 required by the Constitution.
Many probably believe that Richard Nixon was impeached and forced out of office because of the Watergate scandal, but that is not the case. Mr. Nixon, in the summer of 1974, was under siege for his role in that caper, but resigned when the unofficial vote counters convinced him the House would impeach and he could only count on about 27 votes in the Senate, not enough for him to survive that trial. On August 9,1974, he bowed to the inevitable and quit.
So why is impeachment out of the question for Mr. Trump? First, with only about 50 days into his Presidency, it would be hard to find “high crimes and misdemeanors” he has committed serious enough to warrant such a move. Also, given the makeup of the House of Representatives, if all the Democrats voted for impeachment, twenty Republicans would have to abandon their party’s President to carry the charges. In this unlikely occurrence, nineteen Republican Senators would need to “flip” in order to convict the President. And the attendant media circus surrounding this would paralyze the government for months, if it got to a trial.
For all practical purposes, impeachment is a dead issue. Those advocating this course of action are just beating a dead horse, but perhaps they need the exercise.
Many of those who have participated in the demonstrations around the country believe that if they just keep up the pressure on Mr. Trump he will give up the fight and just quit. It seems that the obstructionist tactics of Democratic Senators are designed to make it very hard for the President to carry out his campaign promises. It enough people just show how opposed they are to the new President’s policies, maybe it will be too much for him and he will just do the right thing and resign. However, those who are making it hard for him seen to forget just who they are dealing with.
First, Trump’s ego is larger than his tower, and would not allow for a resignation. Also, in his business career he has shown himself to be a fighter for what he wants, and in the terms of John Paul Jones, he has “not yet begun to fight!” Republicans who were somewhat lukewarm to his election see all the opposition and rhetoric aimed at the President now are getting their backs up and are providing the President with needed Congressional support. With lawsuits like the one about the restaurants making the news, even the people of the nation are tiring of the antics of those seeking the removal of Trump; consequently his poll numbers are on the rise. So making the President resign because of constant and ongoing opposition will not do the trick.
I will propose a novel idea on how to get rid of Trump, and do it honorably, do it according to the Constitution, do it simply and leave friend and foe satisfied. Become the “loyal opposition”, wait for the next election cycle and nominate a better candidate that the one in the last election. Defeat Trump in 2020, if he runs, and those who oppose him can hold their heads high by doing the right thing the right way.