This Fight Is Our Fight

I've taken the title for this essay from Elizabeth Warren. I just finished her book, "This Fight Is Our Fight". This essay is not about her book.

The Impeachment hearings are entering their second week. What we are learning is disturbing. What's more disturbing is the fact that it has taken this long for the Impeachment process to begin.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DUqplxIcNk

Trump should never have been allowed to run as a Republican. During the primaries, the Republicans were openly critical of Trump. They remained openly critical through the 2016 campaign.

It wasn't until after Trump won the election that the Republicans embraced him - and they did so shamelessly.

The Republicans controlled the House and Senate in 2017. They should have Impeached Trump almost immediately. There was enough credible information about Trump to know he had worked with and was indebted to Russia. He was and still is a security threat to our country.

Trump also had a long history of criminal behavior. He was simply unfit for the office of President. The Republican majority in the House should have Impeached him and the Republican majority in the Senate should have found him guilty and banned him from ever holding public office again. The Republican Party is solely responsible for the damage Trump has done to our country.

It was left to us to correct this. It was our fight and we rose to the occasion in 2018. We elected a Democratic majority to the House. The House has exclusive Constitutional authority when it comes to Impeachment.

It was reasonable for the Democrats to wait for Mueller to conclude his investigation before beginning Impeachment. Mueller concluded his investigation and turned in his report in May, 2019.

The report was a complete Impeachment package. It documented numerous instances of obstruction of justice and reported numerous instances of Trump and his people colluding with Russia. It was a present and it might as well have had a bow on it.

To the dismay of many of us who voted to give the Democrats the House in 2018, the House did not begin Impeachment hearings. Instead they downplayed the excellent work that Mueller did.

It was left to us to correct this. It was our fight and we rose to the occasion once again in 2019. We called our representatives and demanded that they start Impeachment proceedings. On October 31st, the House voted to begin an Impeachment inquiry.

Since the country was founded, this has always been our fight. Ben Franklin knew it and cautioned us.

To their credit, the House Democrats are conducting an excellent Impeachment inquiry now. Adam Schiff is performing impeccably as the committee's chairman. Depositions are being taken, transcripts are being released and public hearing are happening.

For their part, the Republicans on the committee are doing all they can to obstruct and confound the hearings. They are lying blatantly, without shame.

As excellent a job as the Democrats are doing, the heroes of these hearings are the witnesses who have come forward and testified. They have put themselves and their careers at risk. They have been vilified publicly by the Republicans. Ambassador Yovanovitch was even criticized by Trump while she was giving her testimony.

This is very much our fight. Whatever happens with Trump's Impeachment, this will continue to be our fight through the 2020 elections and beyond.

We cannot afford to sit back and rely solely on any politician/s to rescue us or keep our country from descending into fascism. The fate of the country rides on the outcome of the 2020 elections. We must vote united. We must pull together to get rid of the Republican crime syndicate that is destroying our country.

Which brings me to Elizabeth Warren and her excellent book. Warren has provided us with an outline of the key issues facing us. Regardless of who you back or where you stand, we should all be advocating for honest, in-depth, intelligent discussions/debates on the part of the candidates.

Warren provides us with historical background as well. Every candidate should be addressing and speaking to the topics she's presented and the issues she's raised.

This fight is our fight. We can't let the news media turn the elections into entertainment. We can't let the party leadership pick our candidates for us. We can't ignore the problems we face. We won't survive another 4 years of Trump.

Holy Moly!