Letter: Nation must move on to impeach

Published 7:16 pm Wednesday, May 1, 2019

To hear it said “move on to the issues” and forget the Mueller report appears to reflect just how ignorant and removed people have become from the democratic process. Democracy is the main issue of the Mueller report — whether we are going to have a democracy or not. It doesn’t matter to talk or work on the issues if there is no democracy that can reliably move on to implement the people’s vision and policies.

Still, such thinking is understandable in that, what is the difference between Russia messing with and influencing our electoral processes and subverting our democracy in their own interest, and the wealthiest 1% and major corporations doing the same? Corporate PAC contributions, gerrymandering and voter suppression initiatives rig outcomes, undermining our democracy and the interests of the vast majority of the American people, as well.

Many of the people saying “move on to the issues” are expressing their alienation and resignation to the fact that the system is rigged in any case, and are reacting based on their general sense of no confidence in the political system. Why defend democracy — what has it done for them lately? What is gained by blocking Russian and other foreign actors from our electoral processes but protect the privilege of the wealthy class to have their way?

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So, move on? Understandable, yes; but nothing could be more cynical and dangerous than this view of things. It only lends itself to a further erosion of our democracy, and worse (as we have seen) an opening for authoritarian demagogues and their colluding lackeys to incite division and conflict, as Trumpian bigotry and American First arrogance have made clear.

People’s democracy is still the people’s only real salvation and must be taken back and scrubbed of corruption. We now need to proceed with impeachment of our corrupt president because it’s the right thing to do in defending our democracy, and in spite of whether it will succeed or not, given the current nature of Trump’s Senate collaborators. Republican senators will have to expose themselves and their complicity in denying an impeachment and pay for it in this next election. And it’s here, in this 2020 election, where this debacle can be radically turned around — the people are ready. Congress must reaffirm its moral and ethical integrity by proceeding with impeachment. Holding off would appear political and opportunist and imply a certain equivalence of corruption, feeding the anti-government cynicism and exacerbating this defeatist notion, “move on.”

Mike Kelly

Albert Lea