The case of impeaching President Trump has been voted in the House of Congress. Two Articles of impeachment were passed. The first article charged the President with abuse of power - “using the powers of his high office, solicited the interference of a foreign government, Ukraine, in the 2020 United States Presidential election, thus warranted impeachment and trial, removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust, or profit under the United States”. The House passed the first article with a vote of 230:197 nearly completely along partisan line. There were two democrats voted opposition along with the Republicans, Collin Peterson (75, D-Minnesota 7th District, 1991-), the most senior Congressman from Minnesota and Jeff Van Drew (66, D-New Jersey, 2nd District, 2019-), a freshman in the Congress contemplating switching party. Their opposition votes are reflecting the farmers support for President Trump. Peterson is a party member of the Minnesota Farmers Party and Van Drew’s district having large farms only turned red from blue in 2018 with a small margin of 2.2%. So these two opposition votes are easily understandable. The third Democrat, Tulsi Gabbard (38，D-Hawaii，2nd District, 2013- ）, a 2020 Presidential candidate, who supports censure not impeachment, voted ‘present’ not yes.
The second article charged the President with obstruction of Congress - “ordering the Executive Branch agencies, offices, and officials not to comply with Congress subpoenas, thus warranting impeachment and trial, removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust, or profit under the United States”. This Article was passed with a vote of 229:198, pretty much in the same manner as in passing the Article I. The only difference was that Jared Golden (37， D-Maine，2nd District, 2019-）added the third Democrat opposition vote. Golden had promised to oppose Nancy Pelosi to be the House Speaker in his campaign and did vote for Cheri Bastos of Illinois. Golden voted yes on the first article thus his nay vote on the Second article was directed more towards opposing Pelosi than supporting Trump.
The House spent an entire day debating the impeachment, mostly short 1-3 minute speeches along party line, criticizing each other with full knowledge that they were on TV, hence, everyone was prepared with many reading from notes. The democrats stick to their guns of citing President’s conducts violating the U.S. Constitution and the Trust of the White House and the Republicans cling to the fact that the Democrats plotted and publicly stated to want to impeach President Trump ever since he won the Presidency and was inaugurated. In reality, this partisan real-time TV show is not seen by many Americans who have to work in the day time. Thus the reruns with commentators are very important in shaping the public’s opinion. After the House vote, the pro-Democrat CNN came out with the headline on its website, “Trump Is Impeached” and the pro-Republican Wall Street Journal immediately headlined, “Impeachment Vote Divide and Dismay Washington Inside and Out”. It appears that Democrats are not that joyful and Republicans are not that disappointed. My observation is that the two parties as well as the citizens have long been divided since the Bush-Clinton era, this impeachment case is simply adding salt to the dividing wound, won’t it hurt more?
The Impeachment case will be sent to the Senate from the House for due process of examination, debate and resolution. There are less members in the Senate with Republican being majority, thus we can expect a partisan decision from the Senate. Democrats’ hope that some Republican Senators will betray their party is very slim, but nevertheless the House Speaker Pelosi is pondering when is the most favorable time to send over the case to Senate to get the best possible outcome. The passing of the Impeachment in the Senate is unlikely; this is the reason that the U.S. citizens although somewhat divided but are not very excited, mostly feeling that the Congress is wasting the time. The citizens' thoughts are really on the 2020 election, their concerns are still with economy, wages, jobs, and the stock market. These are also the areas Trump has been focusing on, bragged about and put on his priority. From his administration, especially his trade policies including the US-China trade war, we can see that winning the 2020 election is his top priority. Whether it is the Impeachment or the trade war, the end result is not as important as their procedure or process. The end result of impeachment may be predicted but the impact by the process is not so. Both parties can not judge how the process (prolonging to the election) may benefit which party more. Hence, the Senate proceeding on the Impeachment may still be theatrical. Similarly, the end result of a US-China trade agreement will not produce a big winner and a big loser as neither of the the two nations can afford. The U.S. certainly does not want a futile trade agreement before the election, of course, China will not give in to a one-sided deal favorable to the U.S. without some gain and assurance from the next U.S. Administration. Thus maintaining an uncertainty in the trade deal with positive hope prior to the 2020 election is the best scenario for the U.S. China, although facing an uncertainty of the U.S. election result, is definitely agreeable to a delayed or reduced tariff as an in-trim deal.
The bipartisan politics in the U.S. has been in practice for a long time. It has been getting worse in the recent decades resulting in a low-efficiency government and a divided citizenry. Trump’s unorthodox and non-traditional behavior, although motivated by ‘America First’ and patriotism, but in practice, he has not been able to heal the divide. Now the impeachment episode is further dividing the country along party line. If the people could not understand the problems and use their vote to stop or fix the worsening partisan divide, the U.S. will continue to go downhill economically no matter how she blames the others or the world for her problems.
However, the division in the U.S. is repairable since the division is not ideological like the division being created in other regions such as Ukraine and Taiwan. Ukraine has a Russian backed separatist group. Taiwan has a complex political situation where the Progressive Democratic Party (PDP) is using fear-China and hate-China to create a divided citizenry which is very difficult to repair. In the U.S., there is no serious separatist movement, any talk of separation, say separation of California, Hawaii or Texas, will be silenced and any such movements squashed instantly. The U.S. citizens will eventually realize that they have to vote to create an efficient government regardless of party line. The voters must encourage party switching (candidates and voters) for the purpose of serving the people. The people will see that any self-isolation or hate-China Policy makes no sense; only an efficient government will make America great again.
The political division in Taiwan is motivated by separatists encouraged by external influence pushing separation from China, yet Taiwan’s economy has a strong dependency on China and the two people are essentially one race. The PDP is brainwashing the youth for Taiwan independence from an ideological angle through education with false textbooks. This type of division is dangerous, difficult to repair and intolerable. The 2020 election in Taiwan is important in that the Taiwan citizens must get a wake-up call to realize that the current administration is cultivating a cancer which if not checked will grow large and eventually choke Taiwan to death since separation from China will bring destruction to Taiwan's economy and destroy its future. The 2020 election in the U.S. is important in that the U.S. citizens must recognize their division and need to make a repair. Perhaps, the independent Mike Bloomberg’s presidential candidacy will serve as a wake-up call.
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