The US President Donald Trump faces impeachment. There is a growing chasm between people in Middle America for whom he is a hero, and coastal and big city liberals who want him to turn to naught, analyses Navodita. An exclusive for Different Truths.  

As CAA protests singe the country, shores abroad, too, are reeling with their own set of problems – Brexit and impeachment of US President Donald Trump being the two events that are going to shape the world differently. Well, the President has been impeached, and there is a growing chasm between people in Middle America for whom he is a hero, and coastal and big city liberals who want him to turn to naught. Trump’s trade wars have done nothing to fix rank consumerism driven by Chinese goods. People are busy shouting anti-Trump slogans although he gloats in the notion he is a popular leader.

Since he took office in January, 2017, Trump, and his White House, has been geared towards making sure he remains popular. His popularity is key. In July 2018, he tweeted: “I am the most popular person in history. Beating Lincoln, I beat our Honest Abe.”

It is often said about him that he is less President of the US and more campaigner-in-chief. Since he took office in January, 2017, Trump, and his White House, has been geared towards making sure he remains popular. His popularity is key. In July 2018, he tweeted: “I am the most popular person in history. Beating Lincoln, I beat our Honest Abe.” Trump was referring to Abraham Lincoln, one of the most well-regarded U.S. presidents. This is not the only time he has tweeted or made a public statement where he broadcasts his alleged popularity. He is forever disseminating polls of the high regard he is held in by Republican voters. As a former game show host and as a real estate developer, Trump knows the value of popularity; it is the coin that he most cherishes. He is often seen in rallies with the following lines, crying to the public:

• I was elected to make America great again, which includes getting you jobs.
• The Democratic Party has muzzled me with this impeachment investigation and now trial.
• If I did not have this muzzle, I would have built the wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, which would have prevented the entry of migrants into the country.
• These migrants are taking away your jobs, which is why you cannot get them.
• My failure to make America great again is due entirely to the Democrats and their impeachment obsession.

The elegance of Trump’s campaign speech is not to convince anyone on rational grounds about the correctness of his policy; the clarity serves to convince already frustrated voters with a simple formula, ‘Build the Wall’, that has produced a collective hallucination that this wall itself would create a capitalist nirvana.

He clearly wants to send out the message- if he could build the wall, the U.S. would be ‘great again’, industries would return, and jobs would be available aplenty. The elegance of Trump’s campaign speech is not to convince anyone on rational grounds about the correctness of his policy; the clarity serves to convince already frustrated voters with a simple formula, ‘Build the Wall’, that has produced a collective hallucination that this wall itself would create a capitalist nirvana.

It is true that from the day of his election, calls for his impeachment have echoed around Washington D.C. The first serious attempt to impeach Trump came when allegations that he had colluded with the Russian government to undermine the campaign of his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton surfaced. This collusion was focused on an attempt by Trump and his team, it was said, to get information from the Russian secret service and from WikiLeaks that would damage Hillary Clinton personally and the Democratic Party politically. The investigation of Russiagate, as the collusion was colloquially called, ran from September 2016 (when members of the U.S. Congress were informed of alleged Russian secret service operations) to July 2019 (when John Koeltl, a U.S. District Judge, dismissed a Democratic National Committee lawsuit against Russia). Over the course of these months, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director, James Comey, made comments to Congress about the collusion, while former FBI Director and Special Counsel to investigate Russiagate, Robert Mueller, filed a report which could not show conclusively that Trump had colluded personally with Russia. Others in Trump’s staff either made deals with the government or went to prison. But the real target, Trump, was not anywhere in sight. He slipped away to a campaign rally, where he made it clear that the investigation had failed, that it was a ‘witch-hunt’ and that he was the aggrieved party.

The Democratic Party leadership was wary of an impeachment trial for mainly political reasons. The Democrats control the House of Representatives, where an impeachment trial began, but not the Senate, which has, in a way, the final say in the impeachment proceedings.

The Democratic Party leadership was wary of an impeachment trial for mainly political reasons. The Democrats control the House of Representatives, where an impeachment trial began, but not the Senate, which has, in a way, the final say in the impeachment proceedings. But then as the impeachment based on Russiagate spluttered, Trump delivered the Democrats a gift. He gave them Ukrainegate. One of the Democratic Party contenders who might become the candidate against Trump is former Vice President Joseph Biden. Biden’s son Hunter Biden was on the board of directors of a Ukrainian energy company called Burisma Holdings, for which he was paid a substantial sum of money. This was when his father was Vice President of the US and tasked by President Barack Obama to direct the U.S. policy on Ukraine. To sniff corruption here is not untoward. It is this that alerted Trump and his circle to find evidence of something fishy in the story of the Bidens and Ukraine. The problem was that Trump decided to ask the newly elected President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, to find out about the Bidens. The suggestion that Trump had asked for a quid pro quo, not to benefit the U.S. but to benefit him politically against a political rival in the U.S., raised eyebrows. The testimony of the whistle-blower and of other government officials forced the hand of the Democratic leadership to start an impeachment trial. There was no way in which that could not happen.

Trump has called the impeachment process a ‘total sham’ and also sent House Speaker Nancy Pelosi a lengthy letter in which he accused her of engaging in a ‘perversion of justice’.

On the other side, Trump has called the impeachment process a ‘total sham’ and also sent House Speaker Nancy Pelosi a lengthy letter in which he accused her of engaging in a ‘perversion of justice’. He has announced the probe as an ‘attempted coup’ and has argued Democrats are trying to undo the results of the 2016 election in which he defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton.

As two of the oldest and largest democracies battle it out with their set of Rightist governments at the helm, what remains to be answered is: is the global political equation going to change in favour of Liberals in near future, at all?

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