‘Hear ye, hear ye!’

Trump’s Impeachment Trial Begins

January 16, 2020

These words are designed to ring out across the entire Senate, even now ringing out across all this great land—a time of testing for us, to see what kind of metal we are made of.  This trial is a judgment upon our President, but more specifically upon us, upon the whole rule of law, upon the foundations of our democracy!

This is a crisis point for our nation:  the way we handle this trial, if indeed we are able to handle it, will brand us forever as a country bound by sacred oath together in the rule of law, or if we cannot handle it, it will be the beginning of a great breach in our fabric of democracy.  Betsy Ross and others carefully stitched together the first flag to represent the unity of the original thirteen colonies.  If we do not handle this trial wisely, we will tear apart the very flag of this nation we have sworn to uphold.

The hundred senators, representing 50 states have now been sworn in as “impartial jurors” to render a verdict under the rule of law.  Will they do it?  Will they uphold the rule of law, regardless of trial outcome, or will they willingly subvert the rule of law which binds us all together?  The eyes of this nation, indeed the eyes of all the world’s democracies and so-called democracies, dictators across the whole earth are upon us.

Next Tuesday, January 22th, 2020 is the day the vote will be taken whether or not to allow witnesses.  This will be the critical vote, as to a “kangaroo court” or a court governed by the rule of law.  If witnesses are allowed there will at least be a semblance of seeking after the truth of this matter of Trump’s impeachment charges.  If witnesses are not allowed, the verdict of innocence is foreordained by McConnell and his cronies and the whole trial becomes a sham instead of a true bright shining day for democracy and the rule of law.

This trial is about us, about all of us!  Whether Trump is found guilty or innocent is not the matter for debate.  The matter for debate in this Senate trial is whether a real trial is conducted at all!  If we cannot have confidence that our institutions can perform as impartial jurors; if we cannot be assured that every effort is made to ensure that the truth and nothing but the truth is known, how can we have confidence in the institution of the Senate and the House of Representatives for anything more?  The process of impeachment by the House of Representatives with a subsequent trial in the Senate in which the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court presides is the only process our constitution gives for the removal of a President from his office.  Is the trial a sham or is the trial an exercise in our democracy?

We are discussing faith, faith in ourselves, faith in our God, faith in one another.  We are discussing faith in our democracy.  Will our faith in our democracy be borne out or will we fail the test designed by our forefathers to test how we will perform in our democracy?  The hour of decision is upon us!  We wait now until the final gavel falls!

Bill Wilson, MD