I read the piece by my temporary personal savior, Jill Lepore, in the October 28, 2019 New Yorker. I love Ms. Lepore’s writing so much, I’d read her if she were writing a shopping list. But here she is waxing eloquent on one of the most relevant and misunderstood topics of the day!

She commences with a tale of an impeachment at the outset of our Republic, with the Vice President, Aaron Burr, presiding over the senate trial of the impeached Supreme Court Judge, Samuel Chase. Let that sink in for a moment. Aaron Burr, wanted for the murder of Alexander Hamilton in New Jersey, where he shot Hamilton in a duel, and New York, where Hamilton died in agony a few days later, was back in Washington in January of 1805, in a hall destined to be burned by the British in 1814, presiding as veep. Chase, had been impeached by the House of Representatives, then 142 members strong, with 114 Democratic-Republicans and 28 Federalists, for various misdemeanors, none particularly high, with John Randolph as the principal manager. History informs us, and Ms. Lepore wittily relates, that the merits of the case were petty and weak and that most of the discussion had to do with the nature of impeachment. The Judge was not convicted; it became precedent that the Judiciary was independent and unimpeachable.

From this one can indeed infer where Ms. Lepore is headed. The matter of impeachment, she says, is both a sword best kept sheathed, or to be unsheathed sparingly, and a rickety stairway to whatever outcome is sought by the initiators of the mechanism. Let the metaphors stay mixed. There is no other remedy against a tyrant or despot in our system of government. It stands between us, our Republics continuity and a would be King.

The sword has been unsheathed. Trump is a poor candidate for King. He is a weak man, in over his head, singularly unaware, singularly neurotic, spectacularly ignorant, and oblivious of the extent of his unsuitability. He is all too aware of his detractors. He seems ready in every instant to do himself in, to hoist himself by his own petard. He is not capable of learning, even learning about the mechanism, the sword, and the rickety stair. It is unlikely, both by the measure of history and by the certainty of Nate Silver’s vote counting, that he will be convicted by a mostly cowed and spineless Senate. He is sure to be impeached.

Ms. Lepore notes that public sentiment about impeachments is fickle. Public sentiment, in my view, hasn’t all that much to do with it. It comes down to politics. So long as there is power to be wielded in the shadow of the most pitiful POTUS in our history, the politics will, with constant looking over the shoulders to the winds, keep the nays well ahead of the ayes in the Senate trial. The drama will be our Christmas present as a nation. Should the power crumble, and with DJT, there is always the chance of a spectacular screw-up, then all it takes is 20 votes. 20 votes to President Pence.

Imagine that. I’m sure that many an evangelical is praying secretly for such an outcome. They do not dare blow the whistle.