Donald Trump as President is obligated to serve the public's interests and not to use the Presidential office and powers to serve his private interests ahead of the public's interests.
This obligation is under the United States constitution and is enforced by means of the separation of powers, and checks and balances, provided by the constitution, including Congressional oversight of the Executive Branch.
Americans are learning that the crux of the Trump impeachment is that Trump has abused his public position and wrongfully used his powers to serve his private interests and failed to serve the public interest in numerous ways.
The public or national interests that Trump has failed to properly serve have been various.
Regarding the Ukraine abuse of power, the national and public interests that Trump failed to serve properly are the extremely important interests of national security and the integrity of our elections.
In other instances, the consequences of Trump putting personal interest ahead of public interest have been less significant individually, but are cumulative in considering the case for impeachment
As indicated in public discussions of the coming articles of impeachment, there has been a pattern of Trump abusing his powers by putting personal interest ahead of public interest, and this did not suddenly start with Ukraine.
In the impeachment, the American people will likely become aware about how much this has happened from the start of Trump's Presidency.
B. Special factors
There are special factors that have contributed to Trump's abusing his powers so extensively that it has resulted in his impeachment.
1.Trump's extreme narcissism
A narcissist sees everything through the lens of him or herself and tends to view things that are contrary to him or herself as evil and wrong, and tends to view things that favors the narcissist as right and good. In doing this mentally, the narcissist is unable to tolerate facts and reality that are contrary to him and the narcissist endeavors to create his own reality and facts. Trump has exhibited the foregoing characteristics of narcissism in a monumental way as President of the United States.
The foregoing means that a narcissist such as Trump who is in public office cannot or will not discern and understand that he has private interests that are different from the public's interests. and he needs to separate them in his mind and subordinate his private interests to the public's interests. Thus, Trump's extreme narcissism is an important causative factor in Trump's pattern of abusing his office to serve his private interests.
2. Trump's business history
Another factor explaining Trump putting personal interest ahead of the public interest is Trump's business history that he was never accountable to anyone, such as a board of directors or shareholders, and Trump did whatever he wanted. The way Trump was in his business history does not comport well with how, as President, there are separation of powers and checks and balances.
Trump's business history would seem to be a contributing factor of Trump, as President, acting in many ways not to be accountable to the American people, and not recognizing the separation of powers and checks and balances, and that Article 2 does not give Trump the power to do whatever he wants (unlike his doing whatever he wanted in his business history).
3. Trump's business conflicts of interest
Another particular factor for Trump that got him started off on the wrong foot was the business conflicts of interest he brought to the Presidency.
Conflicts of interest present a stark choice for whether a public official will serve the public interest or whether the public official will serve his or her personal interest. The mere existence of conflicts of interest can undermine trust in a public official, distract from tending to the public's business if investigations need to done to determine whether the public official is serving his private interests, and otherwise impair the public official's ability to perform his job and particularly, as to the political supporters of the public official, impair the public official's ability to carry out the agenda that such supporters voted for the public official to carry out.
Where a public official has conflicts of interest, it takes an assiduous consciousness for the public official to separate in his or her mind his or her private interests from the public interest and make decisions and take actions that the public official can honestly tell himself did not take into account the private interests.
This is especially problematic for an extreme narcissist such as Trump who cannot or will not separate out in his mind his private interests from the public's interests.
The upshot was that Trump chose to keep his conflicts of interest and to use his Presidential office to benefit his private business interests.
C. Big picture
The instances and ways that Trump, as President, has wrongfully put his personal interests ahead of the public's interests are overwhelming.
Some of the more significant ones may even be debatable, and they should be debated by the American people in the course of the impeachment.
In other instances, there are important unanswered questions about whether Trump has put his personal interests ahead of the public interest.
1.Trump's false or misleading claims
Probably as a result of Trump's extreme narcissism, Trump, on a daily basis, makes false or misleading claims, and a compilation has been made that Trump has made over 13,000 false or misleading claims since becoming President.
These false and misleading claims serve and support Trump's narcissism but are extremely detrimental to the country's governance.
Trump may contend that his false and misleading claims are not detrimental to the country's governance, and this should be debated by the American people.
2. Trump's extreme behaviors
Trump's extreme insulting, bullying and demeaning behaviors provide narcissistic gratification for Trump, but would seem to be detrimental to the country's good governance and not in the public's interest.
Trump may contend that his extreme insulting, bullying and demeaning behaviors are not detrimental to the country's governance, and this should be debated by the American people.
3. Unanswered Russia questions
Notwithstanding 2-1/2 years of the Russia investigation, the country does not know why Trump acts towards Russia and Putin the way he does.
Perhaps the explanation is connected to the Trump Tower Moscow project. The details of this were hidden from the American people for two years, and information about it, and the consequences from it, are still unfolding.
Perhaps Trump as a candidate was secretly doing and saying things to curry favor with Putin in order to advance his Trump Tower Moscow project, and those things were damaging to the country while Trump was helped personally.
For example, Trump alone in the summer of 2016 was questioning national intelligence about Russian interference in the 2016 election. The country's intelligence apparatus is important for national security, and it is important that the country have a legitimate faith in the apparatus so that actions taken based on the apparatus have the support of the country. If Trump undermined that faith by what he said in the 2016 election in order to serve his private interests, that would be very bad for the country and it would engender huge distrust of Trump if this was found out after he became President.
To the extent Trump was currying favor with Putin before the election, after Trump won, he was potentially compromised and subject to blackmail by Putin by reason of what Trump did before the election.
This then gets immensely exacerbated by Trump getting Cohen to lie to Congress about the Trump Tower Moscow project.
In the course of the impeachment, perhaps the country will gain better understanding why Trump acts towards Russia and Putin the way he does and whether it results from Trump serving his private interests to the detriment of the public interest.
4. Obstruction of Mueller investigation
Trump's abuses of power in seeking to obstruct the Mueller investigation may get expressly included in the articles of impeachment.
5. Hollowing out of government
Trump may care so little for the public's interests that he has allowed or promoted the government to be hollowed out, and the American people may have little understanding about how detrimental that is for them.
Trump may contend that the hollowing out of the government is a good thing for the American people, and this should be debated by the American people in the course of the impeachment, based on fuller information provided to them about what has happened.
D. Significance of Trump saying he did no wrong
In Trump's extreme narcissism, in his mind, everything he does is right, and only others do wrong, and others do wrong whenever they act against Trump.
This narcissism is manifested in the extreme in the Ukraine matter.
Impeachment becomes especially necessary because of Trump so absolutely saying he has done no wrong. This evidences either that Trump does not understand that he cannot use his powers to serve his personal interests, or that he understands but he nonetheless will use his powers serve his private interests as he chooses. In either case, there is grave risk that Trump will continue to abuse his powers and use them to serve his personal interests, and impeachment is needed to stop Trump from continuing to abuse his powers.
E. Conclusion
The totality of the above is why Trump is being impeached.
The totality of the above needs to be considered by the United States Senate and by the American people.
Trump's extreme insulting, bullying and demeaning behaviors provide narcissistic gratification for Trump, but would seem to be detrimental to the country's good governance and not in the public's interest.
Trump may contend that his extreme insulting, bullying and demeaning behaviors are not detrimental to the country's governance, and this should be debated by the American people.
3. Unanswered Russia questions
Notwithstanding 2-1/2 years of the Russia investigation, the country does not know why Trump acts towards Russia and Putin the way he does.
Perhaps the explanation is connected to the Trump Tower Moscow project. The details of this were hidden from the American people for two years, and information about it, and the consequences from it, are still unfolding.
Perhaps Trump as a candidate was secretly doing and saying things to curry favor with Putin in order to advance his Trump Tower Moscow project, and those things were damaging to the country while Trump was helped personally.
For example, Trump alone in the summer of 2016 was questioning national intelligence about Russian interference in the 2016 election. The country's intelligence apparatus is important for national security, and it is important that the country have a legitimate faith in the apparatus so that actions taken based on the apparatus have the support of the country. If Trump undermined that faith by what he said in the 2016 election in order to serve his private interests, that would be very bad for the country and it would engender huge distrust of Trump if this was found out after he became President.
To the extent Trump was currying favor with Putin before the election, after Trump won, he was potentially compromised and subject to blackmail by Putin by reason of what Trump did before the election.
This then gets immensely exacerbated by Trump getting Cohen to lie to Congress about the Trump Tower Moscow project.
In the course of the impeachment, perhaps the country will gain better understanding why Trump acts towards Russia and Putin the way he does and whether it results from Trump serving his private interests to the detriment of the public interest.
4. Obstruction of Mueller investigation
Trump's abuses of power in seeking to obstruct the Mueller investigation may get expressly included in the articles of impeachment.
5. Hollowing out of government
Trump may care so little for the public's interests that he has allowed or promoted the government to be hollowed out, and the American people may have little understanding about how detrimental that is for them.
Trump may contend that the hollowing out of the government is a good thing for the American people, and this should be debated by the American people in the course of the impeachment, based on fuller information provided to them about what has happened.
D. Significance of Trump saying he did no wrong
In Trump's extreme narcissism, in his mind, everything he does is right, and only others do wrong, and others do wrong whenever they act against Trump.
This narcissism is manifested in the extreme in the Ukraine matter.
Impeachment becomes especially necessary because of Trump so absolutely saying he has done no wrong. This evidences either that Trump does not understand that he cannot use his powers to serve his personal interests, or that he understands but he nonetheless will use his powers serve his private interests as he chooses. In either case, there is grave risk that Trump will continue to abuse his powers and use them to serve his personal interests, and impeachment is needed to stop Trump from continuing to abuse his powers.
E. Conclusion
The totality of the above is why Trump is being impeached.
The totality of the above needs to be considered by the United States Senate and by the American people.
No comments:
Post a Comment