Frank O. Bowman III

Lastly

In my role as constitutional historian, I have striven for political objectivity. Nonetheless, the lessons history teaches compel what will undoubtedly seem to some a partisan conclusion. Put simply, impeachment is the Constitution’s defense against a president who, by conscious design or because of defects in his character, threatens republican government. The Framers made impeachment hard because they didn’t want Congress throwing out presidents in partisan hissy fits. Still, the framers meant it to be used if, somehow, a manifestly unfit person were to become president and endanger the constitutional order they so carefully constructed. Donald Trump is the contingency for which they gave us the weapon of impeachment. The question is whether our politics is so broken that we lack the will even to pick it up.