I've been slogging through a backlog of "Good Morning Liberty" podcasts while working remotely. I don't always agree with these Nashville guys (Nate Thurston and Charlie Thompson). Both are musically talented, small businessmen (Nate has a day trading/education portal they constantly hype on the podcasts, and Charlie runs a small healthcare software business among other things. Probably their most popular weekly podcast series is the "Dumb Bleep of the Week"; they'll probably never run out of material if Comrade Bernie, Cherokee Lizzie or AOC continue to say idiotic rubbish. They'll often parody anti-libertarian talking points, tongue-in-cheek reminding listeners they are against death.
Now episode 172 isn't very recent; I just got to it today, and to be honest, impeachment wasn't even the main topic of the episode. But they stepped into a sore spot because I've ranted more than once on so-called libertarian defenses of Trump's impeachment charges. I think most of this discussion was Nate, basically arguing the first impeachment was totally political and a total waste of time, simply saying it posed of slippery slope of perpetual impeachments. I think Charlie mostly griped about the lack of due process afforded Trump.
No, it wasn't a matter of politics. I'm not going to review the second impeachment here because that occurred after this podcast. To be honest, there's an element of truth in what Nate is saying, because I don't think a GOP-controlled House would have impeached Trump. despite the evidence, and I don't doubt for a second that most Democrats would have impeached Trump on Russiagate rubbish. But in fact it wasn't until the Ukraine extortion scandal by Trump that Speaker Pelosi backed impeachment. Pelosi saw impeachment as a double-edged sword, one which hurt the GOP after Clinton's failed conviction. She had spent 4 terms out of power and did not want to give the GOP an issue for the 2020 election to win back the House.
The fact is that Trump's own transcript call to Zelensky asked for a political favor: an investigation into his political rival Biden. He implicitly laid the setup for extortion, noting that the US was the only partner they could rely on and the US had given Ukraine lots of aid. You might argue Trump didn't explicitly point a gun at Zelensky's head but it takes a state of denial to ignore the setup. And in fact Trump put an unexplained pause on Ukraine aid he had signed into law. What Trump did was illegal; his own DoD had TWICE cleared Ukraine of corruption compliance provisions. Trump's "drug deal" was for his personal political interest, not the national interest. The whole question of emoluments deals with corrupt self-serving interest. There is no reasonable doubt that the Founding Fathers would have impeached and convicted Trump of high crimes and misdemeanors.
As for Trump's due process, there is no doubt of Trump's guilt. Just because a partisan Senate would not convict Trump despite evidence and witnesses does not vindicate his corruption.
I don't think Nate would be particularly impressed by what the LP had to say about Trump's crimes, but it's relevant:
For the Libertarian Party, party loyalty is irrelevant. The Libertarian Party is not part of Team Blue (Democrats) or Team Red (Republicans). The Libertarian Party simply wants both the President and the U.S. Congress to abide by the U.S. Constitution they are sworn to uphold. In their view Trump has not done so, and even if the Libertarian Party does not agree with the Democrats, it is very clear what the evidence has shown. It is not a leap of faith to see that President Trump used his office not for the benefit of the American people, but to benefit himself. He coerced a foreign head of state to try and find damaging information on a Democratic presidential candidate or his son in order to influence the 2020 U.S. presidential election. This is the the relevant point. This definitely meets the definition of what the framers of the U.S. Constitution had in mind when they defined what high crimes and misdemeanors are. Of course, it looks pretty certain that the Republican Party majority U.S. Senate will not convict Trump and the whole process will be ended. But even to third party, neutral observers, U.S. President Trump is guilty, and for such behavior in the view of the Libertarian Party the only penalty available is impeachment and removal from office.
