Half-way through “12 Angry Men,” the hold-out juror #8 played by Henry Fonda says “we’ve established” two important points of the State’s case against were not true, Lee J. Cobb’s juror #3 interrupts and disputes the accuracy of #8’s summary. The other jurors ignore #3's outburst and agree, implicitly, with #8’s summary.
Before November 8, 2016, a lot of facts indicated Russia interfered with our 2016 elections. Facts that have come to light since the election have transformed “indicated” to somewhere between highly probable and “only the willfully ignorant doubt it.”
If the only means of removal of Trump/Pence from office are either impeachment or the process set forth in Amendment XXV of the Constitution, what happens to the policies established and the appointments (some for life) made by puppets of a hostile foreign power?
The lifetime appointments pose problems. Particularly in the last year of the legal and legitimate Presidency of Barack Obama, Republicans refused even to act on his nominees for the Federal bench. As a result, Trump entered the Oval Office able to fill a lot of judicial slots with the help of the Republican Congress.
If impeachment is one of only two ways to remove Trump/Pence, or Federal judges, from office, we reward Putin and the Republicans for their acts. One would think that, after the evidence convinces all but the Lee J. Cobbs of America that Russian interference succeeded in the 2016 elections, judicial officers placed by an illegal Administration will act honorably and resign. Otherwise, there would be votes on articles of impeachment for each Federal judge so placed. A trial would have to be held.
Putin will chuckle a lot. He will have more of the chaos in the U.S.he desired.
In “12 Angry Men,” even Lee J. Cobb’s Juror Number 3 conceded the defendant was not guilty and voted to acquit. I am uncertain the American public today is as rational as Juror Number 3.
Putin was able to place his choice in the Oval Office, the rights to vote and to have one’s vote counted, were stolen from all Americans. Republicans in Congress acted in a way that furthered the goals of a dictator. Our Courts are the last protection in a battle for our rights. We cannot allow Putin’s sabotage of the democratic process stand for a generation.
The Federal Courts have the power to remove a sitting President through declaration that an election, especially for President, was illegal. Those Courts soon will have the opportunity to consider such action. We only can hope the action is not too late.
When Republican members of Congress, a few weeks ago, stood in line to kiss Trump’s derriere, each should have said: “Donald Trump is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I’ve ever known in my life.” Men who served in combat with the Manchurian candidate were brainwashed to recite that phrase. With Trump, the phrase should have been recited with a Russian accent.