Why the order of impeachment means everything
What happens when you have a government led by goons hostile to the best interests of the masses? Well, for one, you get the Trump administration. Less obvious than that, however, is the fact that there doesn’t seem to be anyone actually leading the country, and what happens if they’re all impeached.
You might be thinking, “Clearly, nobody is leading the country. We have a bunch of idiots stacked in the executive branch.” That’s true, but when you stop to think about it beyond the superficial, we really, truly don’t have anyone leading for us. Trump clearly isn’t a leader, so he isn’t worth talking about. Pence could, conceivably, have stepped up and took the reins once he realized Trump was incapable of anything positively productive for someone other than himself — a vice president is there for more than just show, after all.
Bill Barr could have easily not gone and ruined his reputation from H.W. Bush’s administration, but instead he decided to leave retirement to become Trump’s bad cop. Pompeo, as far as I can tell, is about as well-equipped to be Secretary of State as Jerry Nadler is a professional skateboarder. Pompeo has a unique ability to be subservient to Trump, have an embarrassingly small amount of power on the international stage, and still manage to be allowed to stick around for the big crimes.
None of these people are doing their actual jobs. That in mind, it’s astonishing we have a functional government, albeit one that’s a shell of its former self. My greater point, though, is this: every one of these pasty dirtbags needs and deserves to be impeached. They aren’t leaders, and it strains me to call them “Americans.” They’re Americans in passport only.
Say they do get impeached or are effectively forced to resign — the order in which that happens matters a lot. It’s a chess game. I would assume that, given the unique constitutional protections he has, Trump would not be the first to go, which would mean he could unilaterally appoint new cabinet members as long as he’s around and as long as there isn’t meaningful political pressure (read: McConnell).
It’s really worth thinking about this problem. Yes, they can all be impeached, but the de-swamping process needs to be done with foresight. Why am I so convinced of this? Just look at Nixon and Agnew. Agnew was forced to resign during the Watergate scandal before Nixon, for crimes he committed separate from Watergate. This meant Nixon had time to appoint a new vice president, but given his poor political situation, Democrats had a lot of sway in the Republican he chose. That’s why we got Gerald Ford and not an extremist. I just hope the Democrats brush up on their chess.
Democracy thrives in snarkiness