Impeachment of President Trump is going to occur after the November elections, if the Democrats gain a majority in the House. That is way too long a time to wait and too uncertain an outcome. Besides, the impeachment process is going to split the country asunder and, after all that, it will leave victors and vanquished largely dissatisfied. The question that will trouble the victors' mind is this: How did we ever reach such a sorry state?
A greater still political reality against impeachment is that what is expected to come next is far from being appealing. Even a gradual--and painful--return to the status quo ante is surely not going to take care of the real social and economic problems with which the country has been beset for long many years.
Some guidance to our political class ought to have been given by the fact that Donald Trump defeated both Democrat and Republican elites.
The fundamental reason President Trump won the presidency is that he offered the prospect of real solutions to the problems of the country.
Unfortunately, once elected he found no assistance in resolving those problems. The vague populist program that elected him is not rooted in solid economics. Economists know many economic theories; they know not the practicalities of the economic process.
My book, The Economic Process: An Instantaneous Non-Newtonian Picture, was published by the University Press of America in April 2002 and annotated by the Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) in its December issue. JEL has annotated--again--the third edition of this book in its December 2017 issue. For formal reviews of this book, please see, http://www.new-economic-atlas.com/p/review-of-ep.html.
This writer has been studying the economic process ever since 1965 when he changed one equation in Keynes' model of the economic system and found himself in a totally new intellectual world. With assistance, for 27 years, from Professor Franco Modigliani, the renowned Nobel laureate in economics at MIT, it gradually became apparent that the resulting world of Concordian economics is a continuation of the program of economic justice initiated by Aristotle and validated by St. Thomas Aquinas.
This is a world founded on economic rights and responsibilities. This is a world that has been endorsed by experts in a variety of disciplines. This is a world that the political Center can endorse, once the Center finds the intellectual fortitude to recognize the validity of this program of action together with the moral compass to resist the rabid partisan ship of the extreme Right as well as the extreme Left.
Reasoning on the basis of the Common Good, the Center will find the wisdom to reject the recurring cycles of revolutions and counterrevolutions, in favor of political evolution that leads to a Republican Party of Concord, a Democratic Party of Concord, an Independent Party of Concord, a Green Party of Concord.
Secure of its economic stand, the Center can then move on to an innovative political program, a program that will have to be invented and implemented for the first time in history. This is a program of Redemption of the Bully.
What is the root of all of President Trump's transgressions, if not his tendency to solve problems applying the methods of the bully? That approach might have worked in his business career, but it is leading to his downfall as President of the United States. More. Much more. All attempts to muscle his will through to success is gradually destroying all the values on which the last and best hope of the world has indeed been built. Our Founding Fathers did all they could to guard against arbitrary and tyrannical political regimes.
The United States has been a beacon to the world ever since its creation. Under the guardianship of President Trump, to the dismay of the entire world our country is gradually losing its inner values.
The Greeks used ostracism to deal with obnoxious politicians; can we invent a Program of Redemption? An initial Bill of Redemption of the Bully can be easily drafted. It may assume this form: "The President of the United States is forbidden from
- using vulgar language;
- using demeaning language;
- using hate language;
-- executing policies, without specifying their expected long-term effects;
-- executing policies that divide the country or the nations of the world;
-- taking intellectual positions that are contrary to the values of Truth, Beauty, and Goodness on which this country was founded."
First recourse should be the President's resolution to avoid future repetition of any such offensive language--and actions. Failing that, voluntary resignation might be offered. Last resort ought to be forced resignation.
This proposal will not be moved forward if it is endorsed only by me and a few moderate liberals; it needs the active support of moderate Republicans and most Evangelicals to have any chance of being implemented.
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