Why Trump Should Not be Impeached

There are four basic reasons Trump should not be impeached and removed from office.

First, it would leave us with Pence as president. He would be just as bad as Trump, perhaps even worse with his right-wing policies. And much harder for the Democrats to run against next year.

Second, While Trump obviously has a serious character defect, which leaves him unable to tell the truth, and unable to treat people with respect, there has not yet been the clear abuse of power which would be a proper ground for impeachment.

Third, one lesson of the Clinton impeachment debacle is that there must be sufficient political support in the country for impeachment. Trump's approval rating is currently at 39%, certainly low by historical standards, but not  nearly low enough to support removal from office by impeachment. It is certainly low enough to prevent his re-election next year, and this is what we should be focused on.

Fourth, an impeachment effort against Trump presumes that our country's problem is who the president is. This is clearly not the case; rather, the country has a serious problem with misplaced values which led to Trump's election in the first place.

The impeachment effort would suffer form the same type of fallacy which George W. Bush did in invading Iraq to topple Saddam Hussein from power.  Toppling Hussein did not solve Iraq's problems; rather it has created a guerrilla movement within Iraq, so that now acts of terrorism occur frequently, when before there were none. Toppling Trump from power will not solve the malaise which afflicts such a large percentage of our people.