Impeachment Revelations
Here we are at the end of the week - and what a week it has been.
Wednesday’s impeachment arguments before the Senate were compelling - if you haven’t seen the video presentations, I suggest you view them. I’m not sure what was more powerful - there was the footage of Mitt Romney running in the direction of the mob before Capitol Hill Officer Goodman turned him around, the footage of the crowd chanting “Hang Pence!” and the disturbing footage of the men looking for Nancy Pelosi and calling “Naaaaaaaaaaancy!”
One of the reasons I started this newsletter was because I was frustrated by the number of conservatives I knew who had no real awareness of anti-Trump or Trump skeptical voices from the right. Sure, they knew about the anti-Trump voices from the left, but I wanted to present a wide swath of opinion from the center-right. The impeachment debate really highlights an example of this - large numbers of conservative columnists, including many that have been sympathetic to the Trump administration - have made strong arguments in favor of impeachment and of barring Trump from future office.
Here’s one such example, from John Podhoretz, the editor of Commentary. The money quote:
“I understand Republicans in the Senate are not going to vote in sufficient numbers to convict Trump—let’s say because their constituents do not want it, he poses a political danger to them, and, who knows, they might actually fear for their lives from the same kinds of people who were in the building on January 6. But how can they have watched the footage of Mitt Romney narrowly avoiding his own murder and not understanding that could have been any one of them? And how can they avoid the understanding that the mob was there because Trump summoned a crowd to Washington on that day?
Are they just going to let… it… slide?
Moving on to other topics, I want to keep pushing on the Romney child allowance plan. Writing at the Bulwark, Mona Charen argues in favor of the plan but also argues that this is what policy ought to look like. I think she’s largely right - far too few of our elected officials in Congress are doing the hard work of crafting legislation.
The Romney plan was the source of a healthy debate between Samuel Hammond of the Niskanen Center, who favors the plan, and Scott Winship of the American Enterprise Institute, who does not. Again, regardless of your view of the proposal, this is the sort of debate that needs to happen. Moreover, these debates need to bubble up to those in office.
The evangelical world was rocked on Thursday by a report that the famed evangelist and apologist Ravi Zacharias had a long history of predatory sexual behavior. Not much to say here other than to grieve for those who were betrayed. Lord, have mercy - and may this awful Christian celebrity culture be burned to a crisp. The Christianity Today report is here - and note that this is really a report on the main report authorized by Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.
I’ll close with this from my friend Samuel Goldman, a fine piece in the latest First Things about the great spy novelist John le Carre. I confess I’ve not completed one of his novels, but I’ve enjoyed several movies based on his work. I recommend them to you, with Sam’s essay as a guide.
That’s all for now - we’ll see where things stand on Monday.
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