I have watched and listened to the Impeachment Inquiry in the House and all of the testimony from the various witnesses. I have watched and listened to the Impeachment Trial in the Senate and all of the arguments from both sides. My view is that it has been an exercise in irrelevance. Irrelevant because not once have I heard testimony or seen documentation to indicate the President actually asked for interference by Ukraine into our election. Not once did I hear testimony the President tied the release of military aid to Ukraine obtaining dirt on the Bidens. What I did hear is a request for Ukraine to assist, if they could, in determining if a Ukrainian oligarch might be in possession of the Hillary Clinton email server drive. Further, I heard a request for assistance in determining if there had been anything suspicious in the firing of a Ukrainian Prosecutor who was investigating the corrupt company Burisma and its owner.
In the request was a reference to Joe Biden, Trump's political opponent, but the request was not to investigate nor to find dirt on Joe Biden. It is only the Democrats that heard investigate Joe Biden, led by their infallible mind reader, Adam Schiff. In fact, throughout all of the Impeachment Proceedings, Adam Schiff has shown off his prowess as a mind reader by telling us what was in the mind of, not just the President, but the whistleblower and all of the witnesses involved, as well as the President's staff who he accuses of engaging in a coverup.
Let us assume Adam Schiff is correct in understanding the motivations of the President and all of his henchmen. Is this adequate justification to impeach the President? Isn't opposition research the norm in politics? And, as we know from the Steele Dossier, opposition research often involves information gathered from foreign sources. So, if the President is to be held accountable, shouldn't Hillary Clinton and the DNC be held accountable? The problem is, where is the crime? Soliciting assistance from foreign powers in opposition research is not a crime. It is probably inappropriate, even unethical, but not a crime.
Ahh, but the President went so far as to withhold military aid to coerce Ukraine to provide dirt. Did he? Is it coercion if the other party does not feel coerced? Is it coercion if the other party ultimately receives what was to be theirs anyway without providing any dirt or initiating a campaign to find dirt? I don't think so. These facts make the impeachment proceedings irrelevant, with or without further testimony.
What is not irrelevant is the impact the proceeding has had and will have on the Constitution of the United States. There will be no winner in these proceedings. Both Parties will lose. The division of the American people will grow even deeper. Our Constitution will be damaged. We can expect both Houses of Congress to pursue political agendas rather than to pursue what is best for the American people. They will continue their battle of one-upmanship in an effort to garner a majority for their party in each and every election. Once elected they will deride the other party for its failure to cooperate on solely partisan bills introduced. I for one am tired of the bickering. Tired of their inability to get anything done. Tired of their failure to do their duty for their electorate. They are all a bunch of egotistical and selfish old men only interested in retaining their power in Washington.
The only way to correct this sickness is for the American people to go to the polls and vote them all out of office. Then vote for term limits that will prevent the long standing quid pro quo they have been engaged in of you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours. Who is scratching the back of the American people?