Let’s Not Throw the Word Treason Around Democratic politicians should stop acting like internet trolls.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
When they talk about President Trump, why are so many Democratic politicians talking about treason? Whatever they may truly believe, why are they letting their inflammatory rhetoric become decoupled from the facts?
By doing so, they are setting the country on a dangerous, unpredictable trajectory that could lead to a crisis of political legitimacy. And by indulging their own worst instincts, these Democrats are guilty of fomenting the extreme, intemperate rhetoric for which they have consistently criticized the president.
If it were only activists or internet trolls claiming that Mr. Trump committed treason, it could, perhaps, be excused as excessive passion or immaturity. But these comments are also coming from elected Democrats with increasing regularity. Last week, Senator Jeff Merkley, Democrat of Oregon, tweeted at the president, “Let’s be 1,000% clear: if you worked with a hostile foreign power during your election, it’s called TREASON.” The caps are in the original.
Nor is it just Senator Merkley. Other prominent Democrats, including Steny Hoyer, the House minority whip, have done it, too. Mr. Hoyer said that he agreed with John Brennan, a former C.I.A. director, that Mr. Trump’s meeting with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, in Helsinki, Finland, last month was “nothing short of treasonous.” Representative Adam Smith of Washington State, the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said that it was “hard to see” Mr. Trump’s actions as “anything other than treason.” The list keeps growing.
Perhaps such rhetoric arises from a sense of political impotence. After all, Republicans control the White House and both houses of Congress. Or perhaps Mr. Merkley, Mr. Hoyer, Mr. Smith and the others believe it. Maybe they think that Robert Mueller, the special counsel, will one day uncover the smoking gun that has become an article of faith among Trump haters. What that would look like is anyone’s guess. In this fraught political climate, smoking guns are probably in the eye of the beholder.
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President Trump at a rally at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., last Thursday. Credit Damon Winter/The New York Times
You may firmly believe that a smoking gun exists, but so far, no proof has been offered. And no, Mr. Trump holding a news conference with Mr. Putin isn’t it. Neither is the indictment of Paul Manafort for his business dealings with Ukraine. Indicting a Russian troll farm or a dozen Russian intelligence officers for hacking won’t do it, either.
What’s worrying is that Democrats appear not just to oppose the president’s policies, but also the man and, increasingly, the process that put him in office. Crying treason and hounding the president’s staffers and supporters out of public spaces using bully-boy tactics is poisonous.
Somewhere along the line, “resistance” became “Treason!” and Democrats embraced the paranoid style in American politics. Saying you are going to resist is the language of politics, of working within the system, of elected representatives engaged in reasoned debate as they try to limit the president’s ability to deliver on an agenda with which they disagree. It implies hope for the next election and the one after that. Even the threat of impeachment, while ill advised, recognizes a constitutional process that requires the action of a majority of the people’s elected representatives in the House.
It’s worth remembering that unlike “high crimes and misdemeanors,” treason is a capital offense. Should we take Mr. Merkley, Mr. Hoyer and Mr. Smith and the others tossing around this most serious accusation at their word? Do they believe that the United States Congress should send Mr. Trump to the scaffold as the British Parliament did to Charles I during the English Civil War?
Perhaps Democrats are merely being hyperbolic and playing to the base, looking for money and votes. Vicious as that would be, I hope that is the case. But given the persistence with which the accusation is made, one gets the sense that they are serious. What do they think would happen if they prosecuted their claim to its final conclusion? What would be the effect on the country? Do they think the 63 million Americans who voted for Mr. Trump would suddenly embrace Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer as saviors of the republic? Not likely. Rather, it would precipitate a fundamental crisis of confidence. Once this crisis was upon us, no one could know where or how it would end.
In the absence of proof of treason that meets a broadly accepted definition, such accusations are patently irresponsible and destructive. It is the language of people who believe that politics is pointless and that its institutions have become ineffectual.
Shortsighted Democrats might think the endgame is driving Mr. Trump from office and retaking the reins of power. As Victor Davis Hanson of Stanford’s Hoover Institution wrote recently in his column for American Greatness, the magazine I work for, “Almost every aspect of American culture has been weaponized to delegitimize Trump.” Trust in the American electoral system has already suffered collateral damage. Self-government requires trust. Once gone, it may never be restored. In this way, Mr. Trump’s opponents have turned legitimate political disagreement into an assault, perhaps unwitting, on the institution of self-government.
This didn’t start in 2016. Branding half of the people in the country as “deplorables” and “bitter clingers” dehumanizes them. It means that their views — and eventually their votes — can be disregarded. If that happens, power will be based upon force or fraud.
What to do? Mr. Trump’s opponents must accept that they lost a free, fair and open election. There is no evidence of anything anyone but the most cloistered partisan could call treason. Dispense with conspiracy theories and fantasies about gaining power by any means other than the ballot box. Stop the frivolous accusations of treason. And then set about the hard work of persuading the American people and earning their votes.
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The Left are old hands at deciding words mean something they have never meant. Just add "treason" to the Leftists Distorted Dictionary.
Another word is "collusion" - a word that is presented as a crime even there is no statute defining it as a crime. Here's another example:
What do you suppose a "hostile foreign power" is? The answer is it's whatever Merkley wants it to be. Legally, there's no such thing. We're either "at war" with a country or we're not. If you give aid to a country we are at war with, yeah . . . that would be treason. But having a conversation with someone from a "hostile foreign power" is f-ing meaningless.
Unfortunately, that won't be prevent him from raising his eyebrows and wringing his hands while he says it as if it were criminal. And it also won't prevent legions of non-thinkers from going along with him.
Who is the dude in the pink tank-top?
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Removed.
This article is the same right wing/Trumpian propaganda that we see seeded here every day.
There is nothing "worrying" about it, it is the natural unfolding of what happened. Of course Democrat's oppose the man. He is an obvious asshole. There would be something wring with Democrats, and frankly anyone, who did not oppose him. And of course the "process" is opposed. We have been told by our Justice Dept. through the special counsel's office that the presidential election was tampered with. We want to know what happened.
Did Trump and his followers trust the electoral system? For months prior to the election Trump was openly questioning if the election would be 'stolen' from him. He never pledged to accept the results without protest had he lost.
Indeed, even though he won the office through the electoral vote, Trump was so distrustful of the election results that he launched a foolish and widely ridiculed commission to investigate voter fraud because he was pissed that he had lost the popular vote. The commission found no voter fraud on the level Trump envisioned.
If Trump's opponents didn't "accept" that they lost, we would have constant turmoil in the streets and far more activism about the '16 election than we see. People accept the result. That doesn't mean they shouldn't wish to remove this plague (Trump and trumpism) from our nation as soon as possible. Frankly, Trump should resign today. He brings disgrace to his office on a daily basis. His associates bring disgrace to the country on a daily basis. He's not qualified to hold high office. He is an ignoramus and a pathological liar. These are not qualities that belong in power.
The seeded article is propaganda. It assumes 'facts' that don't exist and substitutes with baseless contentions that all is well and normal with the Trump administration, which is ridiculous.
The constitution of the United States, art. 3, s. 3, defines treason against the United States to consist only in levying war (q.v.) against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid or comfort.
Seeded article source …
American Greatness
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