In a recent Op-Ed in the Washington Post, Colorado U.S. Rep. Ken Buck has made no secret of his disdain for the impeachment proceedings currently underway against President Donald Trump. Buck’s essay, titled “Don’t Abuse the Impeachment Power,” contained an impassioned argument against impeachment, painting it as an unnecessarily divisive and partisan exercise that would do nothing but further divide the American people.
Buck begins his essay by making a point that has become increasingly popular with Republican legislators in recent weeks – that the calls for impeachment are nothing more than an effort by House Democrats and their allies to “overturn the November 2016 election and the will of the American people.” This assertion, however, falls short of being fully accurate, as there existed an overwhelming demand for Trump’s impeachment well before the 2020 election season began. Nevertheless, Buck’s unsparing condemnation of the effort is clear, as he charges that the Democrats are “systematically disenfranchising millions of voters to advance their own political objectives.”
Such anti-impeachment rhetoric inevitably takes us back to the era in which the impeachment process first began, where it was considered an almost exclusively political tool for the majority party to remove a president who they deemed to be a threat to the nation. In fact, this is the very argument that Buck makes in his op-ed, as he asserts that the current impeachment inquiry is merely a “well-orchestrated” effort to “pursue a partisan agenda.”
Whether one agrees or not with Buck’s argument, it is certain that his unsparingly anti-impeachment essay serves as a strong example of the lengths some Republicans may be willing to go in order to protect the man currently occupying the White House. While Buck’s anti-impeachment stance may carry significant weight within the GOP, it certainly will not be enough to dissuade Democrats from continuing in their impeachment proceedings, with the ultimate decision expected to be made when the House of Representatives votes.
