During the Senate impeachment trial, the White house defense lawyers are repeatedly and condescendingly referring to the house impeachment managers as “the Democrats.” The goons can say that because the House team only consists of members of the Democratic party. However, this house impeachment vote has not been truly partisan. Justin Amash, a five-term card-holding Republican Congressman until 2019, voted for Trump’s impeachment.
Amash has taken the stand that no other Republican-seeking re-election has done during this current two year legislative session. He was a gift to Democrats and should have played a central role to the Senate impeachment trial. He would have been a bold choice for a house impeachment manager. On that footing, Pelosi and the Democrats could have represented the impeachment team to America as a bi-partisan committee.
It would have been the astute political move that Democrats needed to make. Further, Amash should have voted for impeachment as a Republican, then switched parties. Republicans did something similar with Steve Van Drew, a NJ congressman who voted against impeachment as a Democrat, then turned Republican the following day.
We’ll see what happens to both in their 2020 re-election campaigns, but hopefully Amash’s courage is rewarded and Democrats can reach across the aisle and leverage him. They will need him to truly convince a weathered, apathetic America who sees the federal government as a hollowed out, silo-ed enterprise.
The Last Democrat 