November 26, 2019: The Extinction of Objectivity

From the beginning of President Trump's administration, the President and his supporters have been crying foul on the Democrats and the media for their continual attacks on his character. Now I agree the daily attention coming from obviously liberally-biased mainstream media outlets is obsessive and, quite frankly, very tiresome. If you recall, however, the conservative media did the same thing during the Obama administration and the 2016 Hillary Clinton campaign. Let's take a look at the list of allegations against President Trump:

• Sexual Misconduct / Harassment
• Russian Collusion
• Obstruction of Justice
• Habitual Liar
• Extortion / Quid Pro Quo
• Racist / White Supremacist
• Violation of the Emoluments Clause

I am not going to argue the legitimacy of these charges. To be honest, the Democrats are no saints either as they have historically reacted in like manner when one of their own occupied the White House and was under scrutiny. What I do hope to discover is the explanation for the disparity of views. Many so-called authorities recognize this as typical partisan politics and nothing new, but how is the casual observer to know which view is more correct?

As I write this, the House of Representatives will soon be preparing articles of impeachment against President Trump. Those who support impeachment and those who oppose it are basically split right down the middle. This tends to agree with the current state that America is more polarized today than at any other time. I believe, as others do, that these are troubling times indeed, which explains my title for this article.

As I prefaced this discussion, the opposition in this debate are blaming Democrats for a number of things from falsifying evidence, denying counter-allegations, and being party to the 'Deep State'. Let's take a candid look at the facts:

1. A Democrat didn't recuse themselves after confessing about meeting with Russian agents. A Republican, Jeff Sessions, did. Fox News, 2 March, 2017
2. A point on the recusal of Jeff Sessions: President Trump repeatedly stated he would not have appointed him had he known that he would do that. There is no logic in that statement. Fox News, 27 Sept., 2017
3. A Democrat didn't appoint Robert Mueller special counsel to investigate Trump and the 2016 election interference. A Republican, Rod Rosenstein, did. Fox News, 17 Oct., 2018
4. That investigation was not led by a Democrat. Robert Mueller is a registered Republican. Wikipedia
5. Democrats do not deny wanting to impeach President Trump, but they did not trigger the beginning of that process, nor did the whistleblower's complaint. The President did by releasing that damning summary of his July 25th phone call with Ukraine President Zelensky. Fox News, 25 Sept., 2019
6. Some Republicans on the committee promoted the debunked "CrowdStrike" theory to assert that Ukraine, not Russia, was behind the 2016 election interference and that it worked to favor Mrs. Clinton's chances. Axios, 22 Nov., 2019

Expanding on point #5 above. What damning information is brought to light in the July 25th 2019 phone conversation with Ukraine President Zelensky?

The President: "The other thing, There's a lot of talk about Biden's son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great. Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it... It sounds horrible to me."

"The other thing... "
President Trump asked President Zelensky to look into two things. The first being Ukraine's involvement in the 2016 election interference now referred to as "CrowdStrike".

The other thing: "There's a lot of talk about Biden's son..."
Hunter Biden served on the board of Burisma Holdings, a major Ukrainian natural gas producer, from 2014 to 2019.

"Biden stopped the prosecution..."
Earlier in the conversation President Trump says, "I heard you had a prosecutor [Viktor Shokin] who was very good and he was shut down and that's really unfair."
In 2012, Viktor Pshonka, the Ukrainian prosecutor general, began investigating Burisma Holdings owner, Mykola Zlochevsky, over allegations of money laundering, tax evasion, and corruption. In 2015, Viktor Shokin became the prosecutor general, inheriting the investigation. The Obama administration and other governments and non-governmental organizations soon became concerned that Shokin was not adequately pursuing corruption in Ukraine, was protecting the political elite, and was regarded as an obstacle to anti-corruption efforts.
The Independent
Wikipedia

"...whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great."
The basis behind President Trump's request, and supported by opinions published in several conservative-leaning media outlets, is that Hunter Biden was somehow involved in the corruption going on at Burisma. And furthermore that his father, then Vice President Joe Biden, strong-armed the Ukrainian government to have Viktor Shokin removed. However, Shokin was removed for the reasons stated above, not for investigating Hunter Biden's role at Burisma.
Reuters

The Democrat controlled House of Representatives conducted impeachment proceedings against President Trump claiming that he violated the Constitution and his oath of office by requesting information on a political rival from a foreign agent. Furthermore, as a pressure tactic, he put a hold on the release of the US aid package to Ukraine.
DefenseNews.com

The Republican defense:

1. President's action inappropriate but not impeachable.
2. Aid to Ukraine eventually restored... Can't impeach for attempted extortion.
3. President did nothing wrong. He promised to fight corruption.
4. Deflection: DNC & Ukraine colluded to help elect Mrs. Clinton.
5. Final and most absurd: Apathy. American public doesn't care.

"Most Republican lawmakers aren't going to change their minds on the impeachment of President Trump. While some in Congress might privately think that Trump's efforts to pressure Ukrainian officials to "do him a favor" and investigate former Vice President Joe Biden were a bad idea, they won't say so in public because, quite simply, Trump is the president. He's giving them what they want politically, the economy appears strong and, most critically, he is far more popular and powerful than they are." Vox.com

There you have it. The state of our political system in America can best be described as a civil war. Instead of 'The Blue and the Gray', it is 'The Left and the Right'. It is not new but it does seem to be escalating.