Trump's Impeachment as Magic Trick

Trump’s Impeachment: A Magic Trick

Peter Schultz

            Donald Trump’s impeachment is defended by many as an act necessary to save “the rule of law.” However, little could be further from the truth.

            Our political system does not function legally because its power holders, its movers and shakers are all-too-willing to lawless forces, such as “organized” or “tolerated” crime, to maintain and fortify their preeminence, their power. Thus, as Peter Dale Scott has illustrated, “a symbiosis” exists among our elites and other lawless forces that has turned our political system into “a system of accommodations. . ., characterized by alliances…with lawless forces” such as drug trafficking, organized crime, or the CIA. At times, this symbiosis becomes most visible when the to government tries to cover it up while pretending to “investigate” events like the Kennedy assassination, Iran-Contra, or 9/11. The gaps in these “investigations” point toward what is really going on, point toward the alliances our elites use with lawless forces to maintain their power by making “adjustments” to meet “the overriding political priorities of [our] power-movers and –shakers.”

            This symbiosis also is visible when our elites construct such alleged “crises” as the Cold War, the Global War on Terror, or even Bush’s construction of an “axis of evil.” These constructions carry with them the implication that, to succeed, the government cannot be bound by the rule of law. It must, as Dick Cheney said after 9/11, go to “the dark side.” That is, it must forego legal and even constitutional arrangements and thinking, while wielding power freely and, of course, inhumanely and unjustly. Notions like “due process” are treated as “quaint,” as hindrances to a will to power that must be indulged. Apparently, these elites believe that inhumanity will produce humanity, that injustice will produce justice, that endless war will lead to peace, and that greed will enrich all people and not destroy the planet.

            So then Trump’s impeachment for preserving the rule of law is like just another magic trick: Overturn the result of the 2016 presidential election using any means necessary, even lawless means such as the CIA, and, viola, like pulling a rabbit out of a hat, the rule of law will be restored and fortified. In our political order, where the rule of law disappeared some time ago, such magic tricks are absolutely essential for preserving the illusion that we live in “a nation of laws.” And while this is strange enough, even stranger is that some of our elites don’t even seem to know they’re doing magic.