Finley: Let's just impeach everyone

Nolan Finley | The Detroit News

If Washington, D.C. were held to biblical standards, it would be an ash heap.

Recall that God smoked Sodom and Gomorrah when Abraham couldn’t find 10 righteous men among the populace to meet His condition for sparing them.

Good luck filling that quota in the Capitol.

What we saw during last week's hearings confirms there are no white hats in this impeachment fight. No one purely motivated. And the only righteousness on display is self-righteousness.

Picking sides is a pointless exercise that serves to perpetuate the poisonous partisanship ruining our country. We should stop pretending there’s virtue on one side of this enterprise and evil on the other and accept the reality that two things can be true at once.

Donald Trump can be an immoral scoundrel who abused the power of the presidency in pressuring a foreign country to help take down a political rival. I believe that.

And Adam Schiff can be a scheming weasel who's had the impeachment papers on his desk for three years just waiting to fill in the blanks. I believe that, too.

I put nothing past Trump, the most dishonorable president ever to hold the office. His moral compass is without a needle. Even in this vulgar social media age, Trump’s coarseness is unacceptable for an American president.

Before rushing to your keyboard to fire off a “Yeah, but what about the economy …” email, I’ll admit, I’ve done quite well as an investor during the Trump years. But I suspect it’s possible for a president to cut taxes and regulations and boost the stock market without being an insufferable braggart and a serial offender of decency.

Still, I find myself trapped into defending Trump against the push by ruthless Democrats and their allies to take down an elected president by any means necessary. Trump has not been treated fairly. Nor was he ever given a chance to succeed. Democrats began their resistance movement on Inauguration Day, and talk of impeachment started before he switched on the lights in the Oval Office.

Worse, there's ample evidence that anti-Trump forces in the Justice Department worked to orchestrate a coup against the president.

Critics of Trump contend his actions present a constitutional crisis. But Trump has not defied checks on his overreaches by the courts. It is a constitutional crisis, however, when forces inside the government actively attempt to influence the outcome of a presidential election, and then work to undermine the president elected by the people.

And so unnecessary. No one undermines Trump more than Trump himself.

For either Republicans or Democrats to see their party as holding the high ground requires a lot of squinting. My solution would be a blanket impeachment that takes them all out.

This pox-on-all-their-houses wish stems from a conviction that we are nearing the point at which dysfunctional government becomes intractable, offering no hope of ever coming together to advance the nation past its many challenges.

Back to the Bible, what we may be witnessing are the end times of our Republic.

nfinley@detroitnews.com

Catch Nolan Finley on "One Detroit at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays on Detroit Public Television.