Donald Trump

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks during a rally Saturday in Windham, N.H.

(AP Photo / Evan Vucci)

To the Editor:

The Republican Party is in a terrible quandary. On one hand, a Hillary Clinton presidency is totally unacceptable. If elected, she will get to make at least three, potentially four, Supreme Court appointments (Scalia's seat is vacant, Breyer and Ginsburg will retire, and Kennedy is 80 years old).

In so doing, she will be able to reshape the Court for decades to come and set the law, and the country, on a liberal trajectory from which they will never recover. This cannot be allowed.

On the other hand, Donald Trump is equally unacceptable. The man is a loose cannon, simply unfit and unqualified for the job. What are Republicans to do? Fortunately, our Founders have given us a tool with which we can fix this problem: Impeachment.

Solely for the purposes of preventing a liberal Supreme Court, Republicans should unite behind Trump--and then they should immediately turn around and remove him from office.

This idea of a "constitutional coup" is not as bizarre as it might initially seem. First, the rogue, undisciplined Trump will almost certainly commit the "high crimes and misdemeanors" required to trigger impeachment, and he will probably do so quickly. Second, it hardly matters if he doesn't. At the end of the day, an impeachable offense is whatever a majority of the House of Representatives says it is.

Put differently, the House can impeach him for any reason it wants, or for no reason at all. Finally, while presidential impeachment efforts in the past have failed because partisanship prevents the Senate from attaining the two-thirds supermajority required for removal, it can be done here because this would be a bipartisan effort. Assuming the Democrats would be in support, only about half of congressional Republicans would have to get in line in order to ensure the simple majority in the House and the supermajority in the Senate. Based on the opposition Trump saw from many congressional Republicans during the primaries, these numbers are undoubtedly there.

This constitutional coup is legal, doable, and it is the best -- and last -- option for saving this country from both Hillary and Trump. Vote Trump -- then impeach him.

Mark Edwards

Jamesville