During the tenure of Donald J. Trump as President, it has been said that impeachment is a political process, not a criminal proceeding. As such, it is not bound by the rules of evidence or even facts. Presidents can be removed for purely political reasons under the Constitution. The system of checks and balances set up under the Constitution was designed to ensure there were enough hurdles in place that a President could not be unfairly removed.



It might be helpful to review how responsibility for an impeachment is assigned under the Constitution. Article I, Section 2, Clause 5 grants the House of Representatives "the sole power of impeachment"; Article I, Section 3, Clause 6 grants the Senate "the sole Power to try all impeachments."



Unfortunately, this creates a problem if one or both houses of Congress support the President and act unethically in failing to hold him accountable. It makes sense that the President cannot be indicted in office, because unless he has done something clearly criminal, then it can be argued that the actions in question were part of his official duties. There is Supreme Court precedent that officers of the law cannot be held accountable for official duties. If the President ordered a drone strike on a target where an American citizen was killed, would it make sense for him to be indicted? The answer is no.



However, a problem still exists if it cannot be proven the President acted improperly, and has the power to stop investigations that may reveal the true facts. The President can order investigations to be started, and also to be stopped as part of his official duties, so the line isn't always clear cut. That's where an impeachment would make sense - but as previously asserted, if Congress fails to do it's duty in holding the President accountable, then a new process must be introduced which can accomplish that task.



Therefore, I propose that we petition Congress to write a Constitutional Amendment creating a new process for dealing with this situation.



How A Constitutional Amendment Would Work:



At the local level, politicians can be recalled if their performance is questionable. This is called a re-call election, and is an important way that average citizens can hold politicians accountable. The Presidential Recall Constitutional Amendment would provide the same mechanism, but at the national level.



The details would need to be hashed out in great detail, but essentially, there would be a series of triggers, which would lead to a national vote on whether the President stays in office.



1) If a very large number of signatures were collected (say 10 or 20 million), then a re-call could be set. It would be important that the reasoning for impeachment be laid out in the original petition, so that there is information to review. Once enough signatures had been collected, then perhaps an Impeachment process would be mandated in Congress. If Congress failed to act within a certain amount of time, then the re-call would happen automatically.



2) Similarly, if articles of impeachment were filed in the House of Representatives, but the Senate refused to participate, the re-call process would be set in motion, so that the issue of an impeachment can not be put off or avoided because of political pressures or other reasons.



3) Essentially, once the vote occurred, the President would remain in office or be removed based on a nationwide straight majority popular vote. This means that if Congressional politicians refuse to do their duty, enough citizens can band together to hold the President accountable.



4) Finally, to also hold Congress accountable, a new measure would be added where an impeachment vote by Congress would have to be ratified by a national popular vote. This protects the process so that, in the case where Congress tries to get rid of a President they don't like, the people have to agree.



On the one hand, the danger is that re-calls will happen too easily and frequently, or for things that are less than trivial. Also, special interest groups will have sway and this may taint the results of a recall election.



On the other hand, there may be cases where a recall election shows that a President still has the support of the majority of Americans, and so issues can be decided once a for all, by the will of the people, and put behind us.



Remember, impeachment is already a purely political process. Ensuring that the people have a say in such an important process will allow average citizens to say enough is enough when political parties decide to choose to protect themselves instead of putting the good of the country first.



P.S. Nobody is paying me to put this up. I am an average citizen, former Naval Aviator and Iraq vet who is tired of seeing politicians ignore average people and take care of themselves. If you feel the same, please consider supporting this petition.



Thank you.