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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 25, 2019)
2 Wednesday, December 25, 2019 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon O P I N I O Happy Holidays from The Nugget! During the holiday season, please be mindful of our deadlines and special closings that allow our staff time with family (while still delivering The Nugget to each of you every week). Thursday, December 26 ... Closed Tuesday, December 31 ... Closed Due to adjusted press times for the 1-1 issue, we are unable to accept advertising or content past deadline. Deadlines for Display Advertising, Announcements, Events, Meeting Calendar, Classifieds, Letters to the Editor is 5 p.m. on Friday, December 27. The beauty of a winter sunrise... Wintery skies have made for some gorgeous sunrises, captured by early rising Sisters photographers. 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N Jonah Goldberg On Wednesday, during the interminable <debate= on articles of impeachment, one Republican House mem- ber after another warned, threatened, lamented or just plain promised that the Democrats9 decision to impeach President Trump would make partisan impeachments more likely in the future. It9s not a trivial concern. Indeed, I largely agree. Impeachment is becom- ing a partisan weapon because just about every- thing that can be turned into a partisan weapon is <being weaponized.= As Andrew McCarthy puts it in the New York Post, we are working under a new theory these days <that elec- tions are won not by broad- ening a coalition, reaching out to attract or convincing opponents and undecideds. No, they are won by stok- ing grievance on one9s own side and electrifying one9s base 4 which is never more united and enthusiastic than when it opposes a political enemy.= The Democrats, accord- ing to McCarthy, are feeding their base a heaping bowl of impeachment because that9s what the base craves. To a large extent, I think he9s right. But I have a problem with this analysis, because it leaves out the fact that Trump invited this 4 and so many other problems 4 on himself. I should be fair to McCarthy, whom I respect. He opposes impeachment, and that9s a reasonable point of view. But he9s also per- fectly willing to criticize the president9s behavior in the Ukraine scandal4also reasonable. But here9s the thing: Reasonableness is not what the president demands, par- ticularly from GOP mem- bers of Congress. If you listened to them Wednesday, you heard not only that Trump did absolutely noth- ing wrong, but that his inno- cence is so profound, and the Democrat-run process so cruel and unfair, that no one has been so wronged since Jesus was sentenced to death. No, wait, scratch that. Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) actually said Jesus got off easy compared to Trump. <During [Jesus9] sham trial, Pontius Pilate afforded more rights to Jesus than the Democrats have afforded this president in this pro- cess,= Loudermilk explained on the House floor. I have no problem enter- taining the idea that partisan- ship plays a significant role in what the Democrats are doing. But the notion that they impeached him purely for partisan reasons ignores a glaring fact: Trump gave them the excuse they were looking for. Whatever you think about what he did with regard to Ukraine, if he9s the master strategist some bizarrely still claim he is, his actions were a political mistake. Why? Because they at least appeared so atrocious that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi could no longer fight back the impeachment effort. Similarly, Trump9s total refusal to cooperate with an impeachment investiga- tion may or may not be an impeachable offense. But if he were as innocent as Jesus, he wouldn9t be behaving as if he has something to hide. This is a good example of a larger dynamic of the Trump years. He breaks rules, precedents and norms out of contempt or igno- rance, and the response from his defenders is that he has a mandate to behave churl- ishly or worse because he9s a <disruptor.= But when other actors, some of whom were elected to be a check on Trump, behave in parti- san fashion or in defiance of norms, the president and his defenders are shocked and dismayed by the terrible precedents being established and the rules being violated. So much of it boils down to, <My bull was elected to destroy the china shop; how dare your bull get in on the action.= I agree that impeach- ments might be more fre- quent in the future, and that may be a bad thing. But there might be an upside as well: We might get more presidents who say to them- selves, <I better stop behav- ing like a jackass because I don9t want to give them an excuse to impeach me.= © 2019 Tribune Content Agency, LLC Opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer and are not necessarily shared by the Editor or The Nugget Newspaper.