Yes. I DO take joy in this impeachment. Here’s why.

All over the internet there’s discussion of whether we should take joy in the impeachment of Donald Trump. I see some friends whooping it up. I see others that say they take no joy. Well, I do take joy, and I think it’s important to talk about why.

It’s not because I don’t like him – I don’t. It’s not because I think he’s a terrible human being – I do. It’s not because his political ideology doesn’t jive with mine – it doesn’t. It’s not because he’s a narcissist – he is. It’s not because he’s a nepotist – he is. It’s not because he lets people buy their way into positions of power – he does. It’s not because he has no heart – he does (it’s just filled with hate).  It's not because he's a liar who can't tell the truth if his life depended on it – he is. It’s not because I want to reverse the outcome of the election – I do.

It’s one simple reason:
Our Constitution still works.

Our Constitution still works, and that gives me a small sliver of hope that our democratic republic is not completely dead. The House of Representatives has done its job. Impeachment is written into the Constitution for a reason. Not to get rid of presidents we don’t like. Not to reverse an election (though how I wish we could!). If Trump is removed from office, the election isn’t reversed. He was still president. If Trump is removed from office, Hillary Clinton doesn’t get to be president (dammit!). But it does mean that we still agree that a US President is not above the law. A US President is not a monarch, immune to the laws of the country over which they rule. A US President is not a dictator, alone getting to decide what happens, who lives or dies.

Impeachment is written into the Constitution because our founders believed in the separation of powers, that no one branch of government should have complete control. That nobody, including a US President, is above the law.

Donald Trump has used the presidency to consolidate money and power. All presidents do that in some way. But he has done it in a way that consistently violates the rule of law. He “urges” foreign leaders to stay in his hotels, from which he never divested his interest, even though he said he would. When the leader off the free world says you should stay in his hotel, and you rely on that leader's country for financial, social, and military support, you do it.

Donald Trump is committing crimes against humanity. He is forcing families apart, making them live in cages, separating babies from their families, refusing to let them be vaccinated, refusing medical care and basic human needs, adopting their children out to US families without consent, depriving them of dignity and human decency. Do I hope he’s held to account in a court of law for all of this? You bet your ass I do.

Donald Trump has repudiated everything our country has stood for over the last 230+ years. We are no longer a beacon of hope for the tired, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free. He gleefully sends asylum seekers back to be killed in the countries they flee. He cares nothing for people who do not look like him or live in his social sphere, refusing to accept refugees because they “don’t contribute”, which is bullshit but again, I digress. He has absolutely no humanity.

Donald Trump has hurt our standing in the world. Oh sure. You can choose to believe him when he says, “They were laughing at us before. They aren’t laughing now.” Except they are. We no longer are a moral leader. Our guidance is no longer needed – there are others to step into that role. We are no longer respected, we are only coddled because of the money we bring to the table. That is the only world that Donald Trump understands. And that is sad. Except it’s not sad, it's enraging. Because it is ruining our democracy.

Some people can’t believe that after all the emoluments clause violations; after all of the Trump foundation violations; after all the national security violations; after all the subversion of the free press; after pushing to make the US a theocracy; after all of the taxpayer paid vacations… hey, we HATED it when the black guy picked up a golf club, remember? Oh right. Golf and the country club are for rich white dudes, my bad. I digress. After all of the crimes against humanity; what caused us to impeach was a shakedown of the Ukranian president.

Frankly, I don’t care what takes him down. Al Capone was taken down by tax violations (something I’m sure would also take down trump if his henchman judges would ever make him release his taxes). I only care that he goes.

One man could have stopped all of this, but has chosen not to. Mitch McConnell, longing for the olden days of yore and slavery and Reagan, refuses to hold this president to account. He’s chosen to ignore close to 400 bills on his desk from the House of Representatives – some of which would hold this president to account by clarifying the limitations of his power. McConnell has chosen instead, to abdicate his responsibility as the Senate Majority Leader in order to use his role instead to preserve an antiquated view of society – lining the courts with lifetime appointments of judges that the American Bar Association deems unsuitable. With judges that will take any social progress of the last 60 years and throw it in the trash. Judges that refuse to say that Brown was decided correctly. That refuse to adhere to settled law that a woman is an autonomous being in her own right with 14th amendment rights. It will take us many decades to undo the damage caused in just 3 short years.

I’m pretty sure this was their agreement. I’ll let you get away with all your illegal crap if you let me choose all the judges I want to preserve our old rich white man land owner “democracy”.

Mitch McConnell deserves to rot in a prison cell at best. At the very least, he deserves to be removed from his position as Majority Leader. Somewhere in the middle lies an election, where the people of Kentucky can fix the country. (Donate to Amy McGrath here)

So do I take joy in Donald Trump's impeachment? You bet your ass I do. No, I don't like him. Yes, I wish he'd never been elected. I hate what it says about our country that he was elected in the first place. I hate what it says about my friends and family who did, and still do, support him and all his ideology. But that's not why I take joy.  It's because it still works.

Our Constitution still works.