This article is a really thoughtful primer on how impeachments can be right, wrong or unknown impactors in democratic systems.
I never read the Federalist papers in school, but especially over the last 2 years have been obliged to delve into them occasionally for purposes of the show. I am frequently struck by how much thought and wisdom went into the writing of these papers, both the pros and cons what the new Constitution should include and how it should be phrased, that never actually made its way into the Constitution. I suppose that the footnotes required would have been ponderous, yet clarifying.
The article cites Hamilton thus:
… because presidents are judged by the legislative body, the instrument inevitably has a political component. In the United States, for instance, Alexander Hamilton warned in Federalist #65 of this risk — “the greatest danger, that the decision will be regulated more by the comparative strength of parties than by the real demonstrations of innocence or guilt.”
The English in the original text of Federalist #65 is written in an archaic style and is also technical in nature, so it might me useful to go to a site that summarizes it such as here, in the literal Cliff’s Notes version. On this page, a useful mention is made of the 17th Amendment:
As this section is largely expository, detailing the nature and necessity of the powers to be exercised by the United States Senate, there is no need to comment except perhaps to note this: Publius made much of the “distinctive” character of the Senate arising from the fact that its members would be chosen by the state legislatures, and not directly by the people, as was the case with members of the House of Representatives. In 1913, with the adoption of the Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution, it was stipulated that United States Senators in each state were to be “elected by the people thereof.”
The threat of impeachment can push presidents out the door. But there’s a catch.
[WASHINGTON POST] DATED , 2018
In late March, Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski resigned from office, a day before he would have been impeached. Kuczynski was the 10th Latin American president since the 1990s to leave office under the threat of impeachment.
Kuczynski’s downfall highlights some of the pitfalls of impeachment, a term that shows up a lot in the U.S. media these days. Here are some key takeaways:
