Impeach Him, Impeach Him, Well Maybe we Hold Off On That – Piece 1: The Vance Problem

Since Trump took office as the 47th, whoopee, all I keep hearing is impeach him, he did this, impeach him, he did that, impeach him. And if I’d been critical while looking through that looking glass into the past, who knows, I might have been one of those saying it too.

So let me start with my confession. I don’t like the man. I didn’t vote for him. Although, in all honesty, I didn’t vote for Harris either. Do I want to see Trump gone? Darn tootin’. So badly that sometimes I gaze with adoring eyes at the liquor store.

Now why tell you that? Because this piece isn’t the one you’re expecting. This one’s about why maybe not impeaching Trump is the smarter chess move. Yes, you heard that right.

There are actually a few things he’s done that have worked out for the best. Take Canada. Hey, I didn’t say worked out best for us. Canada’s been forced to grow up, no longer dependent on the good old USA, they had to go find new trade partners, and from what I’ve read, they’ve done a bang-up job of it. Fighter jet contracts with Saab instead of Boeing. Submarine contracts with Germany. New alliances. An oil pipeline running east to west instead of south to us. By the time this is over, Trump will have inadvertently become their best friend, while hurting the hell out of us financially and damaging our national security. But heck, who’s paying attention to the little stuff.

I just wanted to say one nice thing about the Very, Very Old Boy before I get to the part that keeps me up at night.

Here’s the elephant in the room. Yes, the MAGA elephant. Impeach Trump, and who becomes president? Mini Trump. Not just mini Trump, an educated mini Trump. Which, if you’re a middle-of-the-road type like me, might be far more dangerous. I’ll skip the couch humor. Here’s why: he won’t be up all night tweeting his grievances. He won’t be broadcasting every plan before he’s made it. And he’ll have inherited Trump’s superpowers, courtesy of the idiots on the Supreme Court. And he knows it.

If you’re MAGA, rejoice. If you’re a Republican, well, you’re a RINO again. If you’re an Independent, the majority, the 45% plus of us, a moderate Democrat or a not-so-moderate one, in my opinion, you can kiss democracy goodbye. Because it won’t go quietly with gilded monuments to his own greatness. It’ll go quietly with the blessings and financial backing of the Super PACs, the Federalist Society, the super-rich, the oligarchs. They don’t want a democracy. It limits their power. And they will not be loud about taking it.

That’s the Vance problem. Not that he’s Trump’s successor. That he’s Trump with the volume turned down and have the power already installed.

And here’s the part that should worry you most if you’re thinking ahead to 2028. Impeach Trump now, and Vance spends two years as the sitting president. incumbent, name recognition, the power of the office behind him going into that election. That’s a much harder man to beat than a former vice president running as a candidate, still needing to win his own party’s nomination, still facing real opposition from inside a party that isn’t even sure what it is by then. MAGA, MAGA 2.0, or Vance quietly rebranding himself as someone who was a Republican all along, working from the inside. Benedict Vance, unless Rubio beats him to it.

You don’t hand him the incumbency for free. You make him earn it.