A HOUSE DIVIDED
Gavel Gamut By Jim Redwine
On June 16, 1858, during Abraham Lincoln, Stephen Douglas race for an Illinois Senate seat, Lincoln said, “A house divided against itself cannot standâ€. Lincoln meant the United States could not permanently exist unless slavery was outlawed everywhere or made legal everywhere. Lincoln lost the election but later led America to be a united and free country. Unfortunately, it took 600,000 lives to do so.
The CNN poll last week indicated 46% of respondents were against removing President Trump before the next election and 45% were in favor of doing so. That is certainly a divided house. However, the fate of one president is not remotely like the issue of slavery. With presidents, there are always two sides. Some like them, some do not and some don’t care.
When President William Clinton was impeached by the House in 1998 and acquitted by the Senate in 1999 the country moved right along. There was no war, not even any physical battles. Chances are America will experience the same reactions when President Trump is acquitted, and the Republican-controlled Senate’s verdict is no more in doubt than was the Democrat-controlled House of Representative’s vote to charge him. The political theater of the Clinton and Trump impeachment will look and sound the same. As William Shakespeare’s Macbeth said about life:
“It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.â€
Act 5, scene 5
I have no desire or right to speak for you, Gentle Reader. However, as for me, my prediction is we Americans will emulate our British cousins and just muddle on through this current phase with a great deal of affection and no lasting effect.
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