While watching the televised impeachment hearings this week, I noticed that, more than once, Republicans on the committee complained about how Democrats were attempting to throw out the result of a presidential election that Trump had won "in a landslide." Since more Americans actually voted for Clinton, and it seems sort of odd for the popular vote loser to have "won in a landslide," some of the more careful complainers referred to Trump's "electoral college landslide." My ears perk up like a hunting dog's whenever I hear a phrase including the words "electoral college," and I'd just like to point up that there are layers of wrongness with this defense.
In the first place, impeachment is a constitutional process. To the degree that it involves an effort to overturn an election result, it always does. For example, in 1999, when Clinton was impeached, the Republicans were attempting to overturn an election result—unless they weren't, in which case the Democrats aren't now. The complaint seems like a bit of an overstatement. I suppose that if in 1999 any Democrat had complained about how Republicans were trying to overturn an election result, the reply would have been: Not really, since the result of conviction in the Senate will be President Al Gore. And now the consequence of a successful impeachment will be President Pence. Because that's what the Constitution requires.
Moreover, the notion that Trump won a "landslide" in the electoral college is unusual, one might almost say, outlandish. What's the definition of "landslide"? Trump won 306 electoral votes. In the ten presidential elections of my voting life, the winning candidate has received fewer than 306 electoral votes only twice. The average number of electoral votes received by the winner has been 375. If Trump won a "landslide," then the same could be said of almost all presidential elections, and, in that case, "landslide" loses its meaning: it's just a hyperventilating synonym for "election result."
All the other defenses I heard Republicans advance are similarly laughable, and I might take up a couple of them in future posts. It'll be enjoyable, because laughable = fun.
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