Op-ed:

Thanksgiving: Born of Politics...Tempered By Tradition

By: Diane Sori / The Patriot Factor / Right Side Patriots / Right Side Patriots Radio

Thanksgiving...a truly American holiday at its core yet a holiday also celebrated in Canada, some Caribbean Islands, Brazil, and in Liberia as well. Thanksgiving...now predominately a secular holiday has its historical roots in both religious and cultural traditions. And while President George Washington proclaimed the first “national day of Thanksgiving” in 1789, it was not officially celebrated annually until President Abraham Lincoln, in an 1863 proclamation, designated the last Thursday in November to be "a day of thanksgiving and praise." And it remained so until 1939 when FDR moved Thanksgiving to the second-to-last Thursday in November after retailers balked that Thanksgiving would fall on November 30th that year thus cutting the Christmas buying season short...modern day political-style lobbying of sorts I'd say. More on the specifics of this date change in a bit.

But how and why did Thanksgiving actually become the holiday we celebrate today, how did it start, how was it politicized, and why has it now morphed into a day when talk of politics is frowned upon?

First, let's discuss some basics and start with the fact that Thanksgiving is most surely based upon ancient pagan harvest festivals. However, we as Americans associate Thanksgiving more with the Pilgrims, who in 1621, sometime between September 21st and November 11th, were joined by approximately ninety men from the local Wampanoag Iroquois tribe, including their Chief Massasoit, and together partook in a three-day-feast. And today we equate the holiday as a day for families to gather together to “break bread” as well as to thank God for his blessings and for the bountiful Thanksgiving meal spread out before us.

But two things most people don't know is that first, the Pilgrims themselves were not actually associated with Thanksgiving until the 19th century after “Forefathers Day” became a holiday...a holiday now long forgotten...when the Pilgrims became known as the “face of liberty,” if you will, as well as their being the precursor of the Founding Fathers. And second, the Pilgrims were not the first to celebrate a day of thanksgiving, that honor should actually go to the Popham colony of Maine, who celebrated the day of their arrival in America in 1607.

Now as to certain political aspects of Thanksgiving, know that the politicizing of Thanksgiving goes all the way back to the days of George Washington when his 1789 call for a national Thanksgiving to give thanks for the opportunity to form a new nation and for the establishment of a new constitution, did spark controversy amongst those in Congress. How so? Simply, some members of Congress saw in Washington's proposal an exercising of power that they believed belonged solely to the individual states, while at the same time other members of Congress felt that Washington's Thanksgiving proposal actually violated the guarantee of a “separation of church and state”...paraphrasing used by Thomas Jefferson and others in their expressing an understanding of the intent and function of both the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment...the very amendment which Congress had just debated.

Overlooked was the fact that in Washington's proclaiming Thanksgiving as a “national day of Thanksgiving,” he was embracing people of all faiths not just those of one specific faith. And while the Pilgrims did indeed come to our shores seeking religious (and economic) freedom, on Thanksgiving Day 2021, Americans of all faiths and Americans of no faith are free to give thanks or not...free to feast together with family and friends or go about the day's business as they so chose.

And while religious “days of thanks” were long observed in all of America's 13 colonies ever since the time of the Pilgrims, it wasn't until October 1777 that all of said colonies celebrated a day of Thanksgiving. And it actually was the after-church meals that had become the norm by the beginning of the 18th century that led to what became the holiday we know today as Thanksgiving. And that all began when in 1846, the woman who became known as the “Mother of Thanksgiving,” Sarah Josepha Hale, author of the nursery rhyme "Mary Had a Little Lamb," became the editor of “Godey's Lady's Book,” a popular magazine of her time. Using her position to seek grassroots support for her campaign for a national day of Thanksgiving...a “Great American Festival” she called it...a campaign she hoped would become a unifying holiday that would help avert a civil war.

And while Sarah Josepha Hale's wish did not come to fruition, in 1863, in the midst of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln asked all Americans to set aside the last Thursday in November as a "Day of Thanksgiving"...a day to unify a country divided. Saying in part, “The year that is drawing towards its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies...No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Highest God...I do, therefore, invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea, and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a Day of Thanksgiving and a Prayer to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.”

And yet while today Thanksgiving has become a mostly secular holiday, it's still a holiday that honors it's religious roots with politics, sadly, still hovering overhead.

Now fast forward to 1939 and FDR's questionable decision to change the date of Thanksgiving...a decision that did not sit well in many individual statehouses nor with certain governors who felt FDR's decision was an overstep of presidential authority. As I previously stated, in 1939, the last Thursday of November was going to fall on November 30th thus leaving retailers complaining to FDR that this left but twenty-four shopping days to Christmas. The retailers then requested, begged actually, the president to officially roll back Thanksgiving one week after it had been determined that most people do their Christmas shopping after Thanksgiving with the hope an extra week of shopping would allow folks to purchase more.

And FDR caved and rolled back Thanksgiving one week which immediately caused a lot of confusion with the result of said decision being that half the country chose to celebrate Thanksgiving on one day while the other half chose to so on another day. Also, already printed calendars were now incorrect; school vacations and tests had to be rescheduled; and Thanksgiving football schedules were all askew. And it also saw political opponents of FDR...opponents like then Atlantic City's Mayor Charles D, White who derogatorily called November 23rd "Franksgiving”...rightfully questioning the president's right to change the holiday by focusing their ire on FDR's breaking of precedent and total disregard for tradition just to appease businesses...just to appease retailers.

Simply, the power of the dollar won out over common sense and an American tradition. And to make matters worse the economy saw no boost in spending because of the date change. In fact, most businesses reported that spending was approximately the same as before the date change, but that the actual distribution of shopping had changed. How so...in those states that did celebrate Thanksgiving on the earlier November 30th date the shopping was evenly distributed throughout the season, but in those states that kept the traditional last Thursday date, businesses saw most shopping occurring in just the last week before the Christmas holiday.

In other words, FDR's changing Thanksgiving's now traditional date was all for nought, leaving Congress, on December 26, 1941, to pass a law declaring that Thanksgiving would now fall on the fourth Thursday of every November...as it has remained to this day.

And that brings us to more current times where partisan politics colored Thanksgiving Day 2003...when good intentioned gestures were turned into political fodder of the very worst kind. 

 

Remember back to November 27, 2003 when just a mere eight months after the start of the Iraq War, when insurgent attacks on U.S. troops were the norm, when then President George W. Bush in his rightful roll as commander-in-chief, paid a surprise Thanksgiving visit to American troops in Baghdad...an unannounced visit for obvious security reasons.

Sharing a meal with 600 members of the 1st Armored Division and the 82nd Airborne Division stationed in a military mess hall at Baghdad International Airport, Mr. Bush stayed for two and a half hours. Jokingly saying while wearing an Army jacket that, "I was just looking for a warm meal somewhere," Bush became heartfelt with his words, "I can't think of a finer group of folks to have Thanksgiving dinner with than you all," with our president then added that, “You are defending the American people from danger and we are grateful. You are defeating the terrorists here in Iraq." 

And the response from our troops included many soldiers jumping to their feet, pumping fists in the air, roaring with delight, and grabbing their cameras to snap photographs. Pvt. Patrick McFarland of the 1st Armored Division did sum it up best with his words that, “It helps a lot knowing that the commander in chief himself is going to come out here and make some of the same sacrifices away from his family, away from his home, to show that he is devoted and in the same position that we are." And yet President Bush was slammed by the Democrats who claimed that his surprise visit was for political show alone what with the 2004 election coming up.

Such utter and complete nonsense as President George W. Bush truly supported and honored those who both wear and wore the uniform of our country and, I believe, he still does.

 

And then there's President Donald Trump who in 2019 made a surprise visit to Afghanistan on Thanksgiving Day to address American troops in what was his first trip to the country. Landing in Afghanistan at 11:03 a.m. EST on Air Force One after a 13-hour secret overnight flight out of an undisclosed airport in Florida, Trump visited troops at Bagram Air Field where he not only thanked the men and women for their service, calling them "courageous American warriors," but he helped serve Thanksgiving dinner to roughly two dozen troops at the Air Field’s dining facility. Words felt and services rendered for those men and women President Trump truly loved and honored for he knew well that these are the folks who put their lives on the line every day to help keep us safe at home.  

 

And yet he too was slammed by both the liberal media and the Democrats for putting on what they deemed to be but a political dog and pony show which is so far from the truth for President Trump rebuilt our military...our military that had been dishonored, defamed, and apologized for by his Democrat predecessor.

Like I said, shameful partisan politics rearing its ugly head specifically on Thanksgiving Day...a day when politics should truly always be frowned upon.

Why so? Let's start by saying that while we do live in a less overtly religious age than did the Pilgrims, George Washington or Sarah Josepha Hale, it would be a mistake to claim, as some do, that Thanksgiving is not a religious holiday in some respects, after all we do...most of us do anyway...say prayers to thank God for the many blessings he has bestowed upon us. Thanksgiving should be a time of tranquility, harmony, and family togetherness...a time to catch up on the newest happenings of family members...a time to “chow down"on what is possibly the biggest most bountiful meal of the year.

Simply, Thanksgiving must never be interrupted by those family members itching for a political argument with other family members...family members not of their same political persuasion. Prejudice and divisiveness should have no place at the Thanksgiving table for remember, political disagreements many times can sour even the best of meals, and it certainly must not be allowed to sour the Thanksgiving Day meal. And if truth be told there are plenty of other days...plenty of other meals...for that.

And so I say Happy Thanksgiving everyone...enjoy the Thanksgiving Day Parade, enjoy your Thanksgiving meal, and relish in knowing that turkey leftovers will be your dinner for many days to come.

Copyright @ 2021 Diane Sori / The Patriot Factor / All Rights Reserved. 

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For more political commentary please visit my RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS partner Craig Andresen's blog The National Patriot to read his latest article, Gird Your Giblets and Pass the Gravy.   

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RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS...LIVE!

Tomorrow, Tuesday, November 23rd, from 7 to 8:30pm EST, RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS Craig Andresen and Diane Sori present their Thanksgiving Special including 'Thanksgiving: Born of Politics...Tempered by Tradition'; 'Gird Your Giblets and Pass the Gravy'; and interesting Thanksgiving facts and fun.

Hope you can tune in to RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS on https://rspradio1.com. Click 'LISTEN LIVE' starting at 6:50 pm EST with the show beginning at 7pm EST.

 

Today is our 16th president's birthday. Sad so many have forgotten what a great man Abraham Lincoln was...one of America's greatest presidents. May ‘We the People’ never forget him nor his everlasting positive impact on our nation’s history...the ‘cancel culture’ sorts and their ilk be damned.

Op-ed: 

On Thanksgiving 

By: Diane Sori / The Patriot Factor / Right Side Patriots on Right Side Patriots Radio

The Thanksgiving story, as we know it, began on July 22, 1620, when a group of English colonists known as Pilgrims gathered in the Dutch port city of Delfshaven to board the pinnace ship Speedwell. Sailing from there to the British city of Southampton, these colonists met up with others who had already boarded the Mayflower, the Speedwell's sister ship if you will. Departing Southampton on August 6th, the passengers and crew were hoping for a swift and uneventful ocean crossing to Virginia.

Sadly, that didn't happen as the Speedwell leaked not once but twice, forcing both ships to turn back. And the Pilgrims who didn't call it quits while docked in the port city of Plymouth waited anxiously while the Speedwell's remaining passengers and cargo were transferred to the Mayflower, an already seriously overcrowded ship...a ship which then became their home for almost a month.

Finally setting sail for America from Plymouth on September 6, 1620, the now 102 passengers along with a crew of 37 men headed by Master Christopher Jones were packed tight in the small ship...a ship that measured about 100 feet long from stem to stern and just 24 feet wide. And while the crew was housed in small cabins above the main deck, the Pilgrims and the others onboard...those the Pilgrims called “strangers”... were forced to live in suffocating, windowless spaces no more than five feet in height... spaces that existed between the main deck and the cargo hold. And while the first month of sailing saw mostly calm seas, by early October an “unrelenting series of North Atlantic storms” tossed and battered the Mayflower for weeks on end forcing the crew to lower the sails and let the Mayflower “bob helplessly in the towering waves.”

And how do we know this? In the only surviving journal, a journal titled “Of Plimoth Plantation,” authored by Mayflower passenger and Mayflower Compact signer William Bradford (who years later became the 30-year governor of the Massachusetts Plymouth Colony) was also this vivid description of the actual 66-day crossing. Writing that, “They were encountered many times with cross winds and met with many fierce storms with which the ship was shroudly shaken, and her upper works made very leaky, and one of the beams in the midships was bowed and cracked, which put them in some fear that the ship could not be able to perform the voyage,” allowed us to visualize just how perilous the Pilgrims journey was.

And if this wasn't bad enough seasickness and other assorted ills permeated the entire voyage, yet surprisingly only one of the Pilgrims aboard died during the actual crossing itself. However, 52 of the 102 passengers aboard (consisting almost equally of both Pilgrims and “strangers”) died during their first winter in Plymouth.

But now it's time we separate fact from fiction, first in regards to exactly why the Pilgrims came to the New World and second, to understand that Thanksgiving as we celebrate it today is really a blend of the Pilgrims New England custom of “rejoicing after a successful harvest”...something actually based upon ancient English harvest festivals...and the Puritans tenets of Thanksgiving being but a solemn religious observance combining prayer and to a much lesser degree feasting.

And here it must now be known that for those we call Pilgrims, contrary to popular belief, religious freedom was not...I repeat not...the deciding factor as to why they came to the New World for religious freedom was something the Pilgrims enjoyed for more than a decade before ever setting sail on the Mayflower. How so? While we known that in the 1500s England broke away from the Roman Catholic Church and created a new church called the “Church of England,” what many don't know is that those we refer to as Pilgrims actually were “separatists” (as in those who rejecting the new church). And it was a small group of “separatists” who left England in 1608 and found both sanctuary and religious freedom in the Dutch city of Leiden, a city that was far more religiously diverse and tolerant than were those in England...a city where according to “separatist” member Edward Winslow, they enjoyed “much peace and liberty.” So logic alone should then dictate that religious tolerance and freedom was not the driving force that drove the Pilgrims to risk their lives first in a dangerous ocean crossing and then in the wilds of an untamed land.

So what did drive the Pilgrims to America? Simply, poverty did, for the reality is that the Pilgrims were actually what we now call “economic migrants.”

Possessing religious freedom in Leiden was surely a good thing but living in overt poverty was quite another. For the Pilgrims, who were farmers in Northern England, now being but low paid laborers who worked long hours weaving, spinning, and making cloth, was what their fellow “separatists” still home in England were not willing to do. In fact, in his “Of Plimoth Plantation” journal, William Bradford also wrote that instead of joining their fellow “separatists” in Leiden, “Some preferred and chose the prisons in England rather than this liberty in Holland with these afflictions,” meaning living both in poverty and what some Pilgrim elders considered to be moral debauchery.

And as time went on poverty became more widespread for not only did the all-important wool market collapse, but the Thirty Years War was looming large. Couple that with Pilgrim elders fearing that Dutch society was “corrupting their children,” which again can be witnessed in the words of William Bradford who wrote in his journal that their children were “drawn away by evil examples into extravagant and dangerous courses,” as well as losing their English identity.

Now being unable to return to their beloved England for fear of arrest, the Pilgrims instead looked to the economic opportunities the New World offered them. And with English merchants already having financed numerous colonial settlements, the Pilgrims embraced not only the economic opportunities afforded them but the ability to continue to freely worship and to preserve their and their children's English identity.

And after receiving a patent from the Virginia Company to establish a settlement within its jurisdiction, the Merchant Adventurers...a group of 70 London businessmen...supplied the capital needed to finance the Pilgrims quest and did so by purchasing shares in a joint-stock company. The backers paid for the Mayflower, its crew, and a year’s worth of supplies, and in return the Pilgrims were required to work for the company during their first seven years in America. But even here the Pilgrims saw economic pluses because every colonist over the age of 16 would be receiving one stock share for their having emigrating to America and working the land...land which would then be theirs along with any future profits garnered after their seven-year contract was up.

Life in the new Plymouth colony was hard and it took years for the Pilgrim's investors to garner any profits at all, while it took the Pilgrims until 1648 to pay off their debt. And besides, by the early 1630s the Puritans had established the more successful Massachusetts Bay Colony, where by 1691 the two colonies, together with other lesser colonies, merged to form the Province of Massachusetts Bay. So why even mention the Puritans then? Because it was the Puritans not the Pilgrims who came to America solely for religious reasons, and it's the Puritans religious tenets that Thanksgiving really emanates from.

How so? First, it's important to know that while the Puritans believed they could still live the “congregational way” within their local churches as per their own ecclesiastical tenets and do so without having to completely cut ties with the newly established Church of England, the Pilgrims believed that any membership in or dealings with said church violated biblical precepts for true Christians, thus causing a permanent riff between the two groups. And second, while the economics of poverty was the driving force that drove the Pilgrims to America, the Puritans, who were not poverty stricken, saw investment opportunities in owning land in America and believed that by being far away from England they could bring people to what they considered to be the “ideal English church.”

Simply, the Puritans were religious missionaries with conversion on their minds who came to the New World “with money and resources and divinely ordained arrogance,” while the Pilgrims were more accepting of religious tolerance thanks to their time spent in Leiden. To the Puritans their and their church's way alone was the only right way to salvation, and so it remained.

So how do these religious differences between the Pilgrims and the Puritans affect the story of Thanksgiving? First, know that in no way do these differences negate the basic premise of the first Thanksgiving being a “Harvest Feast.” Said feast did indeed take place but not in November as Thanksgiving is celebrated today but in October, with it lasting three days and being attended by 90 Wampanoac Indians and 53 Pilgrims. But still some minor revisions to the story are needed. Yes, the Wampanoac, who for generations already had harvests feasts of their own, “broke bread” with the Pilgrims, but little known is that this particular feast had as much to do with a peace treaty being made between two nations...England and the Wampanoac nation...as it did with the harvest success of the now one-year old Plymouth colony itself.

How so? This can be explained in a letter written and sent to friend in England by aforementioned Mayflower passenger and feast attendee “E.W.” (Edward Winslow) who wrote: “And God be praised, we had a good increase...Our harvest being gotten in, our governor (William Bradford) sent four men on fowling that so we might after a special manner rejoice together...” and that, “These things I thought good to let you understand...that you might on our behalf give God thanks who hath dealt so favourably with us.”

This letter alone explains the reality and truths of the first Thanksgiving as it being but a simple harvest feast and the welcoming of peace between two peoples, which a later day poem and politics helped to morph into what has become a truly American holiday.

And that poem was Longfellow’s “The Courtship of Miles Standish” written in 1848, along with the 1855 recovery of Governor William Bradford’s lost journal “Of Plimoth Plantation,” both of which peeked public interest in the Pilgrims and the Wampanoac Indians...peeked that interest to where Thanksgiving as we know today became nationally important. And while the Continental Congress had proclaimed the first national Thanksgiving in 1777, it was not the joyous food-laden Thanksgiving we know today, but an austere and somewhat somber event where religious leaders recommended that “servile labor and such recreations (although at other times innocent) may be unbecoming the purpose of this appointment [and should] be omitted on so solemn an occasion.” 

And those words were way more aligned with Puritan thinking than they were with thoughts of the Pilgrims. Remember, Puritan settlers in New England originally celebrated days of "thanksgiving" in prayer with food and feast playing little part, and yet they did give thanks to the “good Lord” for their successes in the New World.

Remember, it was not until the middle of the Civil War that President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a National Thanksgiving Day, to be celebrated on the last Thursday of November 1863...which happened to be November 26th just as it is this year. Urged to do so by a series of editorials written by Sarah Josepha Hale, what Lincoln did with his proclamation was try to bring both families and a divided nation together, and he hoped to do so with something as simple as a meal shared and a joint prayer of thanks. Then in 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved the date up a week, setting Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of November solely to lengthen the Christmas shopping season. But in 1941, Congress made it an official holiday, doing away with the what had been a required annual presidential decree.

And so this year as we celebrate Thanksgiving...albeit a covid-dictated one...we must not lose sight of the true meaning of Thanksgiving where we, as did the Pilgrims and Puritans, gather together with family and friends to share not just in nature's bounty but to thank God the Father for all He has bestowed upon us and upon our great nation. 

And to that I say, amen.

Copyright © 2020 Diane Sori / The Patriot Factor / All rights reserved. 

***************************************************************************************************************************                                                    For more political commentary please visit my RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS partner Craig Andresen's blog The National Patriot to read his latest article, Thanksgiving With Covid Stuffing.

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RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS...LIVE!

Tomorrow, Tuesday, November 24th, from 7 to 9pm EST,  RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS Craig Andresen and Diane Sori discuss 'On Thanksgiving'; 'Thanksgiving With Covid Stuffing'; and important news of the day.

Hope you can tune in to RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS on rspradio1.com. Click 'LISTEN LIVE' starting at 6:50 pm EST with the show beginning at 7pm EST. 

Op-ed:
The Impeachment Show Part Two...Maybe
By: Diane Sori / The Patriot Factor / Right Side Patriots on American Political Radio

"A decline of public morals in the United States will probably be marked by the abuse of the power of impeachment as a means of crushing political adversaries or ejecting them from office."
- a paraphrase of the words of Alexis de Tocqueville used in the 1889 impeachment defense of President Andrew Johnson

And so we sit and wait as January 6th is fast approaching...the day when the Senate is supposed to start the beginning stages of part two of the Trump impeachment show...that is if Nancy Pelosi decides to send part one...the House impeachment...over to the Senate. And if she doesn't send it over then technically President Trump is not officially impeached no matter how much or for how long the Democrats throw their to be expected hissy fit, and besides the nation now knows that their “political coup” was both corruptly put together as well as being corruptly and maliciously sought.

In fact, Noah Feldman, the very Harvard law professor Jerry Nadler called to testify before the House Judiciary Committee as a constitutional expert, a man vehemently anti-Trump, now has stated that President Trump indeed might not technically be impeached and that the vote taken is illegitimate if Nancy Pelosi refuses to send the articles of impeachment over to the Senate. And why...as per Professor Feldman because, “Both parts (the House and the Senate) are necessary to make an impeachment under the Constitution. The House must actually send the articles and send managers to the Senate to prosecute the impeachment. And the Senate must actually hold a trial.”

And Noah Feldman added that, “If the House does not communicate its impeachment to the Senate, it hasn’t actually impeached the president. If the articles are not transmitted, Trump could legitimately say he wasn’t truly impeached at all,” thus leaving Nancy Pelosi with political egg on her face. Remember, while Article I, Section II, Clause V of the Constitution states that, “The House of Representatives...shall have the sole Power of Impeachment”...in Pelosi's refusing, to date, to send said articles over to the Senate she has actually put the Senate, through no fault of their own, in violation of the Constitution. How so...simply for their not holding a fair trial thus denying President Trump not only the chance to defend himself but denying him his constitutionally given right to do so as per Article I, Section III of the Constitution, something our Founders and Framers clearly did expect a House impeached president to do.

And so the impeachment debacle continues on as Nancy Pelosi whines that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has not yet revealed how a Senate trial would be conducted nor has he assured her that said trial would be fair, impartial, and not result in an automatic acquittal of President Trump. Translation: Pelosi does not want a Senate trial to be handled in the same way as she allowed the House “political coup” to be handled, as in their predetermined verdict to impeach. What goes around comes around is not part of Nancy Pelosi's liberal-speak agenda.

So now as I write this article we are left with a “he said, she said” battle of sorts with Pelosi and McConnell at each others throats with Pelosi calling McConnell “the grim reaper” and with McConnell saying that Pelosi had “cold feet” for her not wanting to send the two articles of impeachment...“abuse of power” and “obstruction of Congress”...over to the Senate because she knows the House case is both weak and would surely go down to a crashing defeat in the Republican controlled Senate. And weak it is for while Nancy Pelosi continues to erroneously bloviate that President Trump was “impeached forever” regardless of what the Senate now does or does not do, not only has Democrat shill Noah Feldman countering her assumption, but so too has Democrat attorney and internationally respected constitutional law professor Alan Dershowitz who posed two key questions. First (and I paraphrase), are there significant allegations to justify a Senate trial and second, how can Trump be impeached when the House articles of impeachment as written are not in the Constitution as grounds for impeachment.

And to both questions, Professor Dershowitz, the man who recently met with President Trump and who it's rumored might actually join Trump's Senate legal team, stated that he is “strongly opposed to the two criteria for impeachment...on the grounds proposed by the Judiciary Committee and voted upon by the House as neither is found in the Constitution.” Professor Dershowitz also added that said articles are the “kind of general, vague, open-ended criteria that is weaponized against any president when the opposing party has a majority in the House of Representatives.” And how right he is especially when there is no bipartisan support for impeachment as there was in both Richard M. Nixon's and Bill Clinton's impeachment cases.

Remember, Alan Dershowitz knows well that we are now seeing Alexander Hamilton's greatest fear coming to fruition...the fear he wrote about in Federalist 65 where he stated, "the greatest danger that the decision will be relegated more by the comparative strength of parties, than by the real demonstrations of innocence or guilt." And not to be forgotten is that unlike in a parliamentary democracy where a president can be impeached solely on the grounds of “no confidence,” this type of impeachment is not permissible under a constitutional republic...a fact Democrat politicians most especially choose to ignore.



Now as per the Constitution itself, Article II, Section IV, clearly states that the only grounds for impeaching a sitting president, as well as for impeaching the Vice-President and all civil officers, are for “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors,” none of which are included in the House articles of impeachment. And while the crimes of bribery, extortion, and treason were things Democrats placed on the anything but impartial hearing table they were not included in said articles because no grounds for such charges were proven let alone proven beyond a reasonable doubt. This left the Democrats only being able to throw a “blanket covering” as to what said impeachment was to be based upon as there was and remains no tangible proof that President Trump committed any actual crime nor that he even came close to committing such a felonious behavior as “abuse of power” or “obstruction of Congress.”

Also remember, whether the Democrats like it or not, President Trump's asking a foreign head of state in a (transcribed) phone call to look into their country's past corruption is not a constitutionally described crime, hence it is not a constitutional abuse of power. And when that government has a known history of corruption and is now seeking both U.S. foreign and military aid, asking its leader if said government in the past colluded with prior U.S. officials or presidents in any “suspicious activity” also is not a constitutionally described abuse of power. And here is where the Democrats case against President Trump not only falls apart but sees an innocent man being publicly railroaded solely for partisan political gain. And it's being done so while a prior U.S. vice-president did indeed collude with a foreign government and should be the one on trial for abuse of power.

In fact, past presidents from both political parties have abused power to one degree or another with no threat of impeachment being hung over their heads as it is with President Trump. Here are but two examples one from each party.

On September 15, 1863, during the height of the Civil War, Republican President Abraham Lincoln suspended union wide the Writ of Habeas Corpus...suspended an individuals right to appear before a judge to determine if their detainment is lawful before being imprisoned. And Lincoln's suspension specifically included cases involving prisoners of war, spies, traitors, or any member of the military, thus allowing the government itself to indefinitely imprison anyone suspected of being a rebel spy or saboteur without having to “show cause” or make a case for the arrest in court. And while some in Congress deemed that Lincoln had overstepped his bounds with this suspension, impeachment was not an option discussed.

Remember too, President John F. Kennedy also abused power when he agreed to the “limited wiretapping” of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. based upon allegations that two of his most trusted aides, Stanley Levison and Jack O’Dell, had communist associations. Now being pressured to go forward with the King wiretapping by then FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, Kennedy never challenged nor questioned any of Hoover’s allegations about Dr. King or his alleged communist ties. In fact, JFK himself warned Dr. King that he was in danger of losing his civil rights cause because of his loyalty to both men. And yet Dr. King never severed those ties and lied about doing so when asked. And this led to the wiretapping which even back in the early 1960's was a questionable act at best. And yet when this was found out no member of Congress called for Democrat President JFK's impeachment.

And President Trump's Ukrainian phone call and any other things Democrats are accusing him of pales in comparison to these two what actually could have legally been argued as possible impeachable “high crimes and misdemeanor” offenses...offenses wisely not perused for the good of the country which is something today's Democrats seem not to care about at all.

But the bottom line is that if the Founders and Framers wanted “abuse of power” or “obstruction of Congress” to be impeachable offenses they would have included such in the Constitution. Remember, there must be a specific violation of the Constitution's mandates regarding the act of impeachment for impeachment to occur. And when you add in that both Schiff and Nadler chose to omit the words bribery and extortion from either of the articles of impeachment...with bribery at least being a constitutionally stated impeachable offense but something the Democrats could not prove...you can now understand why, again as per Professor Dershowitz, both articles, especially "abuse of power," are written in a "general, vague, and open-ended criteria" type of way.

So where do we stand now as the battle between Nancy Pelosi and Mitch McConnell continues to heat up, and what has President Trump said about Pelosi's stalling tactics? First, our president has rightfully slammed Pelosi for her “crying for fairness” after she led a knowingly “unfair process” in the House. And second, Pelosi and McConnell remain at odds over what McConnell calls Pelosi's “shoddy work” and the fact that Democrats might simply be too afraid...as in the “prosecutors getting cold feet”...to send over the articles of impeachment now that Pelosi has deliberately held off sending them which at the same time allows “partisan rage at this particular president to create a new toxic precedent that will echo well into the future.”

But to make matters worse...to add to the Democrats maliciously partisan driven drama...Nancy Pelosi...who ever so foolishly fancies herself having control over the Republican majority Senate...stated that “we'll make a decision as we go along” regarding turning over said articles adding that “we'll see what the process will be on the Senate side” before doing so. Sounds a bit like extortion to me...a truly impeachable offense as does the House Democrats...courtesy again of Adam Schiff and Jerry Nadler...having raised the distinct possibility of new impeachment articles being forthcoming. And it's all part of a misguided attempt to try and force former Trump counsel Don McGahn to testify at the upcoming Senate trial, something they know will not happen as long as Mitch McConnell stands strong and the Republican senators remain united in support of a president being publicly railroaded simply because Hillary Clinton is (thankfully) not president.

And in this case I'm sure Republicans will stand strong for if President Trump is not acquitted in the Senate...acquitted of crimes he never committed...the Second American Civil War might not be too far behind. Words of extortion...no, words of fact...yes, as “We the People” can only stand by for just so long watching our country being destroyed by the “enemy within”...with the “enemy within” sadly being today's Democrat party. Case closed.

Copyright @ 2020 Diane Sori / The Patriot Factor / All Rights Reserved. 

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For more political commentary please visit my RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS partner Craig Andresen's blog The National Patriot to read his latest article, Hey, It's Only Money...Right?
 
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RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS...LIVE!

Tomorrow, Friday, January 3rd, from 7 to 9pm EST on American Political Radio, RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS Craig Andresen and Diane Sori discuss 'The Impeachment Show Part Two...Maybe'; "Hey, It's Only Money...Right?'; and important news of the day.

Hope you can tune in at: http://listen.samcloud.com/w/73891/American-Political-Radio#history...or on Tune-In at: https://tunein.com/radio/American-Political-Radio-s273246/