… In many ways, we don’t know a lot about what happens now. We’ve seen only a few presidential impeachments in this country, and each one had its own quirks. I said to a group of colleagues the other day that we probably do have a fair amount of relevant knowledge – historical precedent, theory – but what we don’t know is exactly which pieces of information are relevant to these circumstances. What we do know is that we are moving into a highly partisan impeachment process, in which politics have been bitterly polarized for at least a decade.
Cornell University political scientist Tom Pepinsky warns of a deepening divide over institutions in the U.S. His observations link impeachment politics to the questions of when partisan polarization gives way to the breakdown of legitimate opposition, and how the kind of “constitutional hardball” that characterizes fragile democracies might apply now.
Where I want to intervene is to think through how these “hardball” dynamics play out in our specific place and time. CONT.
Julia Azari (Marquette), Mischiefs of Faction