The upcoming midterm elections could represent the most complex political calculus in history. The question is whether a potential Republican majority in the House and Senate, combined with a bloc of pragmatic Democratic senators, might decide to impeach President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. Doing so could be the one key to reducing the polarization of American politics and salvaging American civil society.
Joe Biden has set the stage for his demise. The American economy is in a death spiral. Inflation is skyrocketing, and most of the voting public understands that the disaster is because of Biden’s policies. His lame attempts to blame everyone but himself (“conspiracies” among energy companies, auto companies, food companies, irrational consumers, etc.) are falling on deaf ears. The polls are clear: the majority of voters feel Biden is mishandling the economy. His tone-deaf message that more government spending will heal the problem is not resonating with voters.
Pension plans — yes, those plans that provide pensions for teachers, firefighters, police, other public employees, union members and all other private sector workers — are in serious jeopardy. IRA and 401(k) savings are collapsing. Inflation is eating up the incomes and wage gains of all middle-class and low-income workers. The Fed’s rising interest rates will crush the market and further raise the net cost of financing business, houses, cars, etc.
Biden’s energy policies have been a disaster. Every American, every day, sees the results of his policies when they fill up their cars with gas or pay their utility bills. Prices have skyrocketed under Biden and some Americans may be forced to travel less, live more in the dark, have colder homes in the winter and hotter homes in the summer, and suffer more regular blackouts. Biden’s progressive utopia: The New and Primitive Dark Ages.
Additionally, Biden’s Transportation and Treasury leadership have been abject failures at stemming supply chain problems, trade issues, and economic collapse.
Many Black and Hispanic American citizens reportedly are leaving the Democratic Party as they realize that Biden’s illegal and criminal open-border policies have led to millions of illegal immigrants flooding the country, taking away lower-wage jobs and diluting the voting power of minorities. American citizens also realize that these policies are bringing in criminals with illegal drugs, spiking urban crime and drug-related deaths.
The Biden administration’s COVID policies and lockdowns were abject failures and led to accelerated deaths, mental illness, and economic contraction.
Biden’s notion that teachers “own” America’s children, and have as much or more rights than parents in teaching children values and beliefs, is straight from the communist playbook. The Justice Department’s reported branding of upset American parents as “domestic terrorists,” if true, is beyond appalling.
And Biden’s fully incompetent, politically motivated defense and foreign policies and leadership have invited aggression and adventurism by our enemies — which will only get worse.
Most importantly, Biden’s politics and rhetoric, and his weaponization of the Justice Department against ordinary Americans, has been unprecedented in its divisiveness, corrosive to American civil society. His overt support for progressive street riots, burning cities, and physical intimidation of his opponents represents a new low in American democracy.
Biden and Harris need to go now, and the 2022 elections provide a unique opportunity for a desperately needed reset.
Without such a reset, the future is clear. Donald Trump almost assuredly will return as president. Americans will choose the devil they know, rather than the devil they no longer can stand. It is time for aggressive, “radical moderation,” and the first step is for the next House and Senate to impeach, convict and remove Biden and Harris.
How would that work?
If Republicans take control of the House, they can move quickly on Articles of Impeachment. The Biden administration has been breaking the law to a level that dramatically exceeds the threshold of “high crimes.” The immigration policies alone qualify for summary judgment. The weaponization of the Justice Department follows close behind. Various Republican groups are assembling a list of investigations into rampant law-breaking by the Biden administration.
Harris, with her portfolio covering illegal immigration and her overt support for urban violence, is an equally guilty target.
Of course, the indication on Hunter Biden’s laptop that Joe Biden likely was involved in potential criminal activity involving payoffs from foreign enemies could become additional evidence of high crimes.
The Senate should convict and remove Biden and Harris before the end of January 2023. The House Speaker would then succeed Biden — most Americans would agree that anyone would be a vast improvement — and, in the spirit of national reconciliation, a hard-as-nails moderate Democrat should be chosen as vice president. Two obvious candidates would be Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) or Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), with Manchin getting the nod because he’d be one-term.
Moderate Democratic senators should leap at this opportunity. If they don’t, they almost certainly will get Trump in 2024, along with another red wave in the House and Senate.
Such a reset would pay huge dividends for America and both political parties. It would reverse Biden’s destructive economic and energy policies and stop his and Harris’s divisive rhetoric. It would lead to open, competitive presidential primaries for both parties, and provide some hope for stopping the next Trump train wreck. It would moderate and, perhaps, return some civility to American politics. It would save America.
Grady Means is a writer (GradyMeans.com) and former corporate strategy consultant. He served in the White House as a policy assistant to Vice President Nelson Rockefeller. Follow him on Twitter @gradymeans1.