Calling on Patriotic Lawmakers to Save America — Remember Watergate

By August 1974, Republican lawmakers knew that President Nixon must leave office if the U.S. was to avoid a national crisis. Senate Republicans chose Barry Goldwater to lead a delegation to break the news to Nixon. On the afternoon of August 7, Goldwater, accompanied by House Republican Leader John Rhodes and Senate Republican Leader Hugh Scott went to the Oval Office to tell the President that he would be impeached in the House and convicted in the Senate if he remained in office. Nixon resigned the next day. The nation was spared trauma and a possible constitutional crisis.

That was a different story and a different time from what we are faced with today. Confronting a sitting president for the good of the nation took courage and patriotism then and the same two attributes are needed now. Today, the two leading candidates for the presidency appear compromised by different predicaments, a situation which presents America with a pending constitutional crisis down the road, a crisis that will be harder to address later as opposed to now.

Today the majority of Americans, albeit for different reasons, don’t want Joe Biden or Donald Trump to run for the office of president in 2024. While some of Biden’s policies have been praised, some have not. Sure, there could be a messaging problem in all this, but there is a more uniform reaction when it comes to Biden’s age. He is seen as too old. In addition, his vice president is unpopular, something that is important in voters’ minds if Biden were incapacitated while in office. Although Trump is only three and a half years younger than Biden and quite overweight, he is generally given more of a pass on age and health. While this could be attributed to better messaging, one thing is clear in Trump’s case, he faces serious legal problems at both the federal and state level.

As we get closer to the next presidential election, the nation’s dilemma could become dire. On the one hand, if Biden’s health takes a sharp turn for the worse, then the Democratic Party may be without a viable candidate. Harris is unpopular and other democrats have stayed out of the fray and would now have little time to campaign to gain traction. On the other hand, if Trump were to be convicted in any jurisdiction (and probably be awaiting an appeal)…