Democratic Winter Summary
Hello Union College! I hope everyone reading this column had a restful and cheerful winter break. Regardless of how the break went, the beauty of the new year is a fresh start for everyone–even now. Unfortunately, New Year clean slates don’t seem to work in government. The year 2020 is already setting the political stage in politics, headlined by the 2020 election in November. Before we look ahead to what the year has in store for us, let’s take a look at two of the biggest events that took place during winter break in another installment of the Democratic Summary, Winter Edition (DWS).
WW3. A mere two days into the new year, Trump ordered the assassination of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani who was the head of Iran’s Quds force. While Trump defended his decision by saying that the U.S. was acting on intelligence that indicated Soleimani was going to attack Americans, the shortsighted decision led to a ripple effect in an already tense Middle East. This resulted in deploying an additional 3,500 American troops and also introduced a new wave of sanctions on Iran. In the Middle East, the Iraqi Parliament voted to expel U.S. troops from Iraq. Iran announced that they would not hold themselves to the nuclear deal they had signed with the U.S. in 2015, and Iran attacked an American base in Iraq. Thankfully there weren’t any troops killed. We will have to wait and see if the tension continues to escalate in the region.
The Start! On the first day of winter break, Democrats in the House of Representatives voted to impeach President Trump and made him the third president in U.S. history to be impeached by the House of Representatives (Note: He’s still our president until, or if, the Senate also votes to impeach him). However, because the Speaker of the House dragged her shoes in giving the Senate the Articles of Impeachment, the trial only just began a few days ago (as of this writing), with the Senators taking an oath to impartially judge the facts of the case. An interesting wrinkle has also recently come up: though the White House previously blocked any staff from testifying, former White House national security adviser John Bolton recently said that he would be willing to testify if he was subpoenaed. If allowed to testify, Bolton’s (which in and of itself is uncertain at this time), testimony could either confirm that President Trump abused his executive powers and undercut those same allegations. While it is unlikely that even a former White House staffer’s testimony will sway the Republican-led Senate, depending on what Bolton has to say, it may be enough to change their minds.
Gabriel Zita is a junior studying psychology.