r/politics • u/RB_Reich Robert Reich • Sep 26 '19

Let’s talk about impeachment! I'm Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor, author, professor, and co-founder of Inequality Media. AMA. AMA-Finished

I'm Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor for President Clinton and Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley. I also co-founded Inequality Media in 2014.

Earlier this year, we made a video on the impeachment process: The Impeachment Process Explained

Please have a look and subscribe to our channel for weekly videos. (My colleagues are telling me I should say, “Smash that subscribe button,” but that sounds rather violent to me.)

Let’s talk about impeachment, the primaries, or anything else you want to discuss.

Proof: https://i.imgur.com/tiGP0tL.jpg

5.6k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

1.0k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

67

u/ParanoidDrone Louisiana Sep 26 '19

I feel like what we need (or maybe not "need" but would still be useful) is an infographic or something that lists, step by step, what happened, including all the technically-legal bits between the myriad of illegal actions. Then highlight each illegal act with a big, red, inline annotation saying "this is illegal." "So is this." "This too." On and on ad nauseaum.

17

u/Jasonicca Sep 26 '19 edited Sep 26 '19

Its not complicated. The President is in a unique position of power. Using that power for personal gain is unconstitutional and illegal and obviously extremely unethical. He cannot use his powers as President to help his campaign for re-election.

Its not simply about withholding money to Ukraine. Economic sanctions are basically 'withholding money' from countries in order to get them to behave better - it happens all the time. Its about using his power to get a foreign country to do something in order to advantage his own position in the 2020 election.

As President he has access to foreign leaders with whom the US has all kinds of political and economic relationships, he is privy to classified information, he is the Commander in Chief of the US military. He has powers that clearly should not be used for his personal gain.

When a President does abuse these powers its something that needs to be investigated. The fact that he tried to cover it up makes it look even worse.

2

u/space_moron American Expat Sep 27 '19

It doesn't matter if it's complicated or not. It matters that right wing pundits are muddying the waters by confusing the public both about what happened and what's is or isn't a "big deal". A precise infographic would help fix the goal posts in place and confront whatever talking points are being marched out.

2

u/SheilaGirl70 Sep 27 '19

Well said!!

7

u/neuronexmachina Sep 26 '19

This is a really good idea.

4

u/thoughtsforgotten Sep 26 '19

an infographic using the layers of a cheeseburger for the hamberder in chief

2

u/TexaMichigandar Michigan Sep 26 '19

I have needed a flow chart for a while now.

1

u/RexTheHumanTripod Sep 27 '19

If you don't mind, I'd like to add a point of "and nobody ever did xyz" except for trump so that when you explain it to people you can whap them when they say, "everyone does it."

1

u/Room480 Texas Sep 27 '19

Yes u should make onr