Timothy Buchanan
Quid pro quo confession
By Timothy Buchanan
Far too much erroneous information has been broadcast across the United States about the basis for the impeachment of the president and the implied vilification of quid pro quo. By now, it should be assumed that most people in America can define the Latin expression as "one thing for another."
By mandate, President Trump is required to make reasonable efforts to avoid sending foreign aid to nations run by corrupt governments. Not only is it federal law, but it's also common-sense discrimination.
USAID defines corruption as "abuse of entrusted authority for private gain." By this definition, the Obama administration's refusal to release military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine pending the firing of the Ukrainian prosecutor investigating Vice President, Joe Biden's son, Hunter, was a blatant case of corruption. When this secret was discovered, Democrats, Republicans and the news media were conspicuously silent, despite reasonable concerns that the administration may have actually promoted corruption.
By and large, the American people still do not fully know what the Obama-Biden-Kerry team might have received in exchange for the $140 million in cash secretly delivered to Iran. No investigation was called for by either political party and no impeachment charges ensued.
In contrast, President Trump asked the State Department to delay aid to Ukraine until the investigation into the Bidens was resumed. For this, Democrats seek to remove the president from office. By all legitimate accounts, aid was sent to Ukraine without precondition. Some Congressional Democrats go further than simply accusing the president of an improper quid pro quo, to charging him with bribery. Bribery? If bribery, what did the president gain?
Impeachment is a political action, not a legal one, and political interpretations of fact are always subjective. Subjective interpretation of law is a dangerous game at any time, especially when the consequence is to remove a democratically-elected president.
By itself, quid pro quo is not a sign of corruption. We all engage in the exchange of one thing for another. When people go to work for an employer, they are paid for their time, talents and skills. They are given one thing for another thing.
For the sake of illustration, I will confess to being guilty of engaging in numerous quid pro quo actions. I voted for President Trump in 2016 because I expected that he would restore law, order, national respect and security to the United States of America. He has.
Men and women join the U.S. military and agree to serve their country in exchange for low pay, job training, and, in most cases, personal honor. We expect a quid pro quo. When young people go away to college, students or their parents, pay exorbitant tuition rates in exchange for an education. One thing for another. No one is impeached, sued or arrested as a result of these quid pro quos.
We pay state and local taxes with the expectation that these government agencies will provide fire, rescue and law enforcement services and fund efficient public schools. Increasingly, state and local governments violate the public trust by funding additional projects and programs of dubious effectiveness or dispense political favors.
The federal government compels us to pay income taxes and federal excise taxes on gasoline, heating fuel, tires and telephone services. In exchange, the federal government is required to keep the citizens of the United States safe from foreign invasion by hostile powers and secure from illegal aliens, to enforce our laws and punish criminals. Law-abiding citizens are increasingly being cheated by our own corrupt government agencies.
Democrats have attempted to impeach every Republican president since Ronald Reagan on contrived crimes or malicious motivations. As honest people learn more information and the actual facts of the Democrat impeachment become known, the specious impeachment charges are creating anger and resentment against the radical liberal party.
There is great peril in holding others to a higher standard of conduct than that which we demand of ourselves and our friends. United States citizens have a right to demand equitable treatment of officials in both parties. We haven't had that kind of fairness for many decades.
When equity is denied to any party, minority group or faction, our entire system of law and criminal justice disintegrates. The expectation of equal treatment under the law becomes an unrealistic ideal, at best. Equity is a hard edged sword that must be wielded without mercy or excuse upon all.
The U.S. Constitution guarantees the American people equal justice under the law. To achieve it, we must begin to hold our political leaders at every level, personally accountable to the laws they pass and the actions they take. That would be a noble and worthwhile quid pro quo.
© Timothy Buchanan
January 9, 2020
Far too much erroneous information has been broadcast across the United States about the basis for the impeachment of the president and the implied vilification of quid pro quo. By now, it should be assumed that most people in America can define the Latin expression as "one thing for another."
By mandate, President Trump is required to make reasonable efforts to avoid sending foreign aid to nations run by corrupt governments. Not only is it federal law, but it's also common-sense discrimination.
USAID defines corruption as "abuse of entrusted authority for private gain." By this definition, the Obama administration's refusal to release military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine pending the firing of the Ukrainian prosecutor investigating Vice President, Joe Biden's son, Hunter, was a blatant case of corruption. When this secret was discovered, Democrats, Republicans and the news media were conspicuously silent, despite reasonable concerns that the administration may have actually promoted corruption.
By and large, the American people still do not fully know what the Obama-Biden-Kerry team might have received in exchange for the $140 million in cash secretly delivered to Iran. No investigation was called for by either political party and no impeachment charges ensued.
In contrast, President Trump asked the State Department to delay aid to Ukraine until the investigation into the Bidens was resumed. For this, Democrats seek to remove the president from office. By all legitimate accounts, aid was sent to Ukraine without precondition. Some Congressional Democrats go further than simply accusing the president of an improper quid pro quo, to charging him with bribery. Bribery? If bribery, what did the president gain?
Impeachment is a political action, not a legal one, and political interpretations of fact are always subjective. Subjective interpretation of law is a dangerous game at any time, especially when the consequence is to remove a democratically-elected president.
By itself, quid pro quo is not a sign of corruption. We all engage in the exchange of one thing for another. When people go to work for an employer, they are paid for their time, talents and skills. They are given one thing for another thing.
For the sake of illustration, I will confess to being guilty of engaging in numerous quid pro quo actions. I voted for President Trump in 2016 because I expected that he would restore law, order, national respect and security to the United States of America. He has.
Men and women join the U.S. military and agree to serve their country in exchange for low pay, job training, and, in most cases, personal honor. We expect a quid pro quo. When young people go away to college, students or their parents, pay exorbitant tuition rates in exchange for an education. One thing for another. No one is impeached, sued or arrested as a result of these quid pro quos.
We pay state and local taxes with the expectation that these government agencies will provide fire, rescue and law enforcement services and fund efficient public schools. Increasingly, state and local governments violate the public trust by funding additional projects and programs of dubious effectiveness or dispense political favors.
The federal government compels us to pay income taxes and federal excise taxes on gasoline, heating fuel, tires and telephone services. In exchange, the federal government is required to keep the citizens of the United States safe from foreign invasion by hostile powers and secure from illegal aliens, to enforce our laws and punish criminals. Law-abiding citizens are increasingly being cheated by our own corrupt government agencies.
Democrats have attempted to impeach every Republican president since Ronald Reagan on contrived crimes or malicious motivations. As honest people learn more information and the actual facts of the Democrat impeachment become known, the specious impeachment charges are creating anger and resentment against the radical liberal party.
There is great peril in holding others to a higher standard of conduct than that which we demand of ourselves and our friends. United States citizens have a right to demand equitable treatment of officials in both parties. We haven't had that kind of fairness for many decades.
When equity is denied to any party, minority group or faction, our entire system of law and criminal justice disintegrates. The expectation of equal treatment under the law becomes an unrealistic ideal, at best. Equity is a hard edged sword that must be wielded without mercy or excuse upon all.
The U.S. Constitution guarantees the American people equal justice under the law. To achieve it, we must begin to hold our political leaders at every level, personally accountable to the laws they pass and the actions they take. That would be a noble and worthwhile quid pro quo.
© Timothy Buchanan
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