Is impeachment worth the hassle?

Abigail Prichett, Staff Writer

If you’ve happened to check the trending Twitter hashtags anytime since Donald Trump has been elected, then you’ve probably seen #ImpeachTrump or #TrumpImpeachment trending at some point or another. 

It seems to trend a few times a month, oftentimes a tag started by a few people that explodes into thousands of tweets laced with arguments and sharp opinions. 

But about a week ago, though, a more serious move has been taken towards the actual impeachment of Donald Trump. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has formed a group to look into Trump’s contact with Ukraine that took place back in July of this year. 

Allegedly, Trump asked the Ukranian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, to look into information regarding an investigation of Joe Biden and his son. 

At that point, Trump had been withholding military funds to Ukraine, bringing up the question that Trump was refusing to disperse the funds until his information was received. 

The information of this phone call was leaked from an unknown whistleblower in a nine-page report detailing the call’s transcript and the cover-up of this situation. 

Now some are asking exactly why this is such a big deal, and by some, I mean those real die-hard Trumpies who can’t see anything wrong with him. 

Well, it’s a big deal because pressuring someone into giving you information about a presidential candidate for your own personal gain is a pretty unprofessional thing to do, especially if you’re the President of the United States. 

But if you haven’t realized yet, Trump’s entire presidency has been chock-full of unprofessionalism: from his mockery of the disabled to his “intricate” tweets and we can’t forget his various sexual assault allegations! 

Did the news of this possible collusion shock me in any way whatsoever? No, of course it didn’t. 

I mean, this is the same man who said that he could go into the street and shoot someone and people would still vote for him (which is probably true at this point).

Nothing he says shocks me anymore. Maybe in the early months of his presidency this would have shocked me, but even then I had already grown tired of his antics during the debates and then the election itself. 

About the impeachment itself, what actually happens in the process of impeaching a president? Well to start, the detailed process can take months for the proceedings to even start and in US history, no president has ever been formally impeached. 

So, yes, it’s really difficult to actually get the president impeached. As for the process, if enough evidence is found on Trump, then the House will vote on articles of impeachment. 

If a majority votes on impeachment, then it goes to the Senate and a trial begins there. If 2/3rds of the Senate vote to impeach, then BAM! Trump is outta there. 

Like many Americans, nothing would bring me greater pleasure than seeing that sad excuse for a human being kicked out of office by the seat of his pants. 

But, sadly, if the president is in fact impeached, not much is going to change. Why, you may ask? 

Well, if the president is impeached, then the vice president takes over as president. 

Currently, our vice president is Mike Pence, a man who supports federal funding for conversion therapy and believes that abortion should be punishable by death. 

Yikes, that’s a bit harsh. So even if Trump is booted, we’re not getting even a little bit better. 

Overall, I obviously don’t like Donald Trump (that’s putting it quite nicely), but at this point, we only have around a year left with him (hopefully). 

With how long impeachment proceedings can take, it’s almost pointless to go through with the whole process. I do think there should be repercussions for his actions, but criminal ones instead of political. 

And like I said, if Trump does happen to be impeached, we’ll still have to deal with Mike Pence, who’s terrible, if not worse. 

So, yes, impeachment may sound like a good idea at first, but after reading into the details, it’s almost too much hassle to consider. 

I believe we should try to stay positive about the upcoming 2020 election and hope that America elects a better candidate for our future.

Abigail is a sophomore Mass Communications major and ia Staff Writer for The Voice.