I was driving down the road today on the way back to our hotel from the pediatrician's office. The radio quietly droned out NPR's take on the Trump impeachment inquiry while my wife sat in the back seat, holding my phone up to expose the baby to some Huxleyan conditioning videos on YouTube. An animated mother and son sang to one another about preparing for bed in the video:

"Little baby boy, will you brush your teeth?"
"Why yes, of course! I love to brush my teeth."
"Taking a bath is good for you."
"It is so good for me, and I like it."

NPR explained that the impeachment was expected to fail in the senate, but that's OK, because Dems really just wanted to get the message out there about what Trump did and they think this was the best way to expose all that.

"The people deserve to know."

I got to thinking about what the implications of a partisan impeachment really are. I hear pretty often nowadays that the nation is becoming polarized, and it's not good for the country.

The way I see it, a strictly partisan impeachment can only mean one of two things:

1. The president is guilty of a crime, and the defending party is complicit in political crimes which threaten to destroy rule of law in our nation.
2. The president is not guilty of a crime, and the impeaching party is abusing the means at their disposal to overthrow our democratic elections.

Knowing that political parties are not homogeneous, I think that the "evil motive" implied by the above statements can, in the case of persons with "good motives", be readily replaced by an assumption of stupidity.

Are there any other alternatives?

If the Dems really expected this impeachment to fail along party lines, then this action on their part is really very shocking. Whether or not the president is guilty, they've driven a wedge between the parties which will not be easily mended. Now, loyal partisans must see the other side as a collection criminal and destructive revolutionaries -- which wouldn't be so bad if our country's politically interested population wasn't split so evenly between left and right. Hillary won the popular vote by a very slim margin; the party lines are drawn right down the middle, really.

Can't we all just recognize that most humans are genuinely rational and have good intentions for their country? We all want to improve our living situation, and we have different ideas about the way to proceed, but the slow pace of change in the government and the frequent changing of the guard effectively enforce that the country will modulate near a politically safe zone. It will stay that way as long as we continue to trust the system. Confidence in the system is really the only thing that protects a country from revolution.

Where's this going to go?

What world will my children live in?

I see nations moving in slow motion. This army's field manual is written across 66 books. Jesus, if you strengthen your church, we can do anything.

"I use hands to help my fellow man. I use hands to do just what I can. And when I'm faced with unjust injury, then I change my hands to fists of fury."