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dd senator alexander suggests that while he found the actions by president trump concerning the withholding of aid to ukraine inappropriate the were not impeachable and furthermore that whether they merit removal is a judgment best left to the people here the link to the clip https www nbcnews com politics 2020 election lamar alexander says senate should not substitute its judgment voters n1128286 let s address the final point first the people and not the senate should decide in the forthcoming election whether the ukraine allegations merit removal hogwash first the founders were not democrats small d but republicans small r all kinds of checks and balances are put in place to insulate government institutions from the voice of the people because the founders feared mob rule particularly mob rule swayed by a demagogue the founders created the electoral college with voters casting votes for electors who according to the scheme laid out in the constitution were supposed to exercise independent judgment when selecting the president furthermore the founders expected wrongly it turns out that it would be challenging for any candidate to achieve a majority of votes in the electoral college thus the house of representatives would often decide who would serve as president all of these factors point quite clearly to the notion that will of the people is really to be refined by several institutional checks and filters so to alexander s point no it s up to the senators to decide whether the act is impeachable or not not the people in elections that represents a profound ignorance of the constitution and the situation facing the founders to the second point about to what constitutes a high crime and misdemeanor it is absolutely clear that the founders were petrified about foreign influence in elections and the conduct of national affairs this is why the citizenship and residency requirements exist for the presidency to prevent a european puppet from taking the throne i have to assume at some point senator alexander read president washington s farewell address which cautions the nation about entangling foreign alliances seeking foreign involvement in an election is precisely what president trump did and alexander does not contest this point which is precisely what the founders thought was dangerous and to be plain it is exactly the senate that should decide these issues because they are supposed to be removed from the passions of the people given their longer terms and at least at the founding their indirect election i read the federalist papers in college did they then there s the stubborn fact as john adams would write that the president broke the law his withholding the aid in the first place was an illegal impounding i cover this in my presidency and congress class congress appropriates and the supreme court has upheld this repeatedly and he was accepting aid to assist in his reelection breaking those silly campaign finance laws put into place after massive abuses by the nixon campaign forces that had little to do with watergate finally the issue of removal from office and the ability to run for president in the future yes a grave action indeed but again given the fear of kings and demagogues again this is precisely why the senate must have this ability the danger is a president who is supported by the majority of the people that pesky majority tyranny that madison warned against who must be removed from the ballot because they can manipulate the popular will to retain office and work their will to oppress the minority the senate is a check on this as hamilton himself wrote and congressman schiff quoted during the senate trial when a man unprincipled in private life desperate in his fortune bold in his temper possessed of considerable talents having the advantage of military habits despotic in his ordinary demeanour known to have scoffed in private at the principles of liberty when such a man is seen to mount the hobby horse of popularity to join in the cry of danger to liberty to take every opportunity of embarrassing the general government bringing it under suspicion to flatter and fall in with all the non sense of the zealots of the day it may justly be suspected that his object is to throw things into confusion that he may ride the storm and direct the whirlwind here s the link https founders archives gov documents hamilton 01 12 02 0184 0002 on a personal note i worked as a field staffer for senator alexander fresh out of college more than twenty years ago on his presidential campaign to say that i am disappointed in his position and behavior is a gross understatement america deserved better from him and the rest of the republican caucus in the u s senate if you are upset you know what to do vote like your life depends on it because it does posted by david parker at 7 27 pm no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest monday april 2 2018 carhartt bloodlines and place of birth the recurrent battle over who s the most montanan this is a special guest post by kal munis a ph d candidate at the university of virginia kal is a lifelong montanan and is an alum of both montana state and the university of montana i expect to feature his work often here with the 2018 midterm elections just a little over seven months away candidates have begun to ramp up efforts to distinguish themselves from one another in addition to the various typical dimensions on which we might expect those aspiring to represent us to stress their unique qualifications such as prior political experience policy positions and past accomplishments there is another conspicuous characteristic upon which political candidates in montana attempt to out maneuver one another successfully conveying that they possess an authentic montanan identity typically candidates try to signal to voters that they share with them various attachments to the customs values and lived experiences particular to their geographical constituency they do so in numerous ways including in video advertisements mailers press releases emails social media postings and other campaign media it should be noted that these activities don t stop at election day indeed many politicians will continue to cultivate their image of place based authenticity as a component of what political scientists refer to as their home style candidates in montana and elsewhere clearly engage in this behavior cycle after cycle due a belief in the campaign community that it is an effective practice in a content analysis of all video based advertisements that were paid for by campaigns during the 2012 and 2014 u s senate elections i found that these types of ads are widespread throughout the country with the highest level of usage being clustered in western states such as montana despite their seeming ubiquitousness it remains unknown whether campaigns decisions to deploy these appeals are evidence based or the product of folk wisdom based inertia irrespective of their effectiveness however some pundits and voters see the comments on this ad have remarked that excessive hand wringing over which candidate is the most montanan borders on xenophobic particularly when such concerns are tied to place of birth at the same time however it seems widely accepted that the success of many candidates in montana particularly democrats senator jon tester and governor steve bullock as well as former governor brian schweitzer has been largely predicated on their ability to connect with voters on the basis of place in large part the mechanism through which this connection has been fostered in montana as well as that upon which many campaign appeals based on place identity are made is the candidate s birthplace for successful democratic candidates in montana it seems that part of the litmus test has been whether they re a native of the state for a recent example look no further than governor bullock s successful 2016 reelection bid against then republican gubernatorial candidate and current u s representative greg gianforte in that race the bullock campaign was able to successfully paint gianforte as an outsider with deep connections to california and new jersey so out of touch with montana was gianforte according to bullock s campaign that he was willing to try to run roughshod over that which many montanans hold to be most sacred public lands the narrative was simple bullock a native montanan respects and maintains montana values whereas gianforte a californian multi millionaire by way of new jersey does not the result meanwhile was shocking as returns revealed that bullock defeated gianforte by 4 points all while gianforte s co partisan in the presidential race donald trump crushed his democratic foe by a staggering 22 points as part of the 2018 midterm elections tester will defend his senate seat and multiple republicans are competing in their party s primary to challenge him currently most observers regard matt rosendale as being the front runner among these challengers and if recent advertisements are any indication it would seem that several left aligned groups including the montana democratic party consider him to be the front runner as well in a recent advertisement the mtdp makes an overtly place identity charged indictment of maryland matt rosendale namely that he is an outsider who doesn t share our montana values in the ad the mtdp takes a don t just take our word for it strategy by relying mostly upon statements made by or on behalf of prominent montana republicans as well as upon a compilation of footage of rosendale himself butchering the pronunciation of the state he is running to represent in washington the statements which are attributed variously to current u s senate primary opponent russ fagg former u s house primary opponent and current secretary of state cory stapleton and to a pac that supported ryan zinke in the 2014 republican primary for the u s house of representatives all suggest that rosendale s non native born status should be viewed as a deficiency in the eyes of voters of these statements stapleton s makes the case against rosendale s non native status most powerfully stating we don t need that east coast value here in montana we don t need somebody from the east coast representing us in montana we need a montanan representing us on the east coast this theme though in decidedly less antagonistic tone was on display yet again a few weeks ago in bozeman at the republican u s senate candidate forum not a debate put on by the college republicans at montana state university the forum which featured rosendale and his three opponents troy downing a fellow non native from california albert olszewski and russel fagg saw all candidates take pains to stress their connections to montana and demonstrate their embrace of montana values rosendale and downing the non native candidates did so in decidedly apologetic fashion with the following statement by downing being emblematic of the tone i ve always been a montanan it just took me 31 years to get here fagg and olszewski the native candidates meanwhile made their born and raised montanan bonafides front and center from the outset with fagg for example noting that he has the montana roots the montana endorsements and the montana donations it was a portion of fagg s closing statement as well as rosendale s that followed however that really drew my attention in his last appeal to the crowd in bozeman that night fagg made his case that his native montana roots would be critical to defeating native jon tester in 2018 i m a fourth generation montanan and my family has live and loved montana since before montana was a state he said and the reason that s important i appreciate everyone that has moved to montana because they love montana but the democrats are going to unmercifully beat up two of my opponents because they moved here nine years ago downing and fifteen years ago rosendale it may not be fair but it s the truth if you put me on that ticket that takes that argument away from senator tester fagg then went on to note that he has to date collected the lion s share of endorsements from prominent montana republicans from well known names such as marc racicot and denny rehberg rosendale meanwhile has the support of prominent national republicans such u s senators rand paul and mike lee before passing the mic to rosendale fagg s point was brought into stark relief just moments later when rosendale mispronounced montana so badly that even i a social scientist who studies the role of place based identities in politics couldn t help but to find it grating in my defense it was the contrast of rosendale s mispronunciation and fagg s ominous message regarding the importance of montana roots in eyes of montana voters that made the moment so powerful and apparently i wasn t the only one to notice the mtdp released the maryland matt ad just a few days later and appeared to indirectly reference the forum in a short blurb accompanying the ad s posting do voters care about where candidates were born to begin to investigate this question i draw upon data from three different surveys that i have fielded one in autumn 2015 one in spring 2017 and another in early fall 2017 utilizing mechanical turk samples all respondents in these surveys reside in the united states within each survey i included a question asking whether and how important respondents thought it was that candidates running for congress in their state had been born there in the most recent two surveys an additional question was asked regarding whether respondents felt that candidates born in their state were more likely to understand the values and needs of people in their state table 1 how important do you think it is for candidates running for congress in your state to have been born in your state fall 2015 spring 2017 fall 2017 extremely important 25 5 200 11 130 11 very important 117 25 368 20 255 22 moderately important 136 29 496 28 300 26 slightly important 87 18 320 18 232 18 not at all important 111 23 423 23 229 23 n 476 1 807 1 146 results for the first question are remarkably stable across all three samples as can be seen in table 1 in the most recent sample one third of respondents indicated that they felt candidate place of birth to be highly important including both the extremely important and highly important categories a little over a quarter of respondents indicated candidate place of birth to be moderately important meanwhile a minority of respondents 41 indicated that candidate place of birth is only slightly important or not important at all to them table 1 in general do you think that candidates born in your state are better at understanding the values and needs of people in your state spring 2017 fall 2017 yes 853 47 554 48 no 287 16 144 13 unsure 667 37 450 39 n 1 807 1 146 as for respondents perceptions regarding whether native born candidates are more likely to bett...