A Democratic Republic can only survive if the representatives and citizenry are moral and

Article II, Section 4 in the constitution states this:

The President, Vice President, and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.

Currently in vogue for the Democrats is the phrase “no one is above the law.” In the Constitution, “high crimes” and “misdemeanors” aren’t defined so both are subject to subjective ethical value judgements. What if some laws are unjust, then should no one be above the unjust laws?

As can be noted, a sense of morality or ethics is necessary to judge whether any particular misconduct is a high crime and misdemeanor, or whether a law is truly unjust and need not be obeyed. If an elected representative lies, steals, commits adultery, or murders, then the organization is doomed to fail—unless it’s a criminal organization. Similarly, if most citizens begin to lie, steal, commit adultery, and murder, then the society becomes utter insecure chaos.

Another thing to note is that no law is really absolute, and each law has a real world exception(s). You may get away with murder if you are proven to be mentally ill or insane, and you may be pardoned for stealing if you and your family are starving and no charity, government agency, or good Samaritan will help. There are plenty of other examples which are too numerous to list with their own justification for breaking the law in some cases.

Could we reach a reasonable consensus on what constitutes a high crime and misdemeanor? Starting a nuclear war, treason, bribery, a president murdering a political rival, and a first term president succeeding in rigging an election to win a second term come to my mind when it comes to an assessment of high crimes. By definition, misdemeanor doesn’t sound like a serious crime unless perhaps, there are very many of them.

Congress has the right to impeach a president or other elected or appointed officials, but it has no legal authority to really impose any criminal punishments. Punishment is the ultimate responsibility of the DOJ or the Department of Justice, which theoretically is under the authority of the executive branch, and only in theory is it an impartial organization. Thus, the conundrum of a politically weaponized DOJ, under the leadership of the current president, using the judicial system to prosecute a former president or political opponent on dubious charges.

The DOJ has been weaponized to go after Trump by legal procedures and the impeachment proceedings against Trump were a Democrat charade. Biden has made many unconstitutional executive orders, and there is the possibility that he has used political privilege with family connections to enrich himself. It appears that not enough laws exist to quickly and ethically prosecute and convict executive branch corruption, or government corruption in general, and not enough elected officials willing to stand against it.

Unfortunately, we have an imperfect Constitution, an imperfect legislative branch, an imperfect executive branch, and an imperfect judicial branch. Separation of powers of the three branches of government only work relatively well with moral or ethical leadership. Take away the moral or ethical part and the government quickly transforms into a political mess or chaos. Making a law governing every move made by government is mission impossible.

So, what the destiny of our Democratic Republic is, is presently highly debatable. Will we ever return to a real sense of morality or ethics? This is also debatable.

Ultimately you need moral or ethical political representatives and citizens who have the courage, conviction, and determination to behave righteously as much as possible.

Image generated by AI.