Scott interviews Peter Van Buren about his recent article in The American Conservative, “Finding a Vaccine for the Impeachment Derangement Virus.” Van Buren argues that whatever President Trump’s real crimes might be—most notably continuing to help the Saudis prosecute a war of genocide in Yemen—nothing that the Democrats have tried to nail him with is actually convincing at all. Of course, if Trump’s political opponents were serious about holding him accountable to the law, they would also be forced to indict Obama (and just about every other modern president) for the same war crimes and abuses of executive power. Instead, says Van Buren, they will play political theater, pretending to be outraged about things that most voters simply don’t care about. He worries about what this kind of standard will mean for America’s political future once Trump leaves office.
Discussed on the show:
“Finding a Vaccine for the Impeachment Derangement Virus” (The American Conservative)“Opinion | Our Republic Is Under Attack From the President” (The New York Times)
Peter Van Buren worked for 24 years at the Department of State including a year in Iraq. He is the author of We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People and the novel Hooper’s War. He is now a contributing editor at The American Conservative magazine.
This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Washinton Babylon; Liberty Under Attack Publications; Listen and Think Audio; TheBumperSticker.com; and LibertyStickers.com.
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Scott Horton is director of the Libertarian Institute, editorial director of Antiwar.com, host of Antiwar Radio on Pacifica, 90.7 FM KPFK in Los Angeles, California and podcasts the Scott Horton Show from this website. He’s the author of the 2017 book, Fool’s Errand: Time to End the War in Afghanistan. Visit https://scotthorton.org