Since Sep. 24 when Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announced an impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump, news outlets put all of their effort into one story: impeachment. One day after, a whistleblower lamented to Congress about a sketchy phone call where Trump asks the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky to look into his political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden’s, son, Hunter Biden, and his possible involvement in a sketchy oil company. Trump is being accused of using his position as political gain against the Bidens.
If you turn on the news right now, you will likely see political analysts discussing and debating impeachment. How will it affect the White House? The 2020 presidential election? Was Trump using his position for political gain?
I honestly could not tell you the factual answer to any of those questions, so I’ll leave it to the personalities on the screen to speculate for now.
But if you turn on the news, will you hear about Michael Bloomberg, former mayor of New York City, filing paperwork to become a democratic candidate for 2020? Or former Attorney General Jeff Sessions announcing his bid for his old Alabama Senate seat? Or the wildfires that continue to ravage through California? Or the massive budget that Congress has to pass to avoid another government shutdown?
So much is going on in the United States, let alone the entire world, but it all gets minimal news coverage due to the impeachment inquiry.
Don’t get me wrong, this impeachment inquiry is important, and it is arguably one of the most important constitutional crises in American history, but I am sick of opening Twitter and Facebook and seeing impeachment monopolize my news feed. There is so much going on in America right now, and people should be more informed on what is going on.
Impeachment is not only prominent in the average citizen’s life, but also people in Washington.
During the “Congress to Campus” event, former Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez explained her time in Congress during the Clinton impeachment hearings. She described how whenever she woke up and until she left her office at night, she only got asked about impeachment. It did not matter if she wanted to sponsor a bill to help her constituents at home in California or pass a budget; impeachment would always end up being the main task of the day.
Everyone, including people on the hill, are continuing to be barraged by impeachment. And it is up to us to recognize how much is going unnoticed. Call or write a letter to your congressperson, and make sure that they understand that impeachment is not the only thing on the dock.
Matthew Villanueva is the Opinion Editor at The Bona Venture.
His email is villanjv18@bonaventure.edu
