Allan J. Lichtman

the case for impeachment by Allan J. Lichtman. 2017.
Allan J. Lichtman is a professor at American University, who has correctly predicted the election of the past 8 presidents by a mathematical calculation. He predicted Trumps presidency. He also predicted his impeachment.
This book is written in a way that is easy to read, to understand, and to follow, and presents stellar examples of why he believes Trumps narcissism, grandiosity and incapacity would lead to his abuse and misuse of power.
Lichtman starts with a brief history of impeachment, and how it was used by Thomas Jefferson to get rid of judges. He compares Trump to Andrew Johnson, and Richard Nixon. In the first month of his presidency, Trump spoke more about people who do not support him as haters, using hate as a motivator, than any other president. It told his base to separate the followers from the haters and incited division and violence, and is a fight against democracy. He follows Trump's legacy and history.....Trump Foundation, fraudulent charities, Cuba, the Atlantic Casinos, Trump University, Trumps model management. It was emotionally difficult to see his exploitation of immigrant workers, whom were hired at less than minimum wage, working 12-16 hour days, to build Trump Tower. Many of those workers were never paid. When he was sued for payment of the Tower, he lost. Trump took step after step to delay the case for 15 years before settling. He has lost the respect of banks, financial institutions and most refuse to work with him, now that his much respected Grandfather and father have passed. Becoming 'The Apprentice" and being on 'The Celebrity Apprentice' has been the only money he has ever actually earned. This was a blow to his ego.
Most interesting, to me, were when he discusses Trumps businesses in the Philippines and China, his Trump Tampa venture, also in cities in Florida and New York. These stories certainly give example and credence to the character of this man and his business ability. This is a man who claims to know the art of the deal, but doesn't even show up to defend himself against impeachment.......
Lichtman believes because he won the presidency on hate-mongering, grandiosity, and on lies........Hillary Clinton's emails. Obama's birther-ism, his lies about his own wealth, embedding his family into jobs and into the White House, the lies about the unemployment rate, etc. etc.....would make him vulnerable and easily manipulated by the media. This is when he began to hate the media, Obama, the Democrats, blaming them for exposing him by calling it all Fake News, in long rambling speeches. It went against Trump's belief that anything is true if you can get people to believe you. His numerous civil cases (many still pending until he is no longer president), his many bankruptcies and lawsuits will eventually undermine him, and his family, it is believed.
Trumps lies and outright crazy tweets will have ramifications for future Republican party candidates, and Lichtman asserts it will be hard to win back credibility moving forward.
This book is thorough, detailed and is as fascinating to read as it is chilling. If your looking for a book to lay out in an easy to follow timeline of Trump, this is one I would include reading. Excellent points are made.… (más)

With the American democratic experiment at a precarious moment, Allan J. Lichtman’s The Embattled Vote in America From the Founding to the Present is a timely and important book. Neither Hillary nor Trump received as many votes as Nobody, the choice of all the millions of people who stayed home. This undercuts the legitimacy of government, yet many in government make concerted efforts to prevent people from voting.

Lichtman traces the history of American suffrage from our founders choosing to leave voting decisions to the states and the states established all sorts of different standards. After the Civil War, African American men won the vote, though states crafted rules to keep them from exercising it. Fifty-six years later, women won the right to vote. In 1971, voting age was lowered to 18, recognizing that young people were dying in a war started by politicians they could not vote for or against. In 1965, the Voting Rights Act was passed to make good on the promise of the Thirteenth Amendment. Since the Voting Rights Act, there has been a constant struggle on the part of the Republicans to disenfranchise minority voters through various schemes and corresponding energy from Democrats to expand the franchise and legally combat the voter suppression efforts of Republicans.

How are votes suppressed? Gerrymandering lets politicians choose their voters so voters feel their votes make no difference. States pass laws taking the right to vote away from felons, not just while they’re in prison, but also while on parole, and permanently in some states, so a person’s right to vote can depend on where they live. Closing polling places so voters wait in long lines is a huge burden. In Arizona, some polling places served 21,000 voters! Shortening early voting, restricting voter registration and requiring burdensome ID requirements also function to reduce voter participation.

Lichtman reviews the several methods of expanding or restricting participation. He also examines the canard of voter fraud, exposing it as a two-pronged effort to decrease confidence in our electoral system which reduces participation and provides a rationale for policies that make it harder minoritized voters to vote.

This is an excellent review of the history of voting reforms, good and bad. It is full of the details that make a history interesting with examples of different politicians making their arguments, some blatantly and proudly racist. It covers the voting wars up to mid-2018 and proposes reforms for the future. I get so irritated by books that are full of the problem and have no solutions. There are solutions and Lichtman looks at them carefully.

Lichtman’s writing is clear and lively. He has an opinion and isn’t afraid to share it. This makes for an interesting book even though it’s maddening to read about legislators researching exactly how best to keep Black people from voting and justifying it as being not racist because they only tried to disenfranchise Blacks because they’re Democrats, not because they’re Black.

I highly recommend The Embattled Vote in America and there could not be a more important time to read it.

I received a copy of The Embattled Vote in America From the Founding to the Present for review from Harvard University Press.

The Embattled Vote in America From the Founding to the Present at Harvard University Press

Allan J. Lichtman faculty site. Also on Twitter. Site for his book “The Case for Impeachment“

https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2018/10/01/9780674972360/… (más)

Allan J. Lichtman is a distinguished Harvard professor and political historian. Two months before the election, he predicted that Trump would win, (and received praise from Trump for his perspicacity). He also predicted that Trump would be impeached (which prediction Trump overlooked). In the first part of the book, Lichtman provides an overview and history of impeachment, when it has been used, and when it should be used. The longer, second part of the book discusses and analyzes the many "high crimes and other misdemeanors" committed by Trump. And since this book was published early in his presidency (April 2017--pre-firing of Comey, pre-multiple Russia contacts revelations), the case for impeachment has only been strengthened.

Following is some random information/comments from the book I want to remember:

---His crimes in general terms: appointing cabinet members dedicated to destroying the institutions they head; no prior public service; a record of enriching himself at the expense of others; a penchant for lying; disregard of the law; conflicts of interest; mistreatment of women; covering up his misdeeds; dubious connections with Russia; reversing the battle against climate change.

--In the section discussing the history of impeachment, he clarifies that impeachment is of a "political nature" and reaches far beyond actual crimes. The questions to be considered regarding impeachment are: 1. What are the grounds?; 2. What is the scope of presidential authority; 3. What is the president's responsibility to obey the law? Lichtman also clarifies that a president's actions before becoming president can be considered in determining whether to impeach.

--Trump is a serial law breaker, including:

--There were many civil law suits regarding racketeering, civil rights violations, and other illegal acts prior to his taking office.

--Trump's charity: He never registered it, and by not registering it he avoided audits which would have revealed illegal self-dealing. Self-dealings included using the foundation's money to settle his personal debts. He also purchased self-portraits and sports memorabilia with his charity's funds. And he made political contributions (particularly to Pam Bondi for Florida A.G. during a time she was considering a matter involving him) with the charity's funds.

--Violations of the Cuban embargo. He spent $68,000 in 1998 to explore Cuban business opportunities in violation of the embargo. This is a federal crime, punishable by up to 10 years in prison, and $1 million in corporate and $250,000 in personal fines.

--His N.J. and N.Y. casinos have paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines for violations, including for civil rights violations and bank reporting violations. When his casinos collapsed, $1.5 billion dollars was lost by investors.

--His fraudulent university led to a federal class action suit charging racketeering violations. He settled the suit for $25 million shortly before entering office.

--His exploitation of undocumented immigrants. He built Trump Tower in NYC using undocumented Polish workers. He failed to pay them, and ultimately they brought suit against Trump, who dragged the suit out for 15 years before settling. In addition, Trump Modeling Agency has a history of using undocumented immigrants, and taking advantage of them financially.

--Trump's Conflicts of Interest

These mostly arise because of Trump's failure to divest himself of his business interests contrary to the practice of past presidents. Some of these include:

--Dealings with the Philippines and Duterte--The head of the Trump Tower in Manila was appointed by Duterte as a special envoy to the U.S. at a time when there are sensitive issues about aid to Philippine trade and U.S. military arrangements in the Philippines.

--Dealings with China--In February 2017 a number of trademark rights were issued to Trump business interests by China. (Trump had spent a decade and hundreds of thousands of dollars seeking these trademark rights). Experts have stated that this action by China was unprecedented. It occurred right after Trump ended his flirtation with a "Two China Policy." In addition, Trump has failed to label China as a currency manipulator as promised during his campaign. Trump also has a 30% stake in a company owing $950 million to lenders including the Bank of China.

--Trump's debts (largely unknown) also constitute a conflict of interest. We know that Trump owes more than $1 billion to 150 financial institutions. The government has to make regulatory and policy decisions regarding these institutions. Two of his largest creditors, Wells Fargo and Deutsche Bank have been sanctioned for fraud and Russian money-laundering.

--Domestic conflicts--Melania's and Ivanka's stated intents to profit from the office.

The book also goes through his history of lies (too numerous to list here). Lichtman points out that the lies can jeopardize national security, in addition to covering up crimes. What we know about Trumps Russian connection has largely expanded since publication of this book. Lichtman goes into something I had never considered: crimes against humanity, which broadly include actions taken by Trump to deny or reverse measures taken to remedy climate change. At the time the book was published Trump hadn't withdrawn from the Paris Climate Accord, but Lichtman mentions that if Trump were to do so, it might be one of the grounds for impeachment. He also mentions the appointment of the following cabinet members: Scott Pruitt--EPA; Rick Perry--Energy; Rex Tillerson--State; Ryan Zinke--Interior.

This book is a valuable read for the way it sets everything out in a logical, factual and methodical way.

Recommended.

4 stars… (más)

The author, Alan J. Lichtman, of this book is the Harvard professor who predicted against all odds that Donald J. Trump would be elected president in 2016. Trump was so impressed with this prediction that he acknowledged the author with a congratulatory tweet. However, as is in his character, Trump only read the part of the prediction that he liked and ignored the rest. This author also predicted, based on Trump's personality and previous actions, that he would be impeached. In this book Lichtman discussed the history of impeachment, how it works and when it has been and should be used. He then lays out the case for the impeachment of Trump. It is well thought out and reasoned. His arguments are sound. What is even more frightening is that the case appears to gain strength on an almost daily basis. This is a book for every American to read, whether you are a Trump supporter or not.… (más)