E.J. Dionne: Give Trump an ultimatum on the walls

Washington • If you want to understand how President Trump and his Republican allies have fundamentally undermined our capacity for autonomy, look no further than the debate on whether to dismiss him or not.

In a more virtuous political world, a large number of Republicans would read Robert Mueller's report and decide: Yes, these conclusions deserve a thorough investigation, if only to prevent a foreign power from interfering again in our elections. Both parties would be, together, urge the administration to respect the right of Congress to hear government officials and obtain documents. We would already go ahead with a full investigation.

But Republicans (with the exception of Michigan representative Justin Amash) are doing nothing of the sort. Thus, a perfectly legitimate search for the truth is described as a "partisan" exercise.

And in a functioning republic, Congress and the White House will tackle the country's current problems. Very useful work has been done during the debates on the removal of Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton. But the Trump Presidency is putting the problem resolution on hold, except to manage the artificial crises it causes. And Republicans in the Senate have little on their agenda if it is to review Trump's judges and block more than 150 bills sent by the Democratic House. This nurtures the lie that governing and investigating can not happen simultaneously. Of course that they can.

This dysfunction leads to the Impeach Now / Impeach Later / Do not Impeach debate that makes Democrats mad. And there are good moral arguments on both sides.

The moral argument in favor of impeachment is compelling: if what Trump did is not blameless, nothing is impenetrable. The evidence of potential obstruction of justice described in the Mueller report should be sufficient, but there is much more: to refuse to separate from conflicts of interest with its companies; alleged violations of campaign financing related to secret payments; potential violations of the emoluments clause of the Constitution; lies, lies and more lies and – well, you can fill in the rest because I do not have a place here.

But the moral case on the other side, based on a commitment to democracy, is also compelling: the best long-term path for the country is that Trump face a crushing repudiation during the November 2020 polls. will be so close an election at the end of the impeachment process means that Democrats would be accused, not quite for no reason, of trying to remove voters from a decision they have to take the lead.

This argument quickly raises political questions: would the impeachment process itself, even without a Senate conviction, not allow the House to show voters how flagrant Trump's behavior was and thus increase the chances of his defeat? Would not it be an unequivocal statement that the president is not above the law? Could an impeachment investigation be the only way to ensure that the courts force witnesses to appear and documents to be submitted?

Perhaps. But Trump, whose only interest is personal interest, would he not find other ways to resist, continue to spin the circus and continue to win the support of Republicans in supination? And I do not know about you, but I have little confidence in how the Conservative judges would decide on these issues, even if an impeachment investigation was opened.

In tearing themselves apart on the issue of impeachment, Democrats only serve Trump's interests by dividing and moving away even those who wanted it the most.

Personally, I still prefer a glorious election night during which Americans tell the world that we are not Trumpists and that Trump is not us. The best way to achieve this is to draw the public's attention not on the debates on impeachment, but on the horror of Trump's actions – and on the flight of the Republican Party of problem solving.

Thus, a modest proposal, imperfect but likely to be the only practical solution: Democrats should publicly limit their tolerance. Give the Trump administration a specific deadline – for example 60 days – to respond to subpoenas of witnesses and documents and end the blockade after the testimony of current and former officials. Make it clear that if the stone wall continues, a dismissal investigation will begin.

Ultimately, there should be one imperative: Trump's presidency must end no later than January 20, 2021. Given the complicity of Republicans with Trump, it is almost certain that only voters can do so. Anyone who thinks of impeachment must keep this goal in mind.

E.J. Dionne is on Twitter: @EJDionne.