A dream deferred: Larsen's impeachment call

Rick Larsen loves the U.S. Constitution and he loves his country. He loves the Constitution so much and knows it so well that last Thursday he concluded the President, Donald Trump, has committed high crimes and misdemeanors deserving of impeachment.

Our Second District congressional representative has a career-long reputation for being moderate and measured. Our congressional district is as much formed by military bases and farm country as it is by anti-Growler islanders, the university-influenced community in Bellingham or remnants of Magic Skagit hippiedom. And those Boeing union workers? They are all over the map in their political leanings.

So why Larsen’s sudden call for impeachment?

Larsen has a master’s degree in public policy from the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota. He has shown that he is both smart and thoughtful and that he takes his job seriously. Now he is showing that he has a well-informed political philosophy, a moral center and apple pie American values rooted in the heart and history of our culture.

Not every congressional representative refers to “the dream of America as a shining city on a hill,” as Larsen did. Across the political spectrum people refer to “my great country.” But with all the rhetoric of the last four years, few have made the argument that this president “has no understanding of the dream that is so fundamental to our exceptionalism and therefore does not deserve to be president.”

Larsen deserves recognition for forcefully naming racism, a topic he did not have to emphasize. Yet he “acknowledge[d] the racism in the president’s statement. His racism is disgusting.” He rightfully named, to his overwhelmingly white, middle-American constituents, that the president’s “use of the terminology about having them go back to the country from which they came dredges up some of the worst impulses coursing through U.S. history.”

Larsen ends his Herald piece with: “The idea of being an American citizen or striving to be an American citizen, and the dream it represents to people around the world, is fundamental to our country. This president has no concept of this widely and tightly held belief of Americans. His comments do not protect the concept of U.S. citizenship. They undermine it.

“He should not be the president of the United States.”

Rep. Larsen told the Weekly News Monday “Impeachment is something that a member of Congress should feel compelled to act on if the president warrants it. It is more of a have to than a want to.”

Larsen’s decision provides the opportunity for everyone to consider his or her evaluation of President Trump, and of Rep. Larsen. Reaching out to each to share your opinions with them on their performance seems a quaint, old-fashioned act of citizenship, but it is something to consider.

Only the 435 members of the U.S. House of representatives have a vote on impeachment, but each of us would do well to consider our congressional representative and consider what you are compelled to do as a citizen in your country today.