The recent recall election for the governor of California raises an interesting question. What if there had been the possibility of a recall vote on the former president near the end of his term?
The idea of recalling public officials goes back to the Progressive movement* of the first couple decades of the twentieth century when Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson were holding forth. It was part of a broader attempt by Progressives to wrest control of politics from oligarchs, Robber Barons and other power brokers. Progressives believed that democratizing politics, that is by moving decisions closer to the people, justice would be better served for everyone.
To this end they proposed direct democracy through the use of the initiative, referendum and recall. The first permitted ordinary citizens or voters to initiative legislation rather than wait for legislators to do so, the second provided for referendums or votes on legislation and laws that were unpopular and the third authorized recall elections for elected officials that abused their power or committed other offenses. Such procedures were seen as an antidote to the overwhelming influence of the well-heeled and powerful.
The case of the former president is interesting because of the repeated failures to bring him to justice through constitutional means—impeachment or invoking the twenty-fifth amendment. In both cases the remedy is dependent on elected or appointed officials. For impeachment and conviction there must be a simple majority vote in the House and a 2/3rds vote in the Senate. To invoke the twenty-fifth amendment, the Vice President and a majority of the principal officers of the executive branch (the cabinet) must agree. In both cases, political affiliation or partisanship may come into play.
If the polling was accurate, Trump’s approval rating was the lowest among recent presidents going no higher than 49%, generally hovering in the 40s with lows in the high 30s. Obviously, given the divisiveness of contemporary politics, the safeguards of impeachment and the 25th amendment could not work, but what if the people had been given a vote. In such a case, qualified voters might have acted as members of Parliament do when they oust a prime minister by a vote of no confidence.
As flawed as the California recall was, it might be time to consider adapting recalls to rein in out-of-control occupants in the White House. Until Trump we never before had elected a president with less respect for our constitutional government and the apparent determination to ride roughshod over the electoral process to stay in office. The fact is that we came very close to a coup on January 6, 2021.
*The Progressive Era, was an attempt by both Democrats and Republicans to address problems brought on by industrialization, immigration and political corruption. Progressives were social activists who wanted more democracy and a greater role for government to regulate industries, bust trusts and destroy notorious political machines.
These Progressives are not to be confused with the present use of the term by some Democrats.