The Biden impeachment and the turbulent '20s
Impeachments of government officials go hand-in-hand with social and political upheaval
This is a first-of-its-kind Destabilized guest post by Ben Lewis, a New Mexico-based leader in education and community economic development.
In September, House Republicans launched an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden’s alleged involvement in his son’s business dealings in Ukraine. A week later the person who signed-off on the inquiry, then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, was ousted from the speakership by a coalition of hardline Republicans led by Congressman Matt Gaetz. Despite Gaetz’s successful campaign, Republicans began calling for his expulsion from Congress because, as one Republican lawmaker explained, “no one can stand him.”
Impeachments, ousters, and expulsions - is this the new normal? Maybe it is, because the recent chaos in the House is happening just two years after President Donald Trump was impeached for the second time. It would be unsettling if so. It would mean the business of keeping the government running, avoiding climate disaster, putting guardrails around innovations in artificial intelligence, and addressing international crises would increasingly take a backseat to the impeachment or expulsion push of the day. I’m wary of this possibility so I set out to answer a few questions.
Are we seeing an uptick in impeachments and expulsions?
If we are seeing an uptick, why?
Are impeachments and expulsions happening at all levels of government?
Have there been upticks in the past and if so, why?
Since 1782, there have been 149 impeachments and expulsions in total, which I collectively call “removals.” Data is widely available on U.S. presidents, governors, federal appointees, state officials, and U.S. Congresspeople (who can’t be impeached but can be expelled by their caucus). As we can see in the chart above, there are two big peaks, the 1800s and the 1860s, and two smaller peaks in the 1920s and 1980s. Who was removed during each of these decades, why, and what was the historical backdrop in which these removals occurred?
Impeachments and expulsions
First off, a quick definition of terms.
Impeachment is the formal process by which a legislative body levels charges against a government official for misconduct, abuse of power, or other offenses. Impeachment does not necessarily result in expulsion from office; it is only a statement of charges, akin to an indictment in criminal law. An official who is impeached then faces a trial, usually by another legislative body, to determine guilt or innocence.
Congressional expulsion on the other hand refers to the outright removal of a member from either the House of Representatives or the Senate for criminal behavior or other misconduct deemed sufficient by the legislative body.
As we will see, impeachments and expulsions have been used as an accountability measure to root out governmental incompetence, but also as a partisan strategy to consolidate power. Given the tens of thousands of elected and appointed officials in U.S. history, 149 total impeachments and expulsions demonstrate that removals are rare. That’s partly because, whether the motives are political, ethical, or both, removals have traditionally been reserved for the most extreme cases. We can infer, then, that when removals are clustered in short time periods, there may have been extreme conditions that led to such extreme actions.
Presidential impeachments get the most attention, but since there have only ever been four, it’s hard to discern trends. I wondered if trends would emerge if we looked beyond the presidency, and we have indeed seen more impeachments and expulsions in the past few years and this uptick, along with others in American history, correlates with a period of political realignment or sociopolitical turmoil. What the removal data suggests is that sociopolitical turmoil often translates to turmoil among our governing bodies as well.
In this way, government removals are a useful mirror, reflecting the tenor of the times. And, if we can pick out trends in what has happened after periods of increased removals, then we may be better prepared to face the next chapter in American history. So what happened during the 1800s, 1860s, 1920s, and 1980s?
The 1800s
In the first decade of the 19th century, America saw 16 total removals. These removals represent a partisan realignment away from Alexander Hamilton’s Federalists and toward Thomas Jefferson’s Democratic-Republicans, as well as an effort to root out incompetence and abuse of power. Having gained control of the presidency and Congress in the “Revolution of 1800,” the Democratic-Republicans used impeachment to reshape the judiciary and remove lingering Federalist influence. The impeachment of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase for allegedly letting his Federalist leanings affect his legal decisions was emblematic of this period.
Removals in the 1800s were also a consequence of a dramatic expansion of American territory. The size of the United States was effectively doubled by the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. This created an immediate need to appoint and elect officials to govern the new American territories. Many of these officials were subpar. Cases like Supreme Court Justice of Ohio William Irwin, who was impeached for rushing or postponing trials to suit his schedule, were relatively common.
The surge in removals during the 18-aught’s resulted from an aggressive effort to consolidate power within a political party and a more nonpartisan effort to get rid of incompetent office holders.
The 1860s
Perhaps not surprisingly, America saw its highest number of removals during the 1860s, which was marked by the Civil War and Reconstruction. The most prominent case was President Andrew Johnson, who was impeached in 1868 for violating the Tenure of Office Act by removing his Secretary of War, Edwin M. Stanton. Johnson, a barely closeted Confederate who opposed the 14th amendment, sought to remove his Republican rivals. Chief among them was Stanton who was pivotal to the success of the Union Army during the Civil War as Secretary of War.
Johnson’s impeachment represents the tension between the Unionists who sought to abolish slavery and keep the Union together, and Confederates who sought to defend slavery and secede from the United States to do so. This tension reached the presidency but also U.S. Congress. 17 U.S. Senators and Representatives were expelled in the 1860s, all for supporting the Confederacy. Within the context of the Civil War, impeachments and removals served as a tool for both political and ethical reckoning, employed to remove individuals who were seen as incompatible with the new social and political order.
The 1920s
During the 1920s, a handful of public figures faced impeachment or expulsion proceedings, which often reflected the era's ethos of moral and ethical reform, embodied by the 18th Amendment’s prohibition on the making and selling of alcohol. The Republican party, which at the time had a pro-business, anti-international trade, and socially conservative platform, won the presidency and both chambers of Congress. Republican president Warren G. Harding’s slogan, “Return to Normal,” reflected Americans’ fatigue from World War I and the Progressive movement, and fear of the rise in organized crime.
The case of Federal Judge George W. English, who was impeached for abuse of power and misconduct, drew national attention. It represented the push for ethical governance and accountability, something that the Republican Party saw as necessary to return to normal. The 9 impeachments of the 1920s happened at various levels of government and across many states, but each one included charges of misconduct or unethical behavior.
The 1980s
The 1980s were marked by the end of the Cold War, the dramatic deregulation of the economy, and the rise of conservative ideology under President Ronald Reagan. The decade saw 9 impeachments and removals: three U.S. District Court Judges, a U.S. Congressperson, a governor, a state treasurer, and a state attorney general.
Most famously, Federal judges Harry E. Claiborne, Alcee Hastings, and Walter Nixon were all impeached and ultimately convicted. Claiborne faced charges of tax evasion, Hastings was accused of accepting a bribe, and Nixon was convicted of perjury. It’s notable that all three judges had been appointed by Democratic presidents. It’s likely the Republican Party, which won the White House and the Senate in 1980, saw an opportunity to expand their power base within the judiciary, as well.1 They did this by scrutinizing the behavior of left leaning judges, moving to impeach those who exhibited misconduct, and then replacing them with more conservative judges. The charges had to have substance, though, because throughout the 1980s Democrats maintained control of the House, the chamber responsible for initiating impeachments. Perhaps the “Reagan Revolution” was so powerful it activated conservative ideology in both Republicans and Democrats (many of whom were politically conservative southerners at the time).
What do the 1800s, the 1860s, the 1920s, and the 1980s have in common? First, each decade saw a major political realignment.
During the 1800s, the Democratic-Republicans rose to power replacing the Federalists.
In the 1860s, Republicans solidified their power after the Union won the Civil War.
Republicans took control of the executive and legislative branches in the 1920s.
In the 1980s, the Republican Party won the presidency and the Senate.
Second, each decade’s political realignment correlated with significant sociopolitical turmoil.
The country doubled in size during the early 1800s creating new governance challenges.
America almost died and slavery almost lived during the 1860s.
A major war ended just before and organized crime boomed during the 1920s.
The Cold War ended while corporations were given free rein in the 1980s.
How does the current decade compare to these four decades? With six already, we are on track to beat the number of removals from the 18-aughts, which would make the 2020s the decade with the second highest number of removals in American history. Donald Trump was impeached twice, as we know. Ralph Torres, governor of the Northern Mariana Islands, was impeached for using taxpayer money to fund family vacations and his personal utilities. Jason Ravnsborg, the attorney general of South Dakota was impeached for hitting and killing a pedestrian while driving. Larry Krasner, the district attorney of Philadelphia, was impeached for “dereliction of duty,” which Pennsylvania Republican state senators attributed to his mishandling of Philadelphia’s gun violence crisis. Last, Attorney General Ken Paxton of Texas was impeached for accepting bribes from a wealthy real estate developer.
Patterns are easier to discern in hindsight, so it may be too soon to definitively determine the causes of recent removals. But let’s explore a few possible drivers that would make these seemingly disparate incidents add up to a larger trend.
Donald Trump’s two impeachment trials have diminished the appreciation for the rareness of removals - Two impeachments within two years of the highest official in the U.S. government and the constant media coverage of each case may create a sense of normalcy around the impeachment process. We have come to expect impeachments, and caucuses may be growing more trigger happy when deploying them as a political weapon. Look no further than Matt Gaetz and the House Freedom Caucus who effectively pressured Kevin McCarthy into launching an impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden on zero grounds.
It is becoming harder to get away with misconduct - Governor Ralph Torres of the Northern Mariana Islands was accused of using taxpayer money to fund his family vacations and household utilities. With enough digital digging, prosecutors located receipts, account ledgers, and other pieces of evidence that corroborated the impeachment charges. In a prior age, before evidence like this was stored electronically, a corrupt government official could more easily get away with this type of misconduct. Therefore, for a motivated party caucus, removal is much more within reach.
Amidst instability and a heightened media atmosphere, governing is becoming harder - Elected officials have faced unprecedented challenges in the last three years, including the COVID-19 pandemic, surging gun violence, lost learning, inflation, international crises, and extreme political polarization. The microscope under which their behavior is scrutinized is becoming sharper, as everything a politician says and does shows up on the internet somewhere. The instability and heightened media atmosphere show no signs of going away, so we may see more removals in the near future.
Prior decades have shown that removals are a product of the political realignments and sociopolitical turmoil of the time. History will be the judge, but past decades suggest we should expect ongoing realignment and turbulence, as well as more removals, throughout the 2020s.
These impeachments came in the aftermath of the Warren Court, which reshaped the country with its progressive decisions, starting with Brown v. Board of Education in 1954 and continuing throughout the 1950s and 1960s. The experience made the right hyper-aware of the power of the judiciary.