September 14, 2017

If We Impeach Trump, We Can Set a New Record

Lannis Waters/The Palm Beach Post via ZUMA

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I know what you’re thinking: no president has ever been successfully impeached, so of course it would set a new record. But that’s not what I have in mind.

At the moment, we have five living ex-presidents: Carter, Bush Sr., Clinton, Bush Jr., and Obama. Has this ever happened before? Yes! When Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated, we also had five living ex-presidents: Van Buren, Tyler, Fillmore, Pierce, and Buchanan. This lasted for 320 days, when Tyler died on January 18, 1862.

It’s also happened twice since then, most recently when George W. Bush was inaugurated. This lasted for more than three years, until Ronald Reagan died on June 5, 2004.

We will exceed that record in 2020—assuming everyone stays alive until then. But we can do better! If we impeach Trump, we’ll have six living ex-presidents. I think this is a record worth trying for. Republicans like setting records, don’t they?

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We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

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