ABSTRACT
The comparable absence of any substantial African American or minority support further confirms the impression of a major partisan gap. The variability of the issues in presidential impeachment cases is magnified by their dependence on political incentives. Whenever party politics is disrupted by strong or persistent surges of ideological factionalism, relations among electoral officials become tenuous. When the normal ideological boundaries of party politics in Congress are disrupted, the ability of the president to surmount a personal or political crisis through congressional alliances is seriously compromised. The fundamental issue before the US Senate and, therefore, before the nation in the impeachment trial was whether the national government is functioning, and can continue to function reasonably well under the executive authority of President Bill Clinton. Beliefs, as part of ideology, however, emerge from a social context in which the backgrounds and experiences of the group impose a framework for looking at the world and lens for interpreting events.
