Why Democrats Won't Impeach

A friend sent me this:

Some things that have been bothering me are these. Why did so many Democratic members of Congress vote to authorise the war on Iraq? Why do the Democrats in the House (Kucinich excepted) do nothing to impeach Bush and/or Cheney? Arthur Silber has an answer, I can't judge to what extent he is right, but it is something we should at least look at, ugly as it is.

Hans

You can find the writing by Arthur Silber at this website:

http://powerofnarrative.blogspot.com/2007/11/yes-i-told-you-so.html

Excerpts:
For many months, I have been saying that this Democratic Congress would never, ever impeach anyone in the Bush administration.

. . . the Democrats are not going to impeach any of these criminals, barring events entirely unforeseeable at present. And they will not - for one overwhelmingly significant and determinative reason: the Democrats are implicated in every single crime with which they would charge the members of the administration. The Republicans' crimes are their crimes.

. . . if the Democrats had any convictions that were genuinely opposed to the corporatist, authoritarian, warfare state, they would have begun impeachment proceedings against both Bush and Cheney, because impeachment is deserved 1,000 times over in both cases, and because such
proceedings might make an attack on Iran less likely.

That would also assume that the Washington Democrats had some strategic smarts.

. . . impeachment WON'T hurt the Democrats politically. Not even in terms of 2008. Why, it might HELP them -- and help them to an overwhelming victory. Not incidentally, it would also signal to the world that there are at least some people in our national life who give a damn about the Constitution, about the law (including international law), about moral law, about the value of human life, about civilization, about decency.

More and more Democrats themselves admit that impeachment is the unquestionably appropriate remedy, and fully DESERVED. It won't hurt them politically. So why won't they do it?

One more time: is the one method the Democrats will categorically, absolutely not utilize -- because the Democrats are a crucial, inextricable part of the identical authoritarian-corporatist system that has led us to these horrors. They have all worked toward this end over many decades, Democrats and Republicans alike, and now the horrors manifest themselves explicitly, without apology, even with the sickening boastfulness of the mass murderer who is proud of what
he has done, and who vehemently believes he is right.

Try to grasp this finally, before it is too late: the Democrats may differ from the Republicans on matters of detail, or emphasis, or style. But with regard to the fundamental political principles
involved, everything that has happened over the last six years -- just as is the case with everything that has happened over the last one hundred years -- is what the Democrats want, too.

This should not be a difficult point to understand. The historical record is compelling in its clarity, and overpowering in its length and volume. A corporatist, authoritarian state is what the ruling elites want, and it is precisely what serves their interests, Republican and Democrat alike. They know it; they count on your inability or refusal to see it. That's why they won't do it. That's why impeachment is "off the table." Try, please try for crap's sake, to understand this. I am weary of explaining it. Arthur Silber

Thank you for the post.

Let's get ready to rumble.

"It's like, duh. Just when you thought there wasn't a dime's worth of difference between the two parties, the Republicans go and prove you're wrong."

Certainly the Bush/Cheney cabal has worked hard to help us see that. But in the last year, Senator Reid and House Speaker Pelosi have pushed me towards believing that there really aren't any huge differences, they are all corporatists and what is the combination of corporations and government? Fascism.

Unfortunately, that leaves one feeling quite powerless, but hell, when you've been to a couple of half million strong protests and the media says "tens of thousands", you know you're fucked anyway. But then, if Democracy falls and the Media doesn't report it, is it really Fascism?

the Dems have been threatened. Over and over and over again!

You'll remember that high-ranking Dems were "Anthraxed" just days after 9/11. (So were Brokaw, Rather and Jennings.) There's stuff alot more potent than anthrax that could be sent through the mail.

Also, maybe their family members were threatened, and are still being threatened as well.

They are not directly implicated in the crimes committed by this administration. I've thought about this in the way the author mentions. But the Democrats did not start an illegal war. They did not reveal the name of a covert intelligence agent. They did not order torture. They did not abandon New Orleans during a crisis. They may have helped. But they were not partners in crime.

It's like a gang of robbers banging on the front door of a bank, threatening the janitor if he doesn't let them in. So the janitor unlocks the door, and the rest is history. The janitor is not necessarily guilty of bank robbery. And is probably innocent of any criminal behavior.

No. I look no further than Sibel Edmonds for my implications. She is pointing directly at the administration. And perhaps some Dems. But not to the degree that they are all in bed and unable to act due to their own direct involvement. A misguided, and unconstitutional Iraq war vote. That's as bad as it gets. I don't see that as criminal partnership.

even if it were true that the democrats and republicans had the same agenda and were working toward the same goals, impeachment would still serve as a viable tool to keep up the pretense of difference and to help determine which party gets to be in charge.

in fact, the bushies have thrived on the tactic of accusing other of whatever they themselves are guilty of, and democrats could easily use impeachment in the same vein if the premise were true.


the vastly more reasonable explanation is simply that democrats believe they have a low risk big win by NOT impeaching, and a big risk of an unknown outcome if they DO impeach. from a power cost-benefit analysis perspective (ignoring principles, of course) it's simply not worth the risk.

i'm not endorsing this kind of thinking, i'm just believe it's WHY the democrats aren't interested in impeachment.

"the Democrats are a crucial, inextricable part of the identical authoritarian-corporatist system"..that's exactly it.

the very fact that the Democrats are absolutely determined NOT to impeach, or to call BushCo to account for their myriad crimes in any way whatsoever, in itself lends credence to Silber's argument . . .

at the most fundamental level, the Democrats are quite simply no better than the Republicans, i.e. they support the totalitarian, corporate warfare state with few or no reservations . . .

The only reason Pelosi won't start impeachment of * is her strongly-held conviction that a failed impeachment would be a big boost to Republicans in the Congressional and Presidential campaign of 2008.

I agree with Pelosi and Reid on this.

Giveaway on the arrogance and phoniness of the OP: "Try, please try for crap's sake, to understand this. I am weary of explaining it."

...just like he did earlier this week when he said that it wasn't Bush and Cheney who wanted to invade Iraq, but Democrats. Even his own Republican peers are all saying Rove is nuts on that one.

This article is no different. To me it sounds like yet another feeble RW attempt to intimidate Democrats from doing the right thing and holding those criminal fucks accountable for THEIR crimes, not OURS.

When it comes to impeachment, long live Dennis Kucinich, that's all I have to say!

or 'grandkids threatened' excuses some have posited.

There are two parties, all right. Them and us.

BINGO! I've been advocating that the Dems and the GOP are TWO SIDES OF THE SAME COIN for years!

This manifests itself in the apathy of "Why vote? They're all liars" and "choice between the best of two evils".

Worth repeating:
A corporatist, authoritarian state is what the ruling elites want, and it is precisely what serves their interests, Republican and Democrat alike. They know it; they count on your inability or refusal to see it.

That says it all.

Check out Larry Everest's Oil, Power & Empire: Iraq and the US Global Agenda and John Perkins' Confessions of an Economic Hit Man and more.

The Dems today are EXACTLY like the Vichy in France in WWII. And most of the peeps here are the passive "good" Germans of 1936.


"Those who control the present control the future. Those who control the future control the past."
-George Orwell, 1984



Here's one you probably missed...
And just what did you do in the class war, Senator?


Class warfare? Bring it on.

imbilllorightsmanandiapprovethismessage
:patriot:
www.BillORightsMan.com

n/t