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Edited on Sat Jun-02-07 02:22 PM by pat_k
How many times have we heard the propaganda meme "You can't impeach for stupidity"?
Of course we can impeach for stupidity. All that's required is the political will. If the American people judge a president's stupidity to be a threat then we throw 'em out for stupidity.
The notion that there is some external authority or rule book that defines what is and what is not impeachable is perhaps the biggest barrier we have to impeachment. We the People ARE the rule book. We empowered the men and womem we elected to Congress to speak for us on the matter. We charged them with the duty to "support and defend" the Constitution, which includes keeping their eyes peeled for officials who are abusing their power to subvert it.
Making the people believe that the decision is not theirs to make is a great way to keep them placidly on the sidelines. If assertions like "You can't impeach for X" had been persistently challenged and debunked, we probably would have seen the backs of Bush and Cheney months, if not years, ago.
How often have we heard, "There's a question about whether X is impeachable"? This type of question is designed to cut us out of the loop. It places "the question" into the hands of some unspecified authority. Instead of putting the question in our hands where it belongs, it invites "experts" tell us what to think.
It's like the asinine question "Is candidate Y electable?" Who knows? If a candidate loses does it mean they weren't "electable." No. It just means that he/she didn't get elected. Maybe they will next time. Maybe they did win but the results were corrupted. There is no answer to the question "Is Y electable." The only question that matters is "Are you inspired enough by Y to vote for Y?"
And there is no answer to the question "Is X impeachable?" It is a political question that is answered by a given Congress at a given point in time. One Congress may impeach and remove for an act that a later Congress dismisses as trivial. Like an election, impeachment is a decision based on a collection of subjective decisions that are made at a particular point in time. The only question that matters is "Are you angry/appalled/betrayed enough to impeach for X?"
Their stupidity is clearly a threat, but the criminal insanity of turning Americans into torturers is more compelling to me. But if impeaching for stupidity would get them out faster, that's all that matters. (Like Capone, didn't much matter whether he was taken down for tax evasion or racketeering, as long as he was taken down.)
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