Impeaching Obama
On a Hot Air thread about the desirability of impeaching Obama I saw this comment:
Impeachment would be like a child throwing a temper tantrum ”” lots of sound and fury signifying extreme frustration. But in the end Obama would still be there. I know futile gestures that antagonize the unengaged electorate are satisfying to the Kamikaze brigade but a bound to fail impeachment attempt would all but destroy the Republican chances to take the Senate and make gains in the House. If you want to do something to reign in Obama then I suggest if you are dissatisfied by your current Republican member of Congress vote for his opponent in the primary but if you lose show up November to vote (R). Failure to do so provides aid and comfort to Obama’s socialist agenda.
And this:
George Will wrote about “gesture liberalism” last week. There is such a thing as “gesture conservatism” too, and proponents of impeachment are its chief practitioners. They tend to share with liberals the notion that the main goal of politics is to make them feel good, and righteous. It isn’t.
I would not say impeachment is an absolute impossibility before Obama’s second term is through. But impeachment would be a very bad idea at this point, even though the GOP controls the House, and even though there’s plenty of fodder for impeachment.
For the sake of argument let’s say the Republicans in the House have the guts and the votes to do it. But the effort can go nowhere in the Senate—they will not get the requisite two-thirds for conviction—and would only anger the public, the great majority of whom would find it to be vindictive overkill (as well as something that gets in the way of whatever it is that they think Congress is supposed to be doing instead). Such an action would increase Obama’s approval rating, and perhaps even lead to the Democrats holding the Senate or even making advances in both bodies of Congress.
However, if Obamacare goes forward and things get worse, and the Republicans win the Senate in 2014 (even if they don’t get over 2/3 of the seats there, which they almost certainly won’t), and Obama’s approval ratings drop into the cellar (low 30s or less), then there’s a chance. The public might get behind impeachment/conviction, and it’s theoretically possible (although unlikely) that even a few Democrats might come along.
That’s the only way it could happen, and I give it an infinitesimally small chance of coming about. But one thing is certain: now is most definitely not the time for impeachment. Ralph Waldo Emerson is reputed to have said, “When you strike at a king, you must kill him.” He was supposed to have been responding to a student “who had told Emerson that he was writing an essay about, and presumably critical of, Plato.” Emerson wasn’t talking about literally killing Plato, who had been dead for quite some time. He was talking about knowing how to chose the right time and way to undermine a person regarded as a great and powerful man.
The same is true of impeaching Obama: don’t start unless you have the votes in the Senate to convict, and the support of the American people, or you will end up hurting yourself. Impeachment has legal trappings, but its essence is political. So whether Obama has committed an impeachable offense—and I submit that he has committed several—is not the final determination of whether impeachment would be a good idea.
we need to impeach obama because he has committed impeachable acts and if w don’t impeach then we are tacitly ceding that presidents can do what he’s done: ignore the law and not faithfully execute the law, rewrite laws by executive fiat, make illegal appointments, have his cabinet members lie to congress, sell weapons to drug cartels, provide inadequate protection to a key ambassador and lie about it, start illegal wars, lie unabashedly over and over again to pass legislation and to get reelected.
these acts must not stand and impeaching him would strike them down and warn all future presidents that there is a price to pay for over-reaching and lying.
reliapundit:
I guess you’d like the left to remain in control of the government for the foreseeable future.
Obama deserves it, but we would not be a better country for it. Impeachment would be more of a political act akin to a vote of no confidence in a parliament. That said, Joe Biden as president is enough reason not to impeach.
IMO, neo has the right of it. No one here disagrees that Obama is deserving of impeachment. Nor I imagine, do we really disagree with the assertion that with a republican majority, a failure to impeach is a tacit condoning of his behavior.
That said, without about 75% public approval of impeachment, democrats and the MSM will successfully sell the meme to independents and low-info voters (who determine electoral winners) that republicans are entirely motivated by revenge and really are troglodyte, knuckle dragging racists.
Regardless of outcome, an attempt to impeach Obama without very strong backing from the public, again about 3 out of 4, would be a Pyrrhic victory.
As galling as it is, this is not ‘the hill’ upon which to die.
Impeachment was a tool the Left used on their grassroots, to enforce the propaganda message that Bush isn’t a legitimate President, thus all wars he is trying to win are illegitimate. It was a way to dehumanize an enemy for the 2 minutes of hate and to accrue political power.
If Republicans use it, it will be because they actually believe in crimes deserving of impeachment have acquired.
The Left didn’t need impeachment of Bush to succeed. Bush may have given up the war or resigned as a result of popular pressure. That’s all they were looking for. Resignation would be a bonus. Successful impeachment and charges would be an even more glorious victory.
While impeachment by the GOP may be a tool out of people’s hands… nobody can make you support Hussein President as legitimate if you do not wish to. That’s a more personal matter.
One of the reasons people didn’t like the so called Birthers, was that it attacked Hussein’s fundamental legitimacy, not anything over politics that can be damage controlled. Legitimacy and authority, are still weapons the Left needs to keep tooled up for their future slaughter fields. They don’t want those tools rusted too soon.
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rickl:
Are you repeating what I wrote for emphasis, or did you not read the entire post :-)?
I’m better off not saying anything at this point.
Let us be honest here. There isn’t the will; the courage; nor the leadership in the House Republicans to contemplate impeachment.
I agree with the assessment for two reasons:
1) It is dangerous, for all the reasons neo-neocon suggested. Since it needs 2/3 of the Senate, it is probably impossible to convict anyway.
2) As I’ve said before, “Socialism is its own cure.” Obama’s poll number are collapsing generally because of his dishonesty and incompetence, but specifically because of Obamacare. Republicans DID NOT DO THAT. They haven’t really laid a glove on him.
Obama’s own policies are coming to fruition, and the pain is being brought to the people…including his own base!
The enemy is making a mistake. Let’s not interrupt him.
rickl:
Great minds think alike.
Or, to put it a little less flippantly:
Obama was always a symptom; a symptom of an electorate that thinks it can vote itself money, and that such a system is sustainable.
If Obama is removed, the electorate’s dysfunction will remain. They would then elect someone similar, and as NYC shows, there are plenty of replacement leftist kooks around.
Leftism itself needs to be discredited in the eyes of the electorate. If the lesson is painful enough, it may stick for a generation or two.
You can’t discredit leftism by turning Obama into a martyr.
It’s like pop stars: the ones that die young remain icons (i.e. James Dean, Marilyn Monroe). The ones that age gracelessly become punch lines (fat Elvis).
neo-neocon Says:
January 18th, 2014 at 4:29 pm
reliapundit:
I guess you’d like the left to remain in control of the government for the foreseeable future.
NO. WE ONLY DO THIS IF WE RE-TAKE THE SENATE AND CAN CONVICT.
my main point stands, and no one here has refuted it: obama’s lawlessness has set a dangerous precedent and IMPEACHMENT is the only remedy.
we won’t win the senate by being a little less liberal than obama and the dems and we won’t win WH by nominating a RINO and appeasing the left and the media.
Barry will only be impeached while under the shadow of infamy and horror.
Put your bets down on Barry being Carter II — with amateur athletics replacing amateur home construction.
The NY Times is as invested in Barry as Goebbels ever was in Adolf.
Like Attila, he has to be ridden all the way to the end.
%%%
And in other news, doesn’t it strike you as strange that America’s propaganda is managed by so few?
http://www.businessinsider.com/these-6-corporations-control-90-of-the-media-in-america-2012-6
Even the ownership shifts since this report ^^^^ don’t push the ball very far.
It’s this tight group-think that makes it possible for a tyrant like Barry to shuffle on and on.
The only break we are catching: Barry can’t stand to listen to Soros. (It’s too much of a one-way flow, harshing his vanity.)
“NO. WE ONLY DO THIS IF WE RE-TAKE THE SENATE AND CAN CONVICT.
my main point stands, and no one here has refuted it: obama’s lawlessness has set a dangerous precedent and IMPEACHMENT is the only remedy.”
Then allow me to refute it:
If Obamacare kicks 80 Million Americans off their insurance through the employer mandate, do you think Americans will thank him for that? No…they will be furious.
They will take that fury to the polling places and remove his enablers from power, even if they can’t remove him.
Denuded of power, he will spend the rest of his term in an impotent rage. No more harm will be done, as the Congress will be able to nullify his edicts.
A dangerous precedent will have been established, to be expunged by the next president. But I’ve just demonstrated how impeachment is not the only route to fixing this.
And at any rate, since 2/3 of the Senate is required for conviction and NOBODY thinks Republicans can get that number of seats, conviction is off the table.
… which goes to the other point Neo made today. The Democrats are much better at unity. The unspoken assumption here is that no Democrat would vote to impeach or remove Obama.
It was Napoleon Bonaparte who, as far as I know, first formulated the idea attributed to Emerson here. Napoleon said, “If you start out to take Vienna–take Vienna.”
ConceptJunkie:
Nixon could never have been impeached and convicted, and would never have resigned, if the Republicans hadn’t gone to him and said they would not support him.
At some point it’s possible that the Democrats will deliver Obama the same message delivered to Nixon. Not probable at this point, but possible. A Caligula scenario is possible, but I doubt the Democratic Praetorians see Joe Biden as Claudius, especially with Hillary! waiting in the wings….
IMHO, the ONLY way that Democrats will deliver Obama the same message delivered to Nixon is if circumstances were such that they were absolutely convinced that the democrat party would not survive if he stayed. I can hardly imagine a realistic scenario where that would come to pass but if it did, they’d throw him under the buss as quickly as he has done to others. Just as there is no honor among thieves, there is no loyalty among ideologues. ALL loyalty is to the ideology, not to each other because ideologies do not value individuals.
The only thing worse than these Rs who tell principled people to shut up are Democrats. That’s a lot worse but the Rs who fancy themselves as “realists” or “practical” are really just cowards. They are the reason we lose, when we lose. The principled people are the reason we win, when we win.
History is my evidence: Ronald Reagan, Newt Gingrich, The Tea Party that actually made put the cowards in leadership positions.
Obama should be symbolically impeached – so that the historical record reflects that the brave and principled few said “No” to this lawless monster and neo-Tyrant. Someone has to play the prophet and point the finger at the king and tell him to cease and desist; that he has broken the law and must pay; that he is guilty and and aberration and must be punished; that this is America and he has betrayed and undermined it; That he has offended the Constitution and our laws; that he has usurped our natural rights and taken away our God-given freedoms; that he has committed all manner of High Crimes and Misdemeanors against the nation and people of this United States of America.
Let the record show; let history judge; let it never be forgot, that once there was a spot; for one brief shining moment…..
And let the cowards be silent and ashamed….and after the deed they can sign their separate peaces with the Devil and see how it works out later.
If the little boys and girls who fancy themselves practical realists don’t like it, then let them seig heil themselves over to the other side of the aisle and be honest about it.
There are still people of principle. Everyone either is one or they aren’t. I call on Viktor Frankl to judge: there are two types of people in the world, he said.
Read the book to find out which one you are!
And let the cowards be silent
Yes. They usually are.
But it is all relative. When the gov’t is fascist, then silence is bravery.
I will die, hopefully, in the service of good.
“Someone has to play the prophet and point the finger at the king and tell him to cease and desist; that he has broken the law and must pay…”
The likely outcome, as discussed, is that if Obama were impeached in the House, he would be acquitted in the Senate.
Or more precisely, he would not be convicted…but the left would sing that he was “acquitted.”
The left will never feel shame over Obama because they are shameless. It is the cardinal mistake of people with functioning consciences to believe that everyone else has one too.
You are either pining for the left’s “come to Jesus” moment (not gonna happen), or think that a majority of Americans would support this action.
And if the second option is the case, how did Obama get elected twice? How are there not demonstrations in the streets of Washington D.C. over his many scandals?
Let’s deal with reality, please.
Mike:
By the way, I hadn’t noticed anyone telling anybody to shut up. So who are you accusing of saying it?
Note, also, this part of the quote in the post:
And this one, too:
Don’t glorify yourself too much, Don Quixote, and don’t diss Sancho Panza overly, either.
blert, good link to Business Insider. With one (News Corp) out of six leaning right, is it any wonder our “news” resembles Pravda in the days of the USSR? This, IMO, is the greatest obstacle to stopping the growth of government and impeachment of any democrat President.
The public would need to support impeachment. But that would require honest reporting by the media.
I think Fast and Furious is likely impachable, I’m convinced Obama was in on it, deep. But most Americans know little of this, think it was a failed local effort. The media has not reported on it, with several exceptions. This is only one example.
The likes of McCain (and a host of other RINOS) would never vote for conviction even if the GOP held a 66% majority; so it is a useless, though perhaps a cathartic exercise. The best we can hope for is BHO does not create or is given an excuse to remain in power via martial law. Any who doubt he would seize upon such an opportunity do not realize the extent of his depravity and lust.
History shall judge. Meanwhile, let us hope for a change in the direction of the ship of state come the period of 2014-16. We are sailing beyond the edges of the map. There be monsters, chaos, and much blood out there. I have lived a good life and I am willing to shed blood, but I have grandchildren and I want a better future for them without bloodshed. Take it back inch by inch, year by year, and decade by decade.
parker:
I basically agree with you that there’s an excellent chance even Republicans wouldn’t vote for conviction. And I think this threat was just bluster by McCain, but I think it’s interesting that he’s mentioned the “i” word re Obama.
parker, 12:08 am — “History shall judge.”
I am not terribly confident in the judgment of “history”. Will the historians be generally statists/left-leaners? At the long-term rate/direction such things are headed . . .
Put up at a sign at your house that says the household has found Obama guilty and have impeached him already.
Spirit, but not legal.
Impeachment is a terrible idea. If Obama were convicted, then Slow Joe Biden, the human gaff machine, would become President and would likely be elected in 2016. Can anyone imagine anything worse.
Oh, Biden’s a fool alright, but he’s an Obvious Fool, and therefore more likely to be ridiculous in the eyes of the American Idol public than Hussein. So yeah, he’d be less damaging to the country than Mr. Smooth-talk.
I do think that there’s a middle path between formally setting the impeachment machinery in motion and doing Nothing about it. We can at least point out, clearly and with vigor, what he’s doing that’s impeachable. And call it that — impeachable.
This is important because John Q. Public has, at present, No Idea that any of what Comrade Zero has done is illegal. They need to hear it.
All the hand-wringing here is ridiculous. Impeach the bastard. He will not be convicted in the Senate, but he will be put on notice that his overreach has limits. None of the House/Senate committees investigating the plethora of scandals has done diddly-squat. Ferchissakes, no one has even been fired! The Department of Social Injustice just cleared the IRS of any wrongdoing — without even interviewing any of the targeted groups. No, impeaching the bastard is the way to go. Then impeach Holder as well. The House must reassert itself using the separation of powers concept, and impeachment (without conviction) puts the House back in charge of the things which they are Constitutionally mandated to do, like make law for one glaring example.
So far, for the GOP elite, there is no hill which seems acceptable on which to die, so I guess dying on one’s knees is acceptable. I do not agree with that.
And that is precisely why we have the 2nd Amendment. That amendment, contrary to popular belief/theory, is not for hunting game. Well, not four-legged game. The two legged game who are our political betters want our guns just so they can feel secure in their tyranny. Why should they ever feel secure when they pass laws unread, one — The Unaffordable Health Insurance and Patient Denied Care Act — which will ultimately kill thousands, if not tens of thousands, of Citizens? On top of that, onerous laws from which our political mandarins exempt themselves.
“When Government fears the People, there is Liberty; when the People fear the Government, there is Tyranny.” Jefferson had it right, and why he was a proponent of the 2nd Amendment. The progressive left are not playing tiddlywinks. Time for We the People to reassert our Consitutional power over They the Government, by whatever means. This is The Hill. Now. Tomorrow will be too late for our Federal Constitutional Republic as a central Federal Government is stripping the States of their Constitutional protections and Rights, not too mention their relevance. One example, Commie Core, proves this.
“Acquiescence by silence is approval through fiat.” ~ Me
Time to raise a ruckus, to misbehave. Enough is enough. We will all die tomorrow, it’s inevitable, but there is the matter of how good a death we have. That choice of death is now stunningly stark: On our feet as Free Men or on our knees as government Slaves with the tyrant’s boot on our necks.
RickZ said,
“So far, for the GOP elite, there is no hill which seems acceptable on which to die, so I guess dying on one’s knees is acceptable. I do not agree with that.”
As I and others have pointed out before in such a military analogy; only a fool of a general would try to take a hill when the enemy has the luxury of close air support, and you don’t.
Every strategy we debate here ultimately depends on reaching the public with the truth, and that’s not going to happen as has been demonstrated over the last 5 years. Our real enemy is the MSM. Knock out the enemy’s forward airbases, then you have a chance to take that hill.
I agree that the disengaged (40-50% of voters) probably would be angered by impeachment because right now, all we have are allegations and absent any further evidence, these allegations are easy to dismiss as partisan politics. The T-P Media will never investigate; most will try to cover it up.
But if impeachment proceedings were initiated, a special prosecutor with subpoena powers could find a lot of blue dresses. And I think if the public was shown just how corrupt this administration is, they’d be outraged.
Even so, not one Democrat would vote to convict.
If you want to knock out the MSM, why don’t you destroy their credibility in the eyes of the Left by having Islamics kidnap them and force them to put up propaganda the Left can no longer stomach? The blame will then fall on islamicists.
It’s as if the people with manmads and anti air launchers, won’t even fire them at the close air support because…. because of something.
Right now the Demoncrat zombies think Republicans are evil. Thus even if you prove Obama is a tyrant, they won’t care. They won’t vote for evil. Any more than we would in return for some candy.
Some people underestimate the faith and strength of belief on the Left. Others are too stuck on politics. It’s not politics motivating the Democrat loyalty as much as faith in evil itself. Ideological differences amongst Leftists abound. Islamic anti women anti gay, plus black anti gay sentiments, plus suburban pro gay and pro women feminism. They all have to work together, regardless of their differences, because their faith in the power of evil supersedes all of that.
There’s no over arching authority, other than the dead Founding Fathers or the Constitution, that American patriots will agree obey.
In a difference between, say, RickZ’s postion and physics, the person that decides the strategy and tactics are:
1. The funders
2. The soldiers and warriors that will die on the front lines.
3. The tacticians and strategists, the leaders/generals.
So basically if you control the funding and resources of the GOP, you can decide. If you don’t, then control the soldiers and warriors, make them part of your resource. If not that, then go for the leaders and strategists that determine overall policy that is submitted to the fund raisers.
Agreement isn’t necessary. Since if you believe in capitalism, only where the money comes from is necessary for agreement.
Y’all got on this boat for different reasons, but y’all come to the same place. So now I’m asking more of you than I have before. Maybe all. Sure as I know anything, I know this – they will try again. Maybe on another world, maybe on this very ground swept clean. A year from now, ten? They’ll swing back to the belief that they can make people… better. And I do not hold to that. So no more runnin’. I aim to misbehave.
Captain Mal Reynolds (Nathan Fillion) Serenity
“To be honest I do not think whether they live or die is the matter at hand. Life is not always better than death. It is not that simple. Living and being made to live are very different things. What matters is what the person chooses of their own free will: whether or not it can be achieved nor how difficult it is.
I want you to consider this: imagine if what matters most to you was taken away against your will. If that is indeed worth less than your life”-Mitsurugi, Meiya
I would rather die having spoken in my manner, than speak in your manner and live. For neither in war nor yet in law ought any man use every way of escaping death. For often in battle there is no doubt that if a man will throw away his arms, and fall on his knees before his pursuers, he may escape death, if a man is willing to say or do anything. The difficulty, my friends, is not in avoiding death, but in avoiding unrighteousness; for that runs deeper than death. -Socrates before the Athenian death panel
Some entertaining quotes for the times. If you have access to the current or next generation being schooled, you can prepare a foothold by introducing them to such concepts. Many of the children are bored out of their minds in school or thirst for some kind of Hunger Games, Ender’s Game Battle School type of education and improvement due to bullies and anxiety.
Even if the current regime and the generations of Leftist indoctrination has produced slave zombies, you can still save part of the current generation.
Those who save enough of the new generations, will then have authority to represent 2, the soldiers/warriors.
So there’s all kinds of stuff, if people don’t like putting up yard signs talking about Obama’s already guilty impeachment in the minds of one household.
That may not be satisfying one a world or national level, but one cannot expect human individuals to change the world. The world is a bigger and crueler place than people like to think.
is feasible given the number of instances Obama and his Administration have flouted our law, but the will to convict a President, specifically, this Democratic President, and the tight control Dems still hold on Senate would make it a highly risky move. Not only domestically, but internationally. All too many parties are snickering happily at the wholesale selling out of U.S. by its own President. The spectacle of impeachment might just be icing on the decline-of-America cake.
Not that I don’t think he deserves it. Indeed, in my view, he has made a mockery of our law, our Constitution, and the principles America has traditionally stood for and which we hold dear. He and Eric Holder are the two who should be sold up the river, but the political ramifications are too uncertain. (expecially since the depth of disaster Obamacare will wreak is going to be spread out over a (deliberate) considerable amount of time. (Some might say failure to impeach would brings us full circle back to the “wimpy” “get nothing done,” or worse, perception as “obstructionist” Repubs. — just the opportunity Obama and his pals live for.
There IS indeed dangerous precedent in letting the status quo of Obama’s modus operandi stand. I find it absolutely frightening, but very recently there have been signs from a few courts that there’s an element of the Judiciary that is getting fed up with the “I, the King” attitude. I don’t know if it will grow and at least bring awareness that his “executive orders” and proclamations (never mind the shameless and egregious lies!) are NOT acceptable. However, one can’t argue with the notion that failure to convict in an impeachment would be read as tacit acceptance of his behavior, and you can bet the MSM would play that up for all its worth.
For some time now I have found myself praying that History will get it write (pun intended) and there will be enough documented evidence to judge this man as a power-hungry, disdainful-of-America President gone rogue. (Never mind outdoing Carter as the worst Chief Executive in U.S. history).
I’d also like to think that perhaps the debacle of Obamacare might lfinally be enough to move most Americans to adopt a “Never again!” attitude, but I think I’m pushing the envelope there given the fickleness of our constituency and the ease with which we forgive and forget … usually based upon the most recent effects on our individual pocketbooks. (9/11 being an exception which motivated, for a while at least, a principle stand in favor of our safety. But again, time and distance, aided by an ideologically-driven press is remarkably successful at wiping the slate of our collective memory clean.
Race was only mentioned once in 39 posts.
Obama was elected due to his race and he is immune from impeachment because of it.
Unless there was the smoking gun tape of all time – and doubtful even then – he skates.
And that is the main reason HRC must be defeated: her status as the then first female president.
The Articles of Impeachment should be slowly and deliberately drawn up…slow enough so no one thinks the clock won’t run out before he is impeached; but surely enough that a point-by-point indictment of Obama is made for the historical record.
Congress ignores assuming its Constitutional Responsibilities at its peril and really at our peril.
If Congress cannot call out Obama on his lawlessness, then they will never call anyone or anything out on lawlessness…and in effect there is no law.
Congress should everyday be passing resolutions against the President and taking him to Court. There should be a daily trip over to Scotus that lodges yet another complaint against the Office of the Executive and his minions in the Bureaucratic Entity the State.
It will have no effect except the ,oral effect it is supposed to have…and that will have great effect in the long run.
The pragmatists are wrong. They are really not pragmatists. They are defeatists. They have already conceded defeat. They have already given up. They have already sold us down the road into servitude.
For yet more evidence, read about the new documentary on Romney 2012. It turns out, deep inside he really did give up; he really did think he would lose; he really did have a sense of fatalism. And that is why he lost. He was McClellan. At key points he refused to battle. He lost. We lost.
There is a Grant out there somewhere. There is a Gettysburg out there somewhere. These people are not as strong as they seem. It’s all bluster; the bluster of the bully. Fight them all the way and we will win.
In the comments above, I find a common belief that none of the Democrats in Congress are patriots who believe in the rule of law and that the President’s powers are limited by the Constitution. This is a scary situation.
We should focus our efforts in getting some Democrats to support the rule of law, and we should ridicule the rest.
To be successful, impeachment must be a bipartisan effort. Yes, we may have to wait until it can be done in a bipartisian manner, but impeachment is necessary to reestablish the idea that no man is above the law.
csimon:
Obama’s actions would never be acceptable if the American people didn’t accept them. Too many accept them because they have lost the knowledge of this country’s principles and what makes (made?) it great. That is the fault of a host of things (including our education system), but mainly the fact that the left was persistent and made vast inroads into our culture when most of us weren’t really looking.
While realistically speaking, absent some unknown, cataclysmic event, Obama will never be impeached, that does not mean that his opponents are relieved of their oaths and their patriotic duty and obligation to protect and defend our Republic, our Constitution, and our citizens rights and liberties from Obama & Co., to clearly delineate the boundaries that are set by our history and our Constitution to Presidential power and action, to bring up historical examples of the dire consequences for citizens when leaders/chief executives have broken through the boundaries set by tradition and law, to tirelessly list and to point out the nature, the seriousness, and the dire consequences–short and especially long term–of Obama and his administration’s policies, programs, decisions, appointments, and practices; their deliberate offenses against our Republic, against the Constitution, and against the rights and liberties of our citizens.
Thus, thankless or not, popular or not, unglamorous and grueling or not, politically dangerous or not, Republicans should be on the floor of the House and Senate, on TV and in various forums, in their books and speeches, each and every day making the case, highlighting and dissecting the latest outrage from Obama & Co., and very clearly showing citizens just how they and our country will be gravely harmed by them; building awareness and, hopefully, resistance.
And if CPAN and the MSM won’t cover their activities, they should use every alternative means to make their actions, words, and analyses known to our citizenry throughout the land.
Wolla Dalbo, if those Republicans on the news and on the capital steps were people form here or a random sampling of Republicans, there would be a good chance for that.
However, we all know we’ve been waiting for the Leadership to talk the talk on Iraq and stuff since 2003. They haven’t done it. They won’t do it about ObamaCare either.
So it’s a trend.
The Left has leverage, but currently American patriots lack leverage because the Tea Party has been defunded or prevented from being funded via 501, while ACORN is getting cash infusions from money laundering service called ObamaCare regulators and navigators. Even American patriots in the GOP fund raisers aren’t allowed to raise funds for non GOP approved candidates. The bottom up people have no leverage on the leadership. The Left has more leverage on Republicans than we do.
In the comments above, I find a common belief that none of the Democrats in Congress are patriots who believe in the rule of law and that the President’s powers are limited by the Constitution. This is a scary situation.
No, the scary situation was when people like me found out the truth that people are admitting to now in 2013 and 2014, but we found out years if not decades ago. We found out and realized most people didn’t care and believed in the propaganda. That was a lot scarier than now, because we knew time was running out in the past. And it’s pretty much run out now as a result.
The title of John Brunner’s 1972 dystopian, environmentalist themed SF novel is very appropriate as applied to our current situation regarding the lack of public enthusiasm–or any enthusiasm, really–for impeaching Obama, “The Sheep Look Up.”
Except in our case the problem is that the “sheeple” will not look up or understand, much less act.
The Left, through their very deliberate, decades long Gramscian campaign of subversion/destruction/replacement and remodeling/”fundamental transformation” of the foundations, knowledge base, structure, expectations, morality, thought, speech, and behavior of our traditional culture, has very successfully molded increasing numbers of our citizens into sheeple, sheeple who are looking down at the ground, not around them, because apparently many millions of them are very interested in their forage (of their daily routine, MSM dispensed food pellets, American Idol, Little Honey Bo-Bo, J-Lo, Rhiana, Lady Gaga, the latest Rapper and the latest celebrity scandal, Sports, video Games, beer, Internet Porn, various other diversions and distractions, and, for an increasing number, collecting their EBT payment and talking to their friends on their Obamaphones) and will not look up, understand, or be interested in the momentous and dire political events transpiring around them, the wolves circling the herd.
Cornhead is right about the racism factor. Blacks, of course, could never tolerate seeing the first black president impeached. Morally superior white lefties would never give up their smug superiority WRT the rednecks from flyover country. Foreign reporters would use an impeachment to feed the anti-Americanism that is already so rampant among their “intellectuals.” Obama knows he is protected, but as Obamacare and things like the red line play out, Obama’s fan club will continue to shrink. It’s much better to go around him with better policies and let people change directions in their thinking without having to do a mea culpa.
Here’s the thing about “impeachment.”
Back in ’98 when the Republican House concluded that Clinton had committed acts that merited impeachment they drew up the articles and did the deed. Then it went to the (Republican controlled) Senate where the Senate–punted (remember Arlen Spector’s “Scot’s verdict?”) That it was obvious that the Senate did not specifically reject the House’s charge–they just chickened out–is one of the things, I think, that protected the Republican majority in the Fall. The House Republicans (lead by the great Henry Hyde) stated their case and acted upon it. Nobody else took the business seriously.
On the other hand, during the latter days of the “W” administration, no two words came more frequently from out of the fringes into the mainstream than, “Impeach Bush.” It appeared on signs, placards, in graffiti and out of the mouths of various ranting Dems. I think in my neighborhood there are still cars driving around with an Impeach Bush sticker proudly emblazoned on the bumper. But when the Democrats actually controlled Congress for Bush’s last two years they never attempted to act on those words; i.e. to seriously construct a logical actionable argument for impeachment. They just let the words hang in the air poisoning the discourse and contributing to the feeling of illegitimacy of the administration.
I certainly wouldn’t advise the House to draw up articles of impeachment right now but why can’t we TALK about it?
There is a much simpler way to cripple Obama and his gang which completely avoids the impossibility of impeachment. Win the Senate, and then have Congress simply refuse to pay for any of this nonsense. No money for Barrycare, no money for Solyndras, no money to fund the Justice Department’s attempt to force all the schools in America to stop disciplining unruly students, no money for the EPA and the Department of Energy to stop all energy projects, etc., etc., etc.
Let Barry veto the budget and shut down the government. Now who’s responsible?
Love reading your blog. Can’t wait to hear what you have to say about Remnick’s new profile of Obama in the New Yorker. Here’s the part where I wondered how you would analyze it:
Remnick quoting Obama: “I’ll tell you that watching ‘Lincoln’ was interesting, in part because you watched what obviously was a fictionalized account of the President I most admire, and there was such a gap between him and me that it made you want to be better.”
I tell you, I most admire, but then YOU want to be better.
And then: He spoke about envying Lincoln’s “capacity to speak to and move the country without simplifying, and at the most fundamental of levels.” But what struck him most, he said, was precisely what his critics think he most avoids–“the messiness of getting something done.”
He went on, “The real politics resonated with me, because I have yet to see something that we’ve done, or any President has done, that was really important and good, that did not involve some mess and some strong-arming and some shading of how it was initially talked about to a particular member of the legislature who you needed a vote from. Because, if you’re doing big, hard things, then there is going to be some hair on it–there’s going to be some aspects of it that aren’t clean and neat and immediately elicit applause from everybody.
And buried in there — “some shading” — slipping dishonesty and deception into legitimate debate about legislating social change.
Marina:
I haven’t read the interview yet, but in general nothing Obama says in an interview like that can be taken at face value. Everything is strategic, everything is for political effect. In this case, I would interpret what Obama said as seeking the following effect: portraying admiration of Lincoln (some of which may actually be sincere) and humility in the face of Lincoln’s greatness (humility Obama lacks) as well as some sort of set-up to excuse future abuses of power by Obama.
How about this as a compromise:
If the Republicans retake the Senate in 2014 they issue a formal censure of Obama, including a detailed list of all the “high crimes and misdemeanors” that would normally be on an impeachment indictment.
Because it has no teeth, Senators would be free to vote their consciences. It would serve as an historical marker, and social agitprop against Obama. It would also serve as a warning to him.
I certainly wouldn’t advise the House to draw up articles of impeachment right now but why can’t we TALK about it?
The GOP society and political hierarchy is too centralized. The command economy and the command structure doesn’t fit with the ideology of individualism and liberty.
So people, due to just habit, are used to coming up with a centralized plan and having everyone adhere to it. But that’s not actually the new way of doing things, it’s the old way of doing. The old way the Left was created to destroy and subvert.
I mean, if HE can talk about it …:
http://www.wnd.com/2014/01/liberal-icon-urges-obama-impeachment/
If you think Oh Douche Bag is bad impeaching him will mean we have Joe Biden in office and he is always drunk and messing up his words to the point his own candidates have prohibit him from speaking on camera after so many foul ups.
At least Obama isn’t totally out of it drunk as a skunk though I don’t like either but I would rather NOT have a totally drunk President on that chair regardless of which political party he is in.
Not only that but Impeaching him will cost another 10 million dollars we don’t have since Obama put us in 10 TRILLION dollar debt.
The likely scenario is that any impeachment case will drag on to such extent by the time any agreement is made weather to keep him or bump him off it will be too late either way as his term will be over naturally.
Then the next douche bag will take office.
I am willing to go as far as seriously enforcing each Congress member has to go thru a breath test before ever stepping foot into the Senate and each time a meeting is going to take place.
If they are drunk above the legal driving limit then no entry for him or her.