Texan works to impeach presidentSince he arrived in Lawrence a week ago to collect signatures from people who would like to see President Bush impeached, Jim Goodnow has received a mostly positive or at least tolerant response.....more
Texan works to impeach president
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Arguments Against Bush Impeachment...
• If we impeach Bush, we’ll get President Cheney!
Initiating the impeachment process would lead to an investigation that would implicate lots of people in the Bush administration who are guilty of committing crimes, including Cheney.
In addition, no matter who we get to replace Bush, we’ll be showing those in power that anyone who breaks the law will be held accountable.
• We should wait to promote impeachment until after Democrats gain majority status after the November elections, or else we'll seem too “extreme.”
The best way to get congress members in favor of impeachment elected is to shine a light on Bush’s crimes and the Republican Party’s (and many of the Democrats') complicity in them. Demanding impeachment is one effective way of doing that. (We need a majority in congress of people supporting impeachment in order to get subpoena power. This will allow us to finally investigate the crimes that this administration has been committing, which will lead, in turn, to impeachment.)
Secondly, demanding that crimes be investigated is NOT extreme.
Waiting until November, besides reducing the chances of getting impeachment friendly politicians elected, will also leave us complicit in any further crimes Bush commits. The Union of Concerned Scientists has estimated that the death toll from a "tactical" nuclear weapon of the kind Bush is contemplating using in Iran would be at minimum 3 million men, women, and children. The path of death would stretch across country boundaries into India.
Also, there's no guarantee that impeachment friendly politicians will gain majority status after the November elections. So our strategy shouldn't rely upon it.
• Impeachment will never happen. The Republicans will block it.
Today's impossibility is tomorrow's reality. All we need is for a few Republican Congress members to realize that tying their political future to Bush reduces their chances of getting elected. Remember, one way or another, Bush is gone by 2009— but members of Congress may retain their offices beyond that date. Bush's poll numbers are extremely low, and most Americans support impeachment. This is a bipartisan movement. This means that if we make the pressure unbearable for Members of Congress, they'll turn on him to keep their own seats (like they did with Nixon). It's already starting to happen. While many Members of Congress have behaved unethically in the last few years, it's important to understand that this is related to their warped view of what's in their self-interest. Let's wake them up to their true self-interest (impeaching the president), by showing them our support for impeachment now!
Finally, making sure you can look back and be proud of your opposition to this tyranny is priceless.
• It hurts the democracy to go through a presidential impeachment.
Holding government officials accountable for their actions strengthens our democracy. Letting lawlessness stand weakens it.
• If we don't support our president, we aid the terrorists.
We support terrorism when we fail to deal with its root causes (poverty, lack of education, support of dictatorships, etc.). We also support it by enabling a president who creates breeding grounds for terrorists — like Iraq has now become, thanks to our invasion and occupation.
Middle Eastern countries upset with the oppressive international policies of the past and current administration might think better of the U.S. if we appeared to learn from our mistakes by impeaching a president who has been so instrumental in that oppression.
• Impeachment is the wrong approach. Our government is tyrannical, and needs to be overthrown through a popular revolution.
What makes you think that if our government fell today, the American population would replace it with something better? Revolutions are bloody business, and there’s absolutely no guarantee that even with the best of intentions the resulting new government would be an improvement over the current one. Indeed, it could be much worse. For that matter, revolution only makes sense once the people understand the problem. Thanks to a complicit media, most people don't have the information they need to fully understand what’s currently happening in America, so before we can create positive change, we must help them to understand the situation we're in. We don't do that by pushing them away with what appears to be extremism. We must use skillful means to reveal the tyranny of this administration (and government in general). We can do this by making reasonable demands (for instance, that suspicious activities become subject to investigation). Each time we're denied, more and more people will see the injustice (especially when we take to the streets each time!). Slowly we’ll get enough people on board to create the changes we need, whether our goal is gradual repair of the system or revolution. But either way, the path is the same: First, we try to change the system. When the system shows itself to be tyrannical, the people will move closer to revolution. Of course, if the system changes favorably, then we’ve won a victory — and maybe the theory that the system is hopelessly tyrannical is flawed. The real point is that political change is a process, and we need to have the resolve to see it through. Demanding immediate perfection is unrealistic and counterproductive, and too easily turns into a cop-out for failing to do the hard work of creating meaningful change.
Side note:
Some Democratic Members of Congress have indicated that they're not currently pursuing Bush's impeachment. While this is upsetting, they percieve it to be in their (and the Democratic Party's) political best interest, at least until the political pressure builds. There are other reasons they're waiting as well, and one of those things is us. They (as well as Republican members) need us to legitimize their support for the process. Having millions of ImpeachForPeace.org's "Do-It-Yourself Impeachment" arrive at their door is one powerful tool toward making that happen.
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