Yours truly and others have long noted that there’s big bucks indeed in promoting political and ideological partisanship: $$$ from talk shows, $$$ from mega-partisan or meg-ideological websites or super blogs, and $$$ from a whole book industry. So why not an impeachment store? Yes, there is now one for those who utterly detest Barack Obama and as noted HERE are trying to find a reason — any reason, or anything they could cobble together to make the case — to impeach him. Why not?
But the reality is it says volumes about American politics in the early 21st century, where it has displaced the role that professional wrestling had on early television, in the 1950s and 1960s in particular. And its existence means those who sell the materials have a vested interest in maintaining a position, and those who buy any materials will want to keep that position. So there’s no solid legal case now? Let’s look for one or try to find a way to make one. But, mostly, it’s yet another sign of how partisans and ideologists dig in their heels and seemingly are on cruise control to reach a destination, no matter what. Here’s part of the piece from Talking Points Memo:
What good is a conservative fever dream if no one can make a buck off it, right?
The people behind WND, perhaps the pre-eminent online purveyor of conservative fever dreams, on Sunday created an “Impeachment Store” section for their website’s online retail “superstore.”
The timing couldn’t be better. Several members of Congress have recently discussed the possibility of President Obama’s impeachment. The issue made it all the way to the pages of The New York Times this weekend (hey, even the Grey Lady needs to fill pages in August?), and WND Books on Tuesday is set to publish a book titled “Impeachable Offenses: The Case for Removing Barack Obama from Office.” In an interview last week, one of the books co-authors told Buzzfeed that “Impeachable Offenses” had already pre-sold nearly 100,000 copies.
So, what’s for sale in the Impeachment Store? Right now, beside “Impeachable Offenses” (including autographed hardcovers), shoppers can choose from three different impeachment themed bumper stickers. One reads: “Honk For Impeachment.” Another says: “Lights On For Impeachment.” And then there is the classic: “Impeach Obama!” Shoppers can also purchase a “special report” titled “The Case for Impeachment,” which is, according to the product description, “an insightful summary of how President Barack Hussein Obama’s purposeful actions have jeopardized America’s ability to defend herself, undermined our free enterprise system, corrupted our democratic institutions and transferred massive amounts of power and wealth from American citizens to extremist special interest groups, whose loyalty lies not with our Constitution but with a global socialist movement.”
To learn more about the Impeachment Store, TPM got in touch on Monday with Joseph Farah, the founder, editor, and CEO of WND.
Go to the link to read the rest.
And, no, Mr. Farah sounds like a nice guy, and makes the case that there is a market for this.
Which is what 21st century partisanship is all about.
PS: Watch out WND. If this is successful Walmart will come out with cheaper versions of your products.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.