You want final, satisfactory resolution in which you are shown to have been right all along? Here? In a democracy? [icopyright one button toolbar]
Isn’t gonna happen. National Review columnist, Andrew McCarthy, makes his case for impeaching Obama because “Obama has continued to attempt to govern the country even though Republicans won a majority of House seats in 2010.” In other words, in 2010 the Republicans were handed the right to decide everything because they’ve achieved control of one of the two legislative chambers.
Matthew Yglesias interprets McCarthy’s views:
Rather than submit to the people’s judgment and stop his effort to foist left-wing policies on the nation, Obama has simply attempted to find ways around congress’ authority. His Environmental Protection Agency has used the authority granted by the Clean Air Act to try to curb climate change. His Department of Homeland Security has used prosecutorial discretion to protect DREAMers from deportation. Most of all, he has continued to plow ahead with the Affordable Care Act — implementing some rules while delaying others — even in the face of a congress that declines to agree to any form of legislative fixes or tweaks in its quest for total repeal. …Yglesias, Vox
But only one part of Congress has a Republican majority, not both. And even then, Congress is itself is only one of the three equal branches of government. So, as Yglesias points out, what we have isn’t (as many on the right would like us to think) a “Constitutional” crisis, but simply a political crisis.
The world didn’t stop in 2010 with the Republicans achieving a majority in the House. Obama was reelected, and by a comfortable margin, in 2012, adding to his political strength and giving him the political bounce to push his policies. All very Constitutional; all very democratic; all very frustrating to those who represent a couple of counties in their state and who want unfettered power.
McCarthy’s idea is that, in essence, impeachment could be used as a logjam breaker. Presidents who seek to circumvent congressional obstruction could be disciplined through the political mechanism of impeachment.
The reality is that this will not possibly work. Impeachment talk may be good for book sales and Democratic fundraising, but to remove Obama from office would require an affirmative vote of 67 Senators. It’s simply not going to happen in a polarized congress. And even if it did work, the 12th Amendment guarantees that Obama would simply be replaced in office by Joe Biden. The dilemma is rather profound. The late political scientist Juan Linz famously observed that US-style political systems had badly failed Latin America precisely because both the congress and the president have claim to democratic legitimacy and there’s no clear way to resolve disputes between the two of them. Acting as if conflict between Obama and the House GOP is the result of some uniquely pernicious qualities of the president only exacerbates the dysfunction. …Yglesias,Vox
Sure, a dictatorship would clean things up and make life so much clearer and easier. If, that is, we happen to be on the same side as the dictator. All the Limbaughites continue to call Obama a dictator and are free to do so. Those of us who, on the other hand, saw Bush and Cheney as, first, “elected” illegitimately and then perps in eight years of criminal behaviors, have managed to survive. The birthers and all the rest of the Obama haters? Well, now it’s their turn to put up with a White House for which they have no respect.
…For better or for worse, this is the system we’re stuck with. Impeachment provides no real solution to the dilemma, and though daydreaming about it may fire up the base, it does nothing to resolve the underlying problem. …Yglesias,Vox
The “underlying problem” is not democracy. The problem is that a relatively small sector of the right have the notion that they should be running things all by themselves. They have control of only one part of one branch of government. Even so, they use any means from deep and loud incivility to budget cuts to cripple our government. Their support comes, to a troubling degree, from the gun lobby and from resentful billionaires.
Cross-posted from Prairie Weather
graphic via shutterstock.com