by Jonathan David Morris
Its great to see so many Republicans jumping off the George W. Bush bandwagon. Now that its considered political suicide for the GOP to support its own president, maybe well finally have a party in Washington with the guts to impeach him.
I dont care how crazy or drastic you think this sounds. I dont care if it makes you cringe. Theres nothing extremist about it. The Constitution gives us a way of holding these guys accountable for a reason. In the late 1990s, we spent a whole year talking about Bill Clintons penis. If we could impeach Bill Clinton for not having sex with that woman, Monica Lewinsky, then impeaching George Bush should be the simplest, most straightforward decision weve ever made.
There are people who will tell you impeachment is not what this country needs right now. I disagree. I think its exactly what this country needs right nowwhile theres still time to fire this president. If this were about his last 18 months in office, Id say it wasnt worth it. But its about something more than that. Its about making sure no one ever tries to duplicate what he did in his first six and a half years.
The Bush Doctrine took us into Iraq under the premise that we should deal with grave and gathering threats before they strike us. By that very same logic, if we dont impeach Bush, well be telling future presidents its okay to be even worse than him.
If we dont impeach Bush, well be telling future presidents to use torture, hold people without trial, and break international treaties.
If we dont impeach Bush, well be telling future presidents to start whatever domestic surveillance programs they desire, and get us into whatever wars they feel like getting us into.
If we dont impeach Bush, well be telling future presidents to issue hundreds of signing statements, so they dont have to follow the new laws theyre attached to. In fact, if we dont impeach Bush, well be telling future presidents to ignore laws altogether.
At every level, and in every conceivable way, the Bush administration has fought checks and balances, fought for more power, and fought to consolidate government functions under the concept of the Unitary Executive (i.e., absolute rule). This president has sought to redefine the Constitutional powers of his office, and hes openly, regularly defied both the courts and the United States Congress to stop him from doing what he feels like doing, whenever he feels like doing it. If we fail to impeach this president, well be saying were a-ok with that.
Well, even if you are a-ok with thateven if you think George Bush has the best of intentionswe still need to hold him accountable, because the whole idea is he doesnt think he should be. If we dont impeach this president, well be telling both him as well as his successors we honestly just dont care.
Luckily, Iraq and immigration are finally finishing off George Bushs remaining supporters. Since we know we cant count on Democrats to do this, its time for Republicans to step up.
If youre a Republican, do your party a favordo all of us a favorand lead the charge for impeaching this president. We dont know who, and we dont know when, but we know there will be someone worse if we dont.
Jonathan David Morris is a political writer -- and sometimes satirist -- based in Pennsylvania. A strong believer in small government, JDM often takes aim at oppressive taxes, entitlements, and laws, writing about incompetence at the highest levels of culture and government. Catch his weekly ramblings at readjdm.com.