Constitutional abuses by the Bush administration thoroughly demonstrate the need to consider impeachment.
(BEND, Ore. ) - Our Founding Fathers locked themselves away together for total immersion in their self-appointed task to produce a fundamentally new approach to individual and national liberties.
Their total involvement and unprecedented insights produced our Constitution, the dream document of those seeking the blessings of liberty and both personal and political freedoms ever since --laid down for the ages in the Bill of Rights.
They saw the probability of malign intent leading someone or some group to attack the foundations of our new democracy --so they built in specific and sweeping powers for Congressional use, to protect us all --and the Constitution-- from the consequences, at any level, of any kind.
They well knew, from their own life experience, such attack was sure to come.
That process --very seldom required, but always ready and competent in the face of attack on our Constitution and our liberties --is well-known worldwide as Impeachment.
The time has come, once again since the Nixon debacle and the Clinton comedy, for the Congress to tighten its surveillance, set up secure hearings to explore and procure depth explanation for recent and current events, and then put into operation the Constitutional process provided by the Founders, if facts prove the need.
There is no simple escape left for this Congress, and there is no possible way in which such obviously and properly demanded official action can be thrown aside as “merely suspect in an election cycle” at this juncture.
The understandable reluctance of both political parties to actually start the process now demanded comes mainly from sensible avoidance of the huge risks, always present in current world status, for seeming to show potential weakness in the completeness and competence demanded of our governance today.
But there is inherent and immediately-threatening consequence, too, in allowing such gross violations and distinctly malign actions to occur without due and consequential question and then full accountability, too.
The two most recent impeachment situations --Nixon’s resignation in the face of assured trial, and the farce of the Clinton confrontation forced by malign GOP determination --have left a threatening legacy which many see as minimizing the Founders’ intentions and weakening our best-possible weapon for Constitutional protection in complex 21st Century conditions.
No system of governance can possibly withstand the challenge to stated principles in a world-renowned Constitution, from which we now obviously suffer in the current situation of overwhelming imperial action by a President who demands the power to disregard Congressional direction simply by self-declared letter-statement.
No system of governance can withstand the continuing threat of retaliation by betrayal and revelation for those working secretly in our security systems, placing not only them but their hard-won hidden sources at risk of disclosure and even death.
Overcoming that reluctance is demanded for any nation expecting to retain its reputation as a world leader in democracy --with all its tribulations as well as its blessings.
The current problems stem not solely and simply from the current Bush II Administration but are clearly and consequentially connected with much that mattered and was mounted into action in the preceding Bush I Administration --and its immediate predecessor, the Reagan Presidency.
Many of the same key personnel, closely connected with each and every one of the current inevitable issues and actions sure to be the foundation for any counts for impeachment, were at work in those preceding “administrations”.
They could, should --and many now feel MUST-- be held fully accountable politically, professionally and personally for the deeply damaging --some would say devastating-- consequences of policies, plans, actions and ensuing events set into train then and still creating reverberations and consequences now.
Both the consequences and the actions taken in operation of some of those policies constitute the wide range of charges now being considered seriously in this Congress for inclusion in any impeachment action --perhaps including President Bush as well as Vice President Cheney, and quite possibly others, too.
That definitely includes the concept of “the unitary presidency”, in which the President assumes powers far beyond those Constitutionally granted, claiming that those powers stem from his role as Commander in Chief --in effect making him Commander of the entire nation rather than of the Armed Forces, as decreed in the Constitution.
“Supply-side” economic policies which depend in large part on concepts of deregulation, depreciation, privatization, "free trade" and globalization, first put into full application in the Reagan and Bush I “administrations”, are in large part the basic causation for many, if not most, of the extremely damaging economic, social, cultural and even religious consequences now clearly evident in every societal area.
Fully-probing and comprehensive examination via public hearings and all other aspects of the Founders’ wise process will surely provide for the American people, NOW, a clear understanding of what has been perpetrated and put into place during this Bush II Presidency --thus providing us with the unquestionable determination, by our elected representatives acting via Constitutional provision, of the realities we now face.
That common sense consequence is what the Constitutional provisions for impeachment were intended to do for us, when complex circumstance and continuing consequential damage to every aspect of American life surely indicates “a need to know” and understand --now clearly overriding any reluctance to so examine our perilous status highly evident even to the Republican leaders left in any partial charge for that once-respected political party.
SO let us “get on with it”, in true American fashion, to take precisely those self-demanding steps our foresighted Founders knew we would some day need to follow.
What we can, should, and MUST learn about what has been done for us and to us in the Bush II years far outweighs any possible process-dangers --political, social, OR economic-- anyone can possibly document in the face of our deeply damaging current situation.
SO -- “Impeachment NOW” should be our next demanded and demanding step-and-stage, with whatever the outcome the sure reliance on continuing democratic process, as set forth in our famed Constitution, providing that basic reassurance still the heart-and-soul of our also-famed governance system.
Reader’s Note:“See also” in S-N archives, Op Ed Aug. 4, 2007: Impeachment, citing major articles then available, reviewed again for this one.
Many other published articles and Internet sources were also used for this Op Ed; all sources are available on request. Those used in the Aug. 4 article, and reviewed in detail then, are available at these URL locations:“Return of the Robber Barons”; Paul Craig Roberts; A Counterpunch Special Report on the Economy: www.counterpunch.org/roberts04242007.html “Impeach Cheney: The vice president has run utterly amok and must be stopped”; Bruce Fein; in Slate 6/27/07:
slate.com/toolbar.aspx?action=print&id=2169292 “Impeachment & the Constitution”; Stephen Crockett; at:
www.consortiumnews.com/Print/2007/073107a.html
Op Ed: Impeachment Essential NOWSalem-News.com