Apparently a lot of you have given the Democrats your votes, your time, and your money. What will you do if President-elect Obama continues President Bush’s high crimes and misdemeanors thus making Obama as multiply impeachable as Bush already is? Ralph Nader succinctly lays out the problem for Obama continuing the crimes of Bush’s presidency: (the link and formatting is mine)
Much is already known and documented officially and by academic studies and media reporting. In the category of “high crimes and misdemeanors”, are
- the criminal war””occupation of Iraq,
- systemic torture as a White House policy,
- arrests of thousands of Americans without charges or habeas corpus rights,
- spying on large numbers of Americans without judicial warrants and
- hundreds of signing statements by George W. Bush declaring that, he of the unitary presidency, will decide whether to obey the enacted bills or not.
To its everlasting credit, the conservative American Bar Association sent to President Bush three reports in 2005-2006 concluding that he has been engaged in continuing serious violations of the Constitution. This is no one-time Watergate obstruction of justice episode ala Nixon that led to his resignation just before his impeachment in the House of Representatives.
Nearly two years ago Senator Obama, contrary to what he knows and believes, vigorously came out against the House commencing impeachment proceedings. It would be too divisive, he said. As one of one hundred Senators who might have had to try the President and Vice President in the Senate were the House to impeach. He should have kept impartial and remained silent on the subject.
As President, he cannot remain silent and do nothing, otherwise he will inherit the war crimes of Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney and become soon thereafter a war criminal himself. Inaction cannot be an option.
Violating the Constitution and federal laws is now routine. What is routine after awhile becomes institutionalized lawlessness by official outlaws.
Ralph Nader circa November 13, 2008
How will the liberal Left hold Obama accountable when they were willing to let the Democratic Party get away with taking impeachment “off the table”? Hoping for change won’t be enough. The old excuses tried to make Democrats look powerless to stop Bush while Democrats wrote more checks for war, agreed with Bush on FISA, legalized telecommunication corporation immunity alongside Bush, supported bailouts which will probably come to over $1T, and so on. But excuses won’t hold water with the most facile observer of Congress because Democrats have held a majority in the House and Senate since 2006 and soon there will be a Democrat in the White House. Tight senate races might give the Democrats an unfilibusterable supermajority in the Senate.
This presidency is really a test for anyone who supports the Democratic Party. Will there be organized publicly-visible objection like the opposition to the Iraq war where millions gathered in the streets before that invasion began? Or will there be silence like what happened during Gore, Kerry, and Obama’s presidential campaigns? Without serious organization and objection who will challenge impeachable crimes?