Impeachment is the only procedural mechanism in the American system of government that can be used to remove from office a president who has willfully abused his executive power under the Constitution. Technically there are other extraordinary measures that can be taken, but these measures cannot fully address in an expeditious manner the present crisis of executive abuse of power by this president. In my view the problem we have today is not whether the case can be made for the impeachment of the president, but rather the frivolous arguments made by many commentators and political partisans that prevent us from moving forward. Here are some of these arguments. I. Impeachment should not proceed because every president uses discretionary power while in office, and therefore every president technically breaks the law. In my view, this is not a legitimate argument. If other presidents have willfully broken the law while they were in office, then they should also have faced impeachment. This failure to impeach past presidents who have acted unlawfully should not be interpreted as a blank check for all future presidents, but rather as a failure of the constitutional process at the time. The current office holder cannot point to the lawless actions of past presidents as a justification for his own lawless actions. II. This president cannot be impeached because of his race Impeachment of this president would be interpreted by many in the media and the culture at large as a racist action. If we accept the argument that this president cannot be impeached because of his race, this implies that the rule of law is not universal in its application. Simply put, we are saying the rule of law should apply for some presidents, but not for others. And if this argument holds, then it begs the question: which future presidents should also be exempt from facing impeachment? Should there be a special exemption for the first female president? What if a transgendered person is elected president someday? Should the first transgendered president be made to face impeachment if he/she breaks the law? My view on the matter is that no president should be above the law for any reason. The rule of law should apply equally to all presidents.
Posted on: Sat, 28 Jun 2014 00:33:11 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015