Why impeachment is imperative

On the evening of June 9, Representative Dennis Kucinich introduced a resolution in the House to impeach President Bush. The resolution cites 35 counts of high crimes and misdemeanors committed by President Bush stemming from his use of warrantless wiretaps and other violations of FISA, the illegal invasion of Iraq and the use of propaganda to promote the war, violations of the Constitution and Geneva Conventions in regards to detainment of his self-created category of "enemy combatants", involvement in the Plame Affair and subsequent commutation of Scooter Libby's sentence, and many others. The list is long.

In short, during his administration, President Bush has done egregious damage to our system of law. He has been arrogant in his flouting of the Constitution and other high laws. In fact, Bush himself has even admitted his unlawfulness on several occasions.

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And we should all be ashamed. Congress has done little to stop his abuses. We, the American citizenry, have largely gone on with our lives like this is just to be expected and there's nothing to worry about.

In reality, the system of government formed by our founders is in its death throes. The Constitution, already battered and bloody, is now struggling for its last breath. History will judge us all harshly for allowing it to happen. We are quick to blame the branches of our government, but ultimately, we, the members of this representative republic, hold the responsibility for holding our leaders to task. When we continue to vote the same types of leaders into office, term after term, we are giving our implicit approval of their actions.

The default response to Kucinich's call for impeachment is that it's a waste of time given the limited time remaining in Bush's presidency. But I strongly suggest that's irrelevant. Failing to hold Bush accountable is an implicit approval of what he's done. The reason our Constitution is in such bad shape today is because we've failed to stop those who've abused it. And this led to Bush and his cohorts to believe they also had excellent chances to extend the power of the Executive branch without getting caught. Well, now they've been caught. Will we let them get away with it?

Now that the abuses have become so egregious, a failure to impeach would mean we can expect much more of the same from the next administration. On the other hand, an impeachment would be a strong signal that we're done accepting this kind of abuse from our government. Representative Tammy Baldwin stated this excellently in her testimony to the House Judiciary Committee:

Representative Robert Wexler also had great testimony on the importance of impeachment:

Always remember: if we fail to hold Bush accountable for his abuses, we have failed our responsibility as citizens.

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