Impeaching Obama for All the Wrong Reasons

bush-obama-gplThis website has been relatively unresponsive to recent calls for the impeachment of Pres. Barack Obama. This post is an attempt to respond to those who are calling on this website to duplicate these calls for impeachment. As those of you who have followed this website over the years know, organizers associated with this website were the first to call for the impeachment of Obama (even before he was elected!). We have also pointed out on numerous occasions, actions by this president which are impeachable. However, the more popular impeachment movement (such as it is) has not been pursued in response to legitimate grievances, and therefore the managers of this website have not felt compelled to join in that particular chorus. We remain opposed to this president’s unauthorized use of force, particularly the use of drone strikes in countries where we have not declared war, and his continuation of Bush era practices regarding spying on Americans.

We at Impeach for Peace, however, are particularly disgusted at the through line that can be drawn from the racist reactions to this president’s election to the modern day impeachment movement. Using impeachment for partisan or racist purposes is not only problematic on its face, but delegitimizes the constitutional tool of impeachment itself. If we are to have any hope of keeping presidential overreach in check in the future, we must refrain from using impeachment for any but the noblest of purposes. So while we remain open to pursuing impeachment charges against this president for legitimate causes, we believe any genuine attempt would include simultaneously pursuing the same charges against the previous president who initiated the policies Obama has continued. And, just in case you are confused about this, you can indeed impeach a previous president (look it up). backstory-logoBarring this, attempting to impeach a black president who continued impeachable activities in the wake of a more impeachable but Caucasian president, is not a noble use of this constitutional tool.

For a full discussion of how Pres. Barack Obama’s presidency compares historically to other presidents who have been accused of overreach, listen to this podcast from BackStory (with the American History Guys), and read this New York Times op-ed article by Bruce Ackerman (professor of law and political science at Yale).