On Saturday June 21, at the South Dakota Republican Party’s annual convention in Rapid City, delegates voted 191-176 in favor of a resolution calling for the impeachment of President Barack Obama.
According to Sioux Falls Argus Leader and Huffington Post articles, the Resolution states that President Obama has "violated his oath of office in numerous ways", specifically citing the trade of five Taliban detainees for POW Bowe Bergdahl, the much-hyped campaign promise that people would be able to keep their existing health insurance under the ACA, and the recent EPA proposal curbing emissions from coal power plants. "Therefore, be it resolved that the South Dakota Republican Party calls on our U.S. Representatives to initiate impeachment proceedings against the president of the United States," the Resolution reads.
Sponsor of the resolution, Allen Unruh of Sioux Falls, claimed he had "a thick book on impeachable offenses of the President" and called on South Dakota to "send a symbolic message that liberty shall be the law of the land." In lockstep with Tea Party ideologues, his interpretation of “liberty” appears to be people, policies and laws I agree with.
These, of course, are not impeachable offences but the frustration of the Right’s failure to despoil Obama’s Presidency has led them to concoct a vengeful alternate universe where the reality of their angry impotency becomes reinvented as a potent force to extirpate all that they hate. They are the heroes in their own daydreams.
However, he did get one thing right. Impeachment would be merely “symbolic”. It takes a two-thirds majority in the Senate to remove a president from office and there’s no chance the Republicans could ever muster that kind of majority in the Midterms. At best they’re hoping for a 51/47 majority over the Democrats, with the 2 Independents making up the full 100 Senators, and it's becoming increasing unlikely that they'll even manage that.
Nevertheless, a symbolic gesture would apparently suffice for the angry but impotent Right-Wingers who are desperate to show America just how angry and frustrated they are. Nor were they happy that the vote against the Resolution was so high. Delegate David Wheeler stated for the “nay” case:
"I believe we should not use the power of impeachment for political purposes," Wheeler said. "By doing this, we would look petty, like we can't achieve our political goals through the political process."
That didn’t go down well with Delegate Larry Klipp who said matters go beyond mere political disagreements with Obama:
"If anyone in this room cannot see the horrendous, traitorous scandals run by the Obama administration, I will pray for you," Klipp said.
But threatening the nay-sayers with prayer, a favorite tactic of the Christian Right, is ineffectual against those whose reasoning aligns more with reality than fabricated fancy and who may even suspect that a move to impeach the President would backfire on the GOP disastrously.
Even Rep Kristi Noem, South Dakota's lone delegate in the House of Representatives, was described as “cool” to the Resolution. Brittany Comins, Noem's spokesperson, said:
"The congresswoman currently believes the best way for Congress to hold the President accountable is to continue aggressive committee oversight and investigations into the administration's actions like the ongoing VA scandal, the targeting of conservative groups by the IRS, Benghazi, and the recent Taliban prisoner exchange."
That’s right, Ms Noem, it’s much safer to go with the current losing strategy than to initiate the Articles of Impeachment which, in comparison to the failed House investigations, would be like diving off a cliff rather than tripping on the bottom step over and over again.
The Huffinton Post concluded their article with:
Talk of impeaching the president even made a return to Capitol Hill this week, when, after a discussion about immigration reform, Rep. Lou Barletta (R-Penn.) claimed that the House could "probably" impeach Obama if the matter was brought to the floor.
"You know, the problem is, you know, what do you do for those that say, 'Impeach him for breaking the laws or bypassing the laws'?" Barletta said in a June 16 interview. "You know, could that pass in the House? It probably could. Is the majority of the American people in favor of impeaching the president? I'm not sure."
Well I’m very sure, Mr Barletta, the American people wouldn’t like it at all and the backlash would be swift and absolute at the ballot box. I doubt anything could energize Democratic voters more. So please proceed, Republicans, stop dithering and get on with it. Let's find out once and for all what the country
really thinks of impeaching the President.
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