By resorting to threatening to impeach President Obama over his use of executive orders, Republicans are not only humiliating themselves. They are also disgracing the country.
In the first episode of the Politcus Podcast, I talked about the real motive behind their consistent and constant threats to impeach President Obama.
Listen to the podcast below:
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It’s true that Republicans are throwing around the term impeachment as a method of getting their based energized for this November’s election, but a deeper reason is that even after two election victories, and nearly halfway into his second term, Republicans are still trying to delegitimize Barack Obama’s presidency.
Republicans still refuse to accept the fact that President Obama is the president. They have tried every tactic to delegitimize him. Republicans have questioned the president’s citizenship, his education, and his entire biography. They have used the president’s skin color against him and invoked racial stereotypes in repeated attempts to diminish his presidency. They have obstructed his agenda legislatively, and until recently, tried to thwart his ability to run the executive branch competently by refusing to confirm needed staff members.
All of this has failed, and Republicans are desperate.
After the president had grown weary of obstruction and decided to try to get as much done as he could through his executive powers, Republicans are now claiming that Obama’s “abuse of power and an imperial presidency” are making impeachment a viable option.
The truth is that the Republican behavior has nothing to do with executive orders. It is all about delegitimizing President Obama. If Republicans can delegitimize Obama, maybe they can delegitimize the voters who got him elected as well. In their view, a failed Obama presidency would make the case for conservative white men to be returned to power. They would be able to point to a failed Obama presidency and say, “See what happens when we aren’t in charge.”
Accepting Barack Obama as president would mean that many of these Republicans would have to accept and acknowledge that the nation they are living in is changing. In one respect, their quest to delegitimize Obama is a last gasp effort from a group of Americans who refuse to give up power.
The fact that impeachment is ever mentioned or implied as it relates to Obama is a disgrace to every American. The United States is supposed to be the shining example of the great democratic experiment to the world, but what kind of example are we setting when Republicans work to destroy the twice democratically elected president?
This isn’t the way that democracy is supposed to work. Republicans can’t impeach a president because they don’t like him. The Republican behavior during the Obama years has sent the world the wrong message about democracy, and Republicans have brought shame and disgrace down upon the entire country.
Impeachment is the ultimate stripping of power and delegitimization of a president. Impeachment isn’t the end. It’s just the means that Republicans would be happy to use to delegitimize the presidency of Barack Obama.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
