Michael.. Reply to:Jim.. what behavior would it take for you to impeach the President?
There are many obvious acts that impeach without debate. For example, creating a secret army to take over nuclear strike capability, acting as an agent of a foreign country to disrupt government; acts where the intent is clearly against the American people or to subvert the process of government.
Other acts of a President fall into gray areas because every President is both a citizen and a public servant. This is not to say that a President's job ends at five o'clock, it doesn't. However, we elect complex individuals into office whose private lives are rarely known even after they retire. Nor are their private lives our concern.
My reading of the debate over impeachable acts tells me there is latitude, especially for actions and legal considerations outside the role of President. This is necessary to both protect the office and as much as possible assure the continuity of effectiveness for those in it. Otherwise every President would be subject to constant distraction and harrassment even if he or she were perfect.
So, with your permission, I'll offer some thoughts as a lay citizen who recognizes a complex world where few things are black and white. Take these remarks in that light and no other.
Let me begin with the purpose and seriousness of impeachment as I see it.
On Impeachment:
Impeachment ranks as high a consideration for this country as the electoral process itself, because it seeks to overthrow the will of the people expressed through popular vote.
The government exists by the will of the people and while at times the people and government may disagree, the government serves us.. not the other way around. For this reason, impeachment of any President, indeed impeachment of any elected official, is not to be taken for political ends no matter the balance of representation by either party.
While the electoral process is designed to thwart one party domination, it is possible on occasion to have a dominant majority. Thus there is a trust given to all elected officials to support a plurality of opinion and balance of power, which becomes even more important when one party finds itself with the potential to circumvent normal process. Partisan politics is a serious issue when taken to extreme as it violates the basic intent of our governmental system.
The four year elective process, as Washington and others understood so well, stands between a people's government and a government that exists for its own purpose. Congress is elected by the people, the President is elected by the people, Congress is not the people. Finding cause to intercede in this process must, in my opinion, rise to the highest levels of national trespass.. not political desire.
Congress is not the people. There is a clear separation of power in the structural process of elections, both by when they take place and and how they take place. The people elect representative to Congress for one purpose, and they vote a President for a different purpose.
Four years per elected term is not a long time. Its long enough to implement change but not long enough to revoke the structural inertia inherited from previous administrations. Clinton has two years left to his term in office. These two remaining years are important not so much for what Clinton can do with them, but because they are a part of the structure protecting the people's will.
All Americans, first this fall, then in two years will vote as a matter of normal electoral due process. Preempting this process for anything less than high crimes and misdemeanors is itself a serious intent to undermine our system.
Therefore, because Presidents are voted into office by the will of the people, Congress and the Senate must find extreme cause to overthrow that mandate. They are not simply removing a man from office but are acting against the structure which protects the will of the people. In my opinion, the level and cause of charges currently against Clinton, do not warrant disrupting the continuity of the elective process.
..... The President Morals and Public Trust (next post) |
