Former Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin has called for the impeachment of President Barack Obama. Palin said that Obama has committed “purposeful dereliction of duty” and that Obama has treated the country like he’s an “abusive spouse.” Sure, because wanting to help indebted students and the environment is apparently abusive, Republicans say.
Despite Palin’s call to action to impeach the president catching internet attention, hers is hardly the first attempt or call to do so. Suggestions and cries for Obama’s impeachment came within the first year of his first term. But the calls for impeachment weren’t connected to any misdemeanors or high crimes, which is what impeachment of a president is typically reserved for; impeachment was being peddled because conservatives just hated Obama.
In 2009, conservative whackos and talking heads were already rallying for impeachment. Michael Savage, a conservative radio host, was making the call for impeachment within Obama’s first 50 days. The American public “is sitting like a bunch of schmucks, watching a dictatorship emerge in front of their eyes,” said Savage. Obama is “already out of control, . . . I think it is time to start talking about impeachment.”
Obama didn’t even do anything to be considered an impeachable offense, but conservatives, still reeling from their 2008 loss, were calling for Obama’s impeachment regardless. Not only were conservatives just being sore losers, but, in 2010, the GOP would would make multiple rallies and attempts to impeach Obama to push their own agenda and politics.
Before the GOP won the House in 2010, commentator and writer Jonathan Chait wrote that if the Republicans did indeed win the House majority and if Obama won a second term in 2012, the GOP would make any attempt to impeach Obama it could think of. Does Benghazi, the IRS, and Obamacare ring any bells?
Rep. Michael Burgess (R-TX) said outright that Obama should be impeached so the president can’t “push his agenda.” Former National Review writer and federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy was instrumental in the GOP movement to remove Obama from office. McCarthy argues for impeachment in his book entitled “Faithless Execution: Building the Political Case for Obama’s Impeachment.”
McCarthy argues that there is sound legal justification for Obama’s impeachment; the only problem is that the GOP isn’t able to rally public support for it: “As things currently stand, the public does not support impeachment — no surprise, given that no substantial argument for impeachment has been attempted.”
That’s because no substantial argument for impeachment exists. The GOP has consistently manufactured scandal after scandal in attempt to publicly discredit the president. And to what end? They just want to push their own agenda, which they’ve accused the president of doing, and want to obstruct the small inklings of democracy we have left in America. And the rally attempted by Palin is no different.
Josh is a writer and researcher with Ring of Fire. Follow him on Twitter @dnJdeli.