Wake Up, America!

The Presidency Itself Is An Impeachable Offense

By Dallas Darling
Courtesy Of "World News Network"

When Representative Dennis Kucinich denounced President Barack Obama's executive order to commence United States air and naval strikes against Libya, it was mindful of another admonition three years earlier. At the Democratic National Convention, Kucinich repeatedly warned Americans if they did not "wake up" and become actively engaged "the oil companies, the war contractors, and the neo-con artists, that have added 4 trillion dollars of unproductive spending to the nation debt" would continue to destroy the United States. "While all of the president's oilmen are maneuvering to grab Iraq's oil," declared Kucinich in "Wake Up, America!", "millions of American have lost their jobs, their homes, their health care, their pensions." Kucinich further noted how trillions of dollars were borrowed and wasted on unnecessary wars, and that the cost of American troops and innocent Iraqis and Afghani civilians were enormous and counterproductive.

Obama's decision to supersede Congress' war making abilities is another case of treason. Like Kucinich stated, such military actions violates the U.S. Constitution and opens the door for impeachment. Such military engagements-engagements that involves putting America's service men and women in harm's way and one which might injure and kill thousands of innocent Libyans-is also something only Congress can approve. In an interview with the Boston Globe and while campaigning for the presidency in 2007, then Senator Obama said: "The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation." Since Libya's Civil War/Revolution poses no danger to the United States, Obama has sadly broken another promise. He has committed perjury, threatened national security, and has endangered even more American lives.

Perhaps Kucinich raised a more important issue too: What is the Constitution about? Has the Presidency itself-the Executive Branch that now consists of dozens of autocratic departments and hundreds of clandestine organizations-become an impeachable offense? The Federalist Papers warned of a presidency that would be "unsupported by proper information and advice, and will generally be directed by minions and favorites," including "...a Council of State that will grow out of the principal officers of the great departments; the worst and most dangerous of all ingredients for such a council in a free country."(1) At the same time, "If your American chief, be a man of ambition, and abilities, how easy is it for him to render himself absolute: The army in his hands..."(2) In defining the powers of the Presidency, the Federalist Papers cautioned: "If it consists only of one Person, the Government will of course degenerate into a Monarchy-A Government so contrary to the Genius of the People that they will reject even the Appearance of it."(3)

But today, the "Genius of the People" has not transpired. Even more tragic, "the constant apprehension of war, has the same tendency to render the head too large for the body. A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long destroy liberty and create tyranny at home...armies kept up under the pretext of defending, have always enslaved the people."(4) The Presidency should have been impeached when Wilson, who sold a war to the American people, made America less safe for democracy by crushing popular dissent. When Truman sent military aid and manipulated elections in Greece and Turkey thereby ending cooperation with Russia, and when he instituted Loyalty Oaths and established rogue organizations, like the Central Intelligence and National Security Agencies, to overthrow governments around the world, the Executive should have been impeached. It should have been eliminated when Eisenhower toppled democratically elected leaders in Guatemala and Iran that led to years of bloodshed. When the Executive secretly trained Cuban exiles and then launched the invasion of Cuba under Kennedy, along with assassinating foreign leaders, it should have been found guilty and dismissed.

Johnson's Presidency should have also been impeached for lying to the American people about the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, only to be followed by more lies about America's involvement and losses in Vietnam. Nixon's entire administration should have been impeached and imprisoned for secretly bombing and invading Laos and Cambodia. While Ford's Presidency should have been impeached when Nixon was pardoned, the Carter administration should have acted more aggressively towards oil cartels and their Middle East addiction. Still, the Executive should have been eliminated for not returning a war criminal to Iran and for not listening to human rights activists who wanted to put an end to the America's militarization of the world. Reagan's Presidency should have been impeached for not agreeing to completely eliminate nuclear weapons, as Gorbachev proposed, and for destroying labor unions, for cutting taxes on the very wealthy while deregulating corporations, and for trying to arm outer space.

When the Presidency, or Commander-in-Chief, committed crimes against peace and humanity in Panama, Iraq, Sudan, Haiti, Afghanistan, and many other nations around the world that have cost millions of lives, and as the Executive continues to spend sixty-percent of America's total annual budget on mobilizing for war and endless military occupations, it should have been abolished just like slavery. When Kucinich said "It's Election Day 2008," for Americans living under such a militant and oppressive Executive every day must be election day. Every year must be an election year, in that, petitioning, assembling, and acts of civil disobedience and nonviolent disturbances and revolts should be committed and pursued. And whereas Rep. Kucinich warned that America could not take another four years of Republican rule, he should have added neither could it stand for four years of Democratic and neo-liberal rule. Like Bush's Presidency, an Olympic gold medal should be given to Obama's Presidency and the Democrats for "misleading, mismanaging and misappropriating, and for violating national and international laws."

We can't afford another Republican Presidency, nor can we afford a Democratic Presidency, because its the Presidency itself that needs to be impeached and eliminated. Wake up, America! We went to Iraq for oil, and now we want Libyan oil. Wake up, America! Over $300 million a day is spent on bombing Libya, and over sixty percent of revenues consist of a dictatorial military tax. Wake up, America! Corporate weapons contractors want to arm more dictators and ignite more hatred against the United States. Meanwhile, the Presidency and its invisible government continues to raid pensions and state budget surpluses while-and in the words of Edwards Bernays-manipulating intelligence and opinions and managing the behaviors of the masses through the mass media. The Federalist Papers warned of this when it cautioned that if any military powers were ever given to the Executive, "it would render it a monarchy, of the worst kind."(5)

Wake up, America! This is a call for you to take a new direction that is neither right nor left, but is merely one of common sense: Down with Obama-Biden, down with Bush-Cheney, and down with decades of other tyrannical and brutal Presidencies, along with their use of "any means necessary" or "all necessary measures" regarding military engagements and wars. Down with executive orders that threaten Americans and kill hundreds of thousands of innocent people. Down with a state of militarism and perpetual wars and its invisible governments that have blurred the distinction between war and peace and slavery and freedom. Up with the American People and the rights of workers. Up with increased wages and job creation and with universal healthcare and education. Up with peace with justice and security and a nation that no longer has to live in fear of its own Presidency, its own Military-Industrial-Complex, and its own all-consuming national security apparatuses and police powers.

Obama's usurpation of Congress and the Will Of The People to start bombing Libya is another act of disloyalty and betrayal. It will serve to aid America's enemies around the globe. It is another reminder that Congress has only declared war five times in the history of the United States, yet there have been hundreds of wars and low intensity conflicts fought by an arrogant and despotic Executive. A militant Presidency has driven intelligence and debate and dissent underground. It has distorted and damaged the very institutions and citizens it was designed to protect. Its abuse of powers and attempts to reconstruct realities-at home and abroad-has created a language of its own making and forms of communication that are incoherent and irrelevant. (While attacking Libya, Obama has no timeline and wants to keep Muammar Gaddafi in power.) Executive supremacy over the use of force has even become a theology, admitting no other gods before it.(6) How much longer will Americans stand for a corporate-owned, commercialized and militantly global Presidency that even helped cause the attacks on Sept 11?

Wake up, America! Wake up, America! Wake up, America! The Presidency itself is an impeachable offense!

Dallas Darling (darling@wn.com)

(Dallas Darling is the author of Politics 501: An A-Z Reading on Conscientious Political Thought and Action, Some Nations Above God: 52 Weekly Reflections On Modern-Day Imperialism, Militarism, And Consumerism in the Context of John's Apocalyptic Vision, and The Other Side Of Christianity: Reflections on Faith, Politics, Spirituality, History, and Peace. He is a correspondent for www.worldnews.com. You can read more of Dallas' writings at www.beverlydarling.com and wn.com//dallasdarling.)

(1) Ketcham, Ralph. The Anti-Federalist Papers and the Constitutional Convention Debates. New York, New York: Penguin Books, 1986., p. 174.

(2) Ibid., p. 214.

(3) Ibid., p. 48.

(4) Ibid., p. 97.

(5) Ibid., p. 42.

(6) Cousins, Norman. The Pathology Of Power. New York, New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1987., p. 23ff.