Fighting False Memes

Impeachophobia: False Memes

Here are some of the "responses" you might get from those resisting impeachment. They are the false memes that the DC/Euphemedia Analstocracy is promoting (more accurately, parroting) to "defend" their Impeachophobic Groupthink. As nonsensical as the memes might seem, many people have fallen under one or more of these rhetorical spells.

And while they're not difficult to refute in a rational conversation (often you merely need to stare at the impeachophobe for a few seconds, until they realize they've said something ridiculous) -- their power is in their ability to allow the speaker to put the concept of impeachment -- and the responsibility for defending the Constitution -- completely out of their mind and "off the table."

What they ALL have in common is that they're all based on some vague -- fear-based but FALSE -- presumption.

This makes them Rationalizations For Inaction
rather than real reasons to forgo impeachment.

Worse yet, these lame excuses are the last firewall against accountability for the war criminal regime.

"Darn, it's just too late." (Cong. Conyers)

This presumed-imaginary-deadline excuse is a catch-all for a complex of whining that includes other false claims like -- impeachment will take months (it won't) -- a long inquiry is required (it isn't) -- and the public doesn't want it (they do). >

The reality is that, unlike the Nixon and Clinton circumstances, there is NO disagreement as to the facts of the case. The regime freely admits its activities and merely "defends" them as lawful and unimpeachable. There is nothing to "inquire" about, no "smoking gun" to expose, and no witnesses to examine. Everything is already on the public record.

The Articles of Impeachment are alreadly written. All that remains is an up or down vote on torture, spying without a warrant, and/or terrorizing the American People into war. It need not even be taken up by a committee. The Senate trial need only last long enough for the monarchical "Urinary Authoritarian Executive Theory**" to be expounded as the regime's claimed free pass around the Constitution.

It really can be put to a vote immediately and be all over in only a matter of days.
"We don't have the votes." (The Ziskey Doctrine)

"Never hit anyone in anger, unless you're absolutely
sure you can get away with it." -- Russell Ziskey:

This notion of only fighting if you know you can win is exactly what it seems: defeatism. The reality is that you don't know unless you try. Even worse, it completely dismisses the value of impeachment as simple objection. Failure to impeach/object to torture and war crimes is in fact complicity with those crimes.

But are there really 30 GOP Senators who will stand up to defend war crimes, illegally spying on Americans, and/or terrorizing the nation with a bomb threat of "Mushroom Clouds!"? Will make that their personal legacy, for the world to see, for their grandchildren to read about?

If so, we really need to find out. And we need to allow The American People to have their say about it.

What we do know is that the Senate has already voted on this. They supported Senator McCain's (pre-flip-flop) Anti-Torture Law by a vote of 90-9 . Quite promising. Sadly, their vote was negated by "Rule by Signing Statement."

Perhaps -- if put on the spot -- they'd put country ahead of party, and do what they know is right.
"Mumble ... (something icky) ... Clinton impeachment ... mumble" (parroting punditry)

Simply put, any comparison to the Clinton farce is oxymoronic. It's not just apples and oranges, the circumstances are diametrically opposite. And yet, some form of non-specific mention is the meme heard most often among the beltway babblers.

Clinton was a popular, twice-elected president -- impeached for less-than-trivial reasons -- by a party in danger of being seen as extremists (since having been proven).

Bushcheney is an unpopular, never-elected, never-legitimate regime -- being impeached for torture/war crimes, spying on Americans, and/or terrorizing the nation into war -- by a party that might be in danger of being seen as conscious or vertebrate (currently being disproven).

Realistically, we can expect "Reverse Clinton" results. Perhaps even on conviction/removal.
"It would further divide the country." (Sen. Feinstein)

This one begs the question, "Further than what, exactly?" This one is usually (again oxymoronically) coupled with the lament of "how polarized" the nation has become. Well, if it's already polarized what are we avoiding?

The reality is that the nation is not any more "polarized" now than at other times. All that has happened is that a scary buzzword has been attached. That and the fact the non-rightwing (aka, the sovereign majority) has grown in the face of neofascism -- and more importantly gotten angrier and noisier -- thus interrupting the comfortable social life inside the beltway.

In the real world, impeachment may well be the ONLY way to re-unite our once-great nation around our core principles of justice, humanity, and responsibility.
"It would distract from other priorities" (Sen. Feingold)

If there are priorities higher than ACTING to stop ongoing torture and meeting our treaty obligations regarding war crimes, we'd like to hear about them. And even if so, the magic potion that circumvents "Rule By Signing Statement" doesn't seem forthcoming -- meaning that any "legislating" to pursue these other priorities is simply a display of impotence.

No pressure is actually being brought to bear at all -- let alome being "ratcheted up." The DC-Dems continue to look like hapless pets while the regime allows (and takes credit for) anything they decide would help their side in the polls.
But everything is "All About Iraq." We've got to concentrate on "Stopping the War." (an entire movement)

As we saw with the last meme, the DC-Dems are literally unable to DO anything but impeach -- let alone end the war even a day sooner. Sadly, the "all about Iraq" meme did its job during the 2006 campaign. Its sole purpose was to distract from the reality that it was really "All About Anti-Bush" or as Curtis Gans put it:

Bender: Curtis, I'm holding the study in my hand right now, and clearly one of the things that all the exit polls showed was that Iraq played a part and your own work bears that out that Iraq helped propel some degree of an increase in turnout in this last election.

Gans: I think that it is not simply Iraq, although Iraq started Bush's downhill. But it is a gestalt around George Bush. it's being a pariah to other countries; it's people dying in what they increasing find is a vain fight; it's massive budgetary imbalances; it's a lack of compassionate conservatism; it's insecurity in jobs; it's the feeling that people have not been leveled with.

The mandate of 2006 was to impeach bushcheney. Polls showed that a majority wanted it before the election and that even more want it "just over" after. When it became clear that the DC-Dems would not respond, their approval ratings plummetted.

The public doesn't care what it does to who's chances in 2008. They even understand it might not lead to conviction/removal (they remember the Clinton farce too). They simply want their objection to this madness voiced by their representatives -- before it's too late.
"Oh no, we'd get Dick Cheney!" (Sen. Murray, Sen. Reid)

It's these flippant people that are in dire need of cranial-rectoscopy. It's as if they've been comatose for six years. What do they imagine we have right now? Is there something that the bushkid himself has fought valiantly against, that cheney could finally do? If anything cheney's more culpable than bush and there's nothing stopping a double impeachment, or doing cheney first to allow the GOP to move a caretaker in (Danforth, Warner) to finish the term.
Various and sundry rationalizations for inaction like: We must "instead do oversight" or "need to investigate first" or "must expose to the public in hearings."

These things are not technically memes, but they do travel from groupthinker to groupthinker with regularity. As noted above, the case-making is already done, but the case-makers are still running around like headless chickens. Some even claiming they're "really for it."

When Sen. Kerry says something like it's better "to try to change their behavior" you might realize this as just a humorless version of "we'd get cheney." And of course if anyone actually says this to you in person you need only stare at them for 5 or 6 seconds before they say "Ok, ok ... I don't know what I'm thinking."

This is what comes when a culture of blather folds over on itself due to a large enough wave of non-deniable reality. The culture operates on the delusion that garnering information and transferring it to others (eventually the electorate/public) is actually acting or even leading. This notion that they can "teach" their way to a solution is just a more "cerebral" form of irresponsibility.

The American People simply want this never-elected, never-legitimate, war criminal regime confronted -- to have their objection voiced and noted for history. They want (and need) to be let off the hook -- publicly and officially -- for that which they never provided their consent.

This Congress and this once-great nation simply needs to get on with it.