Crush, Kill, Destroy
Screw bipartisanship; it’s time for revenge.
Allan Uthman

You see it in the movies all the time. The hero, having vanquished his foe after a long and arduous struggle, rescues him from a certain death—usually the villain hangs from a window ledge, begging for his life, and the good guy proves his nobility by saving him. We all know what happens next: The villain pulls out a concealed weapon and tries once again to kill his savior.

In the movies, it’s just a way to morally insulate the hero from the ramifications of killing—this way, the audience’s bloodlust can be satisfied without moral qualms. It’s a nice cliché, but let’s face it: in real life, you’d let the guy drop the first time.

With the Democrats finally in charge of congress again, it’s Bush hanging from that ledge. And, while it might seem kind or even noble to extend a hand, the right thing to do is not just to let him drop; it’s to stamp on his bloodied hands to hasten his fall.

Republicans are scared to death about the Democrats’ subpoena power, and Detroit’s maverick rep John Conyers’ imminent status as chairman of the House Judicial Committee. But it appears they have little to fear. Next House Speaker and fundraising diva Nancy Pelosi has assured us that the new Democratic majority will not impeach Bush.

This is as unacceptable as it is predictable. The case for impeachment is a no-brainer. This administration has broken the law so egregiously and so often the list of charges could fill a book. You know at least some of the list by now—lying about Iraq, torture, domestic wiretapping, war profiteering, paid journalist plants, producing fake news, ignoring laws passed to rein him in, collusion with corporations, negligent homicide in the Katrina disaster, et cetera, et cetera. The Bush team makes Watergate look like a panty raid. Despite their fetish for secrecy, there is ample evidence of at least some of these crimes, and investigations would yield more.

The question isn’t whether Bush should be impeached; it’s how many decades his prison term should last. And “should” doesn’t really cut it: Bush needs to be impeached.

CNN tells us there’s “little public support” for impeachment. This is a lie. Current polling on public support is conspicuously absent, but polls from earlier this year showed support for impeachment at over 50%, and those polls were only on single issues—impeachment over wiretapping or the war lies only, not Bush’s entire oeuvre of wrongdoing. It’s not a fringe issue, despite the fact that no TV network will give a single impeachment supporter face time. But rather than ride this wave of outrage, exciting a base much broader than the loud minority that the GOP has relied on, the Democrats are adopting a policy of appeasement, assuaging people who will never, ever vote for them.

When the Republicans impeached Clinton—for a “crime” that clearly didn’t rise to the standard of an impeachable offense (defined in the constitution as “Treason, Bribery or other high Crimes or Misdemeanors”—nothing in there about blowjobs), only a third of the country—nearly demographically identical to the third that still support Bush—approved. Still, they did it. And what consequences did they suffer? Control of congress for eight more years.

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