[Peace] Is “War Powers Impeachment” getting a “Contact High”?

[Robert Naiman]

https://www.facebook.com/robert.naiman/posts/10159048792112656

Is “War Powers Impeachment” getting a “Contact High”?

One of the longstanding aspirations of the War Powers Clause Restoration
Movement has been to impeach the President – any President – for the crime
of Unconstitutional War. The closest we’ve come to reaching the Holy Grail
so far is that the House Judiciary Committee voted on an article of
impeachment against Richard Nixon for the unconstitutional bombing of
Cambodia. But the Unconstitutional War article of impeachment against Nixon
failed in committee; it was opposed by the Democratic leadership of the
committee on the grounds that it was crucial to have more Republican
support, and there were other articles of impeachment against Nixon that
had more Republican support.

There’s been some debate in the War Powers Clause Restoration Movement over
whether #UkraineGate impeachment represents progress towards reaching the
Holy Grail. “Two War Powers Clause Restorers, three opinions.”

On the one hand, #UkraineGate impeachment demonstrates that, like art in a
museum that’s “art” because it’s in a museum, under our Constitution, a
presidential crime is an “impeachable offense” when the duly elected
majority of the House of Representatives says it is. As soon as you can get
a majority of the House of Representatives to approve an article of
impeachment for it, it’s nailed to the church door for all time that it’s
an “impeachable offense.” What is “potable water”? It’s water that you can
drink without getting sick. So if you drink a glass of water and you don’t
get sick, it was “potable water.” If you can impeach the President for
lying under oath in a deposition, then from now on, that’s an “impeachable
offense.” As Bobby Fischer said about pawn to king four: it’s “best by
test.”

Also on the positive side of the ledger: #UkraineGate impeachment is about
U.S. foreign policy. There’s a DNC Democrat gaslighting lie sometimes told
by DNC Democrats that “Americans don’t care about foreign policy.” DNC
Democrats trot out this DNC Democrat gaslighting lie when they want to
excuse the failure of the Democratic leadership in Congress to do anything
about a U.S. war crime. They trotted out this DNC Democrat gaslighting lie
to excuse the failure of the Democratic leadership in Congress to do
anything about unconstitutional U.S. participation in the genocidal Saudi
war in Yemen. Passage by Congress of the Sanders-Lee-Murphy Yemen War
Powers Resolution, with every single Democrat and a bunch of Republicans
voting yes, proved that the DNC Democrats had been lying and gaslighting
all along. But there are other examples that prove that this is a DNC
Democrat gaslighting lie. The response of “ordinary Americans” to the
earthquake in Haiti. The response of “ordinary Americans” to Tahrir Square.
The response of “ordinary Americans” to Nixon’s illegal bombing of
Cambodia. The response of “ordinary Americans” to Obama’s threat to
unconstitutionally bomb Syria in August 2013. The response of “ordinary
Americans” to Trump’s unconstitutional assassination of a top Iranian
government official. In order to care, “ordinary Americans” need two
Batsignals. They need someone to tell them what’s happening. And they need
someone to tell them a plausible story that there is something meaningful
that they can do about it by normal means that are available to them. Then
they care. That is the whole Torah. The rest is explanation.

On the other hand, some have argued that the underlying policy issue in
dispute on #UkraineGate is the failure of the President to faithfully
execute “more war” as Congress had demanded.

On the other other hand, some have argued that the fundamental policy issue
in dispute on #UkraineGate was not really the failure of the President to
faithfully execute “more war” as Congress had demanded. Zelensky didn’t
want “more war.” Zelensky wanted peace. Zelensky was elected on a platform
of peace, of compromise, of let’s make a deal, of can’t we all just get
along. Zelensky was the Rouhani of Ukraine. Let’s make a deal with the
foreigners so they’ll leave us alone. All Zelensky wanted was a deal he
could sell to the people who elected him as “this is good enough to
compromise and not be totally humiliated.” That was the context in which
Trump tried to hold up the chits that Zelensky thought he needed to get the
deal that he could sell to the people who elected him as this is good
enough to compromise and not be totally humiliated; and Trump tried to hold
up the chits that Zelensky thought he needed for self-interested reasons
that had nothing to do with U.S. foreign policy. That’s like Blago saying
to his buds on an FBI wiretap when he got to appoint a U.S. Senator: look
what just fell into my lap. This is a valuable thing. I’m not giving this
valuable thing away for free. That’s not how Americans reasonably expect
normal U.S. presidents to behave, because the power of the U.S. presidency
is not the personal property of the president. It belongs to the American
people. The interest of the American people was a peace deal to end the war
in Ukraine that didn’t unnecessarily humiliate Zelensky, because we could
use more Zelenskys in the world, like we could use more Rouhanis in the
world, people who are willing to compromise and make a deal to end and
prevent wars. It’s not in the interests of the people who want to end and
prevent wars for the Zelenskys and the Rouhanis of the world to get
humiliated.

So that was the situation until this week. But now, as Keynes said, there
is new information, which is the current juxtaposition of Ukraine
impeachment and Iran War Powers.

And reading the press, it now seems that in the current juxtaposition, Iran
War Powers Resolution is getting a contact high from Ukraine impeachment.
They’re both about the Constitutional duties of the President and Congress;
they’re both about a President who is willfully, repeatedly defying
historic norms about how the President should behave in deference to the
Constitutional powers of Congress; they’re both about the willingness of
Congress to step up to the plate of asserting its Constitutional powers. So
this War Powers Clause Restorer currently judges with high confidence that
current events are bringing us significantly closer to the Holy Grail of
impeaching the President – any President – for Unconstitutional War.

Ask me again when we get an answer on whether the House Democratic
leadership is ready to move on a veto-proof War Powers Resolution to end
unconstitutional U.S. participation in the genocidal Saudi war in Yemen.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace/attachments/20200116/6709a878/attachment.htm>