UPDATE: (somewhat unnecessarily) Sure enough…
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/01/twitter-impeach-obama-gun-control.html
And Republicans have to impeach Democratic Presidents with the temerity to beat them. In some ways I’m surprised it’s taken this long; Clinton was denounced as illegitimate before the drapes went up in the oval office, and within months the media was announcing his Presidency was “over,” a meme supposedly “confirmed” by Republicans’ 1994 takeover of the House. As they so often are, Republicans were so convinced that everyone loathed Clinton as much as they did that they thought they could beat him with a dour retread like Bob Dole. After being clobbered in a landslide, they responded as sore losers are wont to do: They threw a tantrum.
Of course, the only beneficiary of their absurd histrionics was Clinton himself, who left office more popular than ever; Democrats lost the Presidency (sort of) at least in part because Gore refused to defend his old boss, even lending credence to the Republican jihad by choosing a turncoat Church Lady like Joe Lieberman as his running mate. Still, recent history seems to show that Republicans have little to gain and much to lose by impeaching a popular, reelected President, but, well, they just can’t help themselves.
Conveniently, the catalyst seems to be exactly the scenario long accepted in the fever swamps of the right and relentlessly parroted by its media hucksters: President Obama was just waiting to be reelected so he could exploit some tragedy as an excuse to confiscate (white) peoples’ guns. They know this to be true because the NRA told them so every day for the last four years. Of course, there’s more to this theory, variously involving false flags, FEMA camps, UN bike trails, Hitler, Stalin, and what have you, but these sorts of things won’t be emphasized in the articles produced by the House, for obvious reasons.
That paragon of Executive Branch accountability, Reagan’s disgraced attorney general Ed Meese, soberly explained that Obama had one foot in impeachment and the other on a banana peel, an opinion I’m sure he holds regardless of the occasion. At least two House Republicans announced support for impeachment before Obama’s gun proposal was released, which undoubtedly saved them from having to read anything, which as we all know is just one step away from communistic (and tiresome) book learning.
Compared to the NRA and the right-wing echo chamber, though, elected Republicans are waxing statesmanlike. Glenn Beck, Alex Jones, Erick Erickson and many others are calling for civil war (fought by others), which does have a way of making impeachment seem tame and civilized. In a bizarre and deeply insulting commercial released to preempt Obama’s announcement, the NRA denounces Obama as a hypocritical elitist who has armed guards for his (worthless, dusky-hued) children, while “your” children go about without so much as a Glock to protect them. Really.
Now, if you’re a Fox-addled halfwit seething with impotent rage about that darky imposter in the White House, this ad will produce its desired effect, which is to sell you more guns and ammo than you can afford. What the ad is not designed to do is persuade the larger public, who do accept that whether they voted for him or not, Obama is President, and like all Presidents he has Secret Service protection for his family. Additionally, unlike all Presidents, Obama has received more death threats than any other, from precisely the sorts of people the NRA courts with ads like these.
The mild reforms the President is proposing today fall into two categories: symbolic regulatory tweaks clearly inadequate to solve the problem, and legislative proposals that stand an ice cube’s chance in hell of passing the House. In other words, this is all much ado about nothing, or would be in a sane world. But as I frequently mention, this is not a sane world, and this pretext is as good as any to begin to do what Republicans now do reflexively: Impeach the hated Democrat, just because.
It’s going to be a long four years.
Note: Last week this blog turned four years old, proving that time flies whether you’re having fun or not.
