Should Obama be Impeached?

I attended “Should Obama be Impeached?” first thing Weds. Night. This was not part of the Democracy Convention, but a sort of spin off from the Veterans for Peace Conference, running concurrently in a nearby hotel.

WI VfP member BUZZ DAVIS framed the discussion: America needs a revolution; shall it be bloody or peaceful? Should we impeach all three: Bush, Obama, Cheney? Is Obama continuing Bush’s crimes?

He asked the somewhat sparse audience of 35 whether they supported or opposed impeachment, or were they on the fence. Two thirds of hands raised supported impeachment, one third were uncertain, and a healthy minority did not lift a hand.

Buzz quoted a recent comment of Jimmy Carter’s: America does not have a functioning democracy.

The three main speakers were excellent.

DAVID SWANSON, who has written about the Imperial Presidency, argued that the powers that Bush accumulated have been handed on, and institutionalized, and legalized, by his successor. Torture has become a policy choice, not a crime. Without accountability things stop looking like crimes. Obama’s claims of secrecy and executive powers outdo Bush and will be handed on to the next president. Swanson proceeded to read off a list of Obama’s impeachable offenses; very persuasive to this writer. In answer to the argument that we can’t impeach Obama until we’ve impeached Bush he said, “We need to do a doubleheader: Impeach them both.” IMPEACHMENT IS THE CENTRAL POWER WHICH THE PEOPLE HOLD TO KEEP THEIR GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABLE. We must demand what we want. Congress doesn’t want to exercise their power to declare war. They’re happy to avoid controversy. We have to expose them and demand that they reinstitute the option of impeachment.

COLEEN ROWLEY, former FBI special agent, said that we – the movement for accountability – have the highest momentum right now. There is outrage that we the people are the target of NSA spying. We have to be brave to reinstitute the rule of law – and undo the rule of war.

DEBRA SWEET, director of World Can’t Wait, acknowledged that Obama is worse than Bush in terms of targeted killing and indefinite detention. However, she is not an advocate of impeachment, partly because it depends on Congress and the Democratic party. “The Democrats let Kucinich and Cynthia McKinney, two impeachment advocates, be kicked out of Congress.”

She attended some of the Bradley Manning trial. She said the video ‘collateral damage’ that Manning leaked to the press in 2009 was shown in its entirety (39 minutes) to the judge. The prosecution called it ‘a piece of propaganda’ although it is a completely undoctored tape from the video camera of the Apache helicopter involved in the attack on Iraqi civilians. Holding a DVD copy in her hand, she urged the audience to obtain a copy and show it to friends on a big screen. We need to create a popular movement that will not allow such crimes to be carried out in our names, she said. “We need a remedy that is wider and deeper than convincing Congress to impeach.”

Buzz asked for a second vote at the end of the presentations. Several fence sitters were convinced by the speakers and changed their vote in favor of impeachment.

This writer had to leave before the final question - what actions might be taken? – was resolved.