In America today, we have a two-party system: the Stupid Party and the Evil Party. The Evil Party sets the agenda and pursues its aims relentlessly and ruthlessly; the Stupid Party registers a polite token opposition and then fully agrees to whatever the Evil Party wants, occasionally only arguing that it can implement the Evil Party’s program more effectively than the Evil Party itself. We saw this play out yet again Wednesday, when Stupid Party House Leader Kevin McCarthy (S-California) downplayed any talk of impeaching Old Joe Biden or any of his cronies if the Stupids retake the House in the midterm elections. McCarthy is still playing by rules that the Evil Party discarded long ago, and that’s why he and his fellow Stupid Party members keep losing.
McCarthy declared that Americans don’t “like impeachment used for political purposes at all,” and added that “the country wants to heal” and see a “system that actually works.” That means there will be no impeachment proceedings against Biden, or Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary and former Disinformation Governance Board supreme overlord Alejandro Mayorkas, or Gestapo chief Merrick Garland. Leave billions of dollars worth of materiel in Afghanistan for our enemies to use against us? No problem! Open the Southern border so that untold numbers of criminals and terrorists can waltz right into the country? Hey, we all make mistakes. Sic the woke FBI against parents protesting at school board meetings against the far-Left agenda in public schools? We all can get carried away! Impeachment? Forget it. It wouldn’t be the decent thing to do.
When McCarthy was asked if he saw any grounds for impeaching any officials of this lawless and authoritarian administration, he answered: “I don’t see it before me right now. You watch what the Democrats did – they all came out and said they would impeach before Trump was ever sworn in. There wasn’t a purpose for it. If you spent all that time arguing against using impeachment for political purposes, you gotta be able to sustain exactly what you said.”
Well, sure. There shouldn’t be any impeachment for political purposes. The two impeachments the Democrats perpetrated against Trump were travesties of justice; the framers of the Constitution never intended impeachment to be used as a weapon against a political opponent. But McCarthy’s assumption that any impeachment proceedings that the Republicans bring if they win back the House in November would be politically motivated in the same way is unfounded. What if Biden, or Mayorkas, or Garland actually violated the law? What if they abused their power in persecuting “MAGA Republicans,” purveyors of alleged “disinformation,” and Jan. 6 “insurrectionists”? Could we get any impeachments then?
Related: Whom Should Republicans Impeach First Next Year?
For McCarthy to wave away even the prospect of impeachment as stooping to the Democrats’ level and engaging in politically motivated prosecution is disquieting on several levels. The most immediate one is the fact that there may indeed be impeachable offenses that warrant serious investigation. Secondary but likewise important is the fact that the Republican establishment these days always seems to be adhering to the “decency” and “civility” that was said to be the hallmark of American politics in bygone days while they’re getting their pockets picked. The Democrats have left “decency” and “civility” in the dustbin of history with the old Democrats of whom they used to be proud, such as Andrew Jackson and Thomas Jefferson (who wasn’t actually a Democrat at all, but they used to claim him). The Republicans should indeed not stoop to their level, but having a Republican president smeared, defamed, framed for crimes he didn’t commit, and vilified in the most extravagant terms for four years and then responding by saying they’re going to do the decent thing and not fight back is just asking for it all to happen again.
McCarthy’s party colleagues aren’t all on board. Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Arizona) said Tuesday: “DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has no integrity and should have already resigned from public office. We will use my impeachment articles and impeach him come January.” Another Arizona Republican, Rep. Paul Gosar, stated Saturday: “Alejandro Mayorkas warrants impeachment for incompetence, dereliction of duty and gross negligence. Most of Biden’s admin comes from Clown World but Mayorkas takes the clown cake.” Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) wrote: “Mayorkas must be impeached. [H]e should have been impeached long before this for a host of reasons.”
Maybe there’s some life in the Stupid Party yet.
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