This started out as a reply to Elise in the Lewis Lapham on Impeachment diary after it had started spinning out of control.
The diary can be found here: http://www.dailykos.com/... don't mind the carnage just chalk it up to people keeping their skills sharp and twitchy reflexes on their flame guns. I know that is what I do. But there are some very deep feeling on this matter that perhaps would be best served by approaching it anew and just a bit more openly on both sides. I have omitted Elise's initial post since I did not ask her permission to use it, which was kind of stupid on my part so there is some context missing...and I have done a little editing to cull the most glaring of spelling and grammar errors and neatened up a thought or three.
The stuff people actually like is closer to the end BTW.
Catch you after the flip.
people have disagreements on the issue and your threatening to attempt to censor via TU fiat is just lame.
Paul is impassioned in his rhetoric and using the verbal judo techniques that we all have so finely honed over the last few years in combat with the GOP to paint his opponents into a moral corner.
I can certainly understand how you may not like it, I sure as shit wouldn't, but unlike you I am not going to try and intimidate people with threats of troll rating. If they go outside of the bounds of what I consider decorum I will certainly give them a 0, but I am loathe to do that.
Now if the anti-impeachment gang would like to put forth their arguments against it based on some kind of principle that is worth fighting FOR I would love to see it.
Because principles and ideals matter to me, and they matter greatly.
Because I can not stand to see another generation in this country grow up under the rule of unprincipled government. Unprincipled "practical" government is what leads to US foreign policy propping up strongmen in the third world because it is more practical then dealing with messy democracies. "Practical" leadership sometimes bites you in the ass in a generation because they are willing to sign devils bargains that bear bitter fruit. It is easy, far to easy to convince yourself that a path is the most practical one. But ones dictated by principles, and ideals are a bit harder since they come with thorns and are frequently hard.
And the crux of the argument in favor of impeachment, which implicitly also covers the investigations leading TO impeachment subset is one of principles worth fighting FOR, since they are the very same ones on which this country was founded. They are the core, the heart of America at her very best; the America that we all want her to be in our hearts.
And for many of us those principles and ideals are sacred, a secular sacrament that defines our sense of identity as much as any non secular faith or creed. It is the wellspring from which all that IS good in America flows, all that is correct and righteous and noble and it is worth defending with every ounce of passion, every drop of sweat and blood in your body.
Because those principles and ideals are that man is capable of ruling over man justly without barbarity for the good of all men without exception to station, class, race or creed. That we are a nations of law not whim or man, that justice will be served regardless of whether or not it is expedient or convenient or even practical.
Without it we stop being America, and we start being something "else". Perhaps a shade of her, perhaps a mockery of her, but never again will we be America; we will always be that other, that alien other.
Now I can certainly understand the practical arguments, and here is something that will put a bee in your bonnet: I EVEN AGREE WITH THEM!
This would not be the time that I would choose if given a choice to do this thing. This would not be the ground on which I would make a stand if I had a choice in the matter since it is not the best ground to fight this engagement for my team. And much can be said for a tactical redeployment to attempt to engage the enemy on their flank.
But I do not have a choice. Contact has been made with the enemy. They are not in an overly strong position and their forces are partially disrupted and dispersed and it is doubtful that they have coherent communications between their units.
The ground I am on may not be the best, it may not be the ground of my dreams on which to take a stand, but it is still good ground.
The timing is not the best, nor my ideal time in which to strike. But it is still good enough. And any tactical redeployment I make will also give the enemy time to get their position in order.
The old saw is as true in reverse: Politics is war by other means. And in war initiative is a force multiplier, and right now we have the initiative; we can choose to shape the battlespace to our advantage and destroy the enemy or we can choose to dilly dally looking for the elusive "perfect" ground from which to attack and allow the enemy to slip out of the kill zone.
And make no mistake about it we are at war with the other guys. This went from a disagreement about policy between people of good character and faith to a struggle for the very soul of American long ago. The other guys strategic objective is to turn American into that alien other place I wrote about previously. Once they have started the transformation they can guide and shape it to be pleasing to their eye and an abomination to yours and mine.
Our job is to not only deny them their strategic objectives but remove their capacity to wage the kind of war they are waging. And the impeachment path does that better then any other available option: The investigations implicit in the concept will expose enough of their "logistical" train to precision strikes to destroy it.
And without that logistical train they can not advance their agenda. The first round of investigations should expose enough to warrant further investigations into other parts of the other sides conduct and widen the net, leaving even more of their infrastructure vulnerable to destruction.
Destroy enough of their political infrastructure and they not only have lost this war, but will not be able to wage another for a generation or two. Net effect is you are stronger, they are gravely if not mortally wounded, and you can continue to pick away at remaining bits of their infrastructure until they are but a memory.
Give me a tool set that does that by another means, and by god I will lobby for its' usage! But all of the other proposed tool sets are weaker, or vulnerable to an oval office loss in '08 to the GOP followed quickly by pardons for all crimes et al for the particulars involved in our little national debacle of the last 6 years.
I am sorry for the changes in tone and structure, not to mention the length of the reply. The length is a factor of sometimes things just flow out of me; the other is a side effect of the dichotomy of being the man I am and the one I would prefer to be.
But I will not apologize for my passion on this subject, I will however apologize if it may cause you distress from time to time; all I ask is that you attempt to understand from where it comes. Our opponents like to use 911 as the great day that justifies all things to them.
For me it is more 912, not that 911 is not an important day; just no more important a day when a greatly evil thing has been done by insanely deranged or evil men; history is full of them, far to many of them for my tastes.
No, 9/12 did it for me. It cracked through years of cynicism and disconnection in and from my country and her government and moreover the nations people. On 9/12 I wept for the first time in a couple of decades, not from the horrors of the previous day, no, out of a love for this nation and her people that I did not even know I still had!
That day filled me with such an overwhelming sense of pride and joy that I thought I was going to burst and the tears just flowed out of me. They still do to a lesser degree just thinking about it. It renewed my faith in this country, her people, and what they and it have and can stand for. It renewed my faith in humanity and came as close as I can imagine to feeling in the presence of the divine as I think I will ever truly feel.
It also is the source of my loathing of the administration and every single member of the GOP that has given them aid and comfort. Not because I disagree with their policies, which I do, but one can disagree without loathing. No, it is because they so abused and twisted the feelings in others in the days after 911. That they did not take moment of unity and turn it toward a good and noble purpose, but rather debased it.
You might try asking Paul what is the source of his passion in this regard before going nuclear.