Tagged: presidency

“Because impeachment has been so rare, the American people rarely focus on it. That’s good. In a way, it’s great. Impeachment is a remedy of last resort. If We the People don’t discuss impeachment for a decade or two, or three, that’s not the worst news. The likely reason is that our presidents are performing well, or at least well enough. We don’t have to worry over how and whether to get rid of them. But in a way, the citizenry’s failure to discuss impeachment is a big problem, above all on republican grounds. Thanks to the fighters and the founders, we are a self-governing people. In the view of some of the authors of our founding document, the impeachment clause was among the most important parts of the entire Constitution. Pause over that. With the monarchical history looming in the background, they greatly feared a king. Sure, most of them wanted a powerful executive, with Alexander Hamilton helping to lead the charge. But they were ambivalent. They were gravely concerned about the possibility of abuse. They insisted on safeguards in the event that things went badly wrong (and they had a concrete sense of what that might mean). The impeachment mechanism was the most important of these safeguards. If the nation’s leader proved corrupt, invaded their rights, neglected his duty, or otherwise abused his authority, that mechanism gave We the People a way to say: NO MORE.”

Source: Cass R. Sunstein. Impeachment: A Citizen’s Guide. pg. 12. 2017.