Don't rule out impeachment
Our Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, and Constitution are documents of true power in its noblest form. They contain the concepts of God-given free will, respect of individual moral conscience, equality of all men, and the right of each human being to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
These founding principles are echoed in the Gettysburg Address as Lincoln reminds us that this nation was conceived in liberty and “dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal” and that “government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the face of the earth.” These lofty ideals acknowledge and honor the spark of the Divine which exists in all of us, as well as in the beating heart of our great nation.
We live and breathe freedom; it’s in our souls, indelible, irremovable, eternal. Democracy is the highest thinking, most powerful form of government ever devised. Democracy recognizes the divinely endowed rights of the ruled, not the ruler.
True power is uniting not polarizing, life-affirming and uplifting, not controlling and crushing of spirit. Power is the strongest of attractors on the planet because it leads by example, seeks to serve others, and recognizes the oneness of all human beings in our shared aspirations for life. We all aspire to live rightly, to achieve success in our chosen endeavors, to create a secure and happy future for our children, and to live in balance with an exquisitely beautiful planet. In our hopes and dreams we are all one. It is impossible for Americans to be divided or categorized into squabbling groups; united we stand. Sometimes it is important to remind ourselves of what we truly are, the source of our true power, our founding principles. This is one of those times.
Author and Holocaust survivor, Hannah Arendt, wrote of Nazi totalitarianism that it was “an amusement park for beasts in human form.” What I see in our country is a government operating entirely outside the rule of law while granting waivers of the law to select groups, as well as unequal treatment under the law for other select groups. What good is the rule of law, which is the crucial underpinning of our society, when an inner circle in administration can craft laws to serve their own interests, or pick and choose which laws to apply to themselves?
The soul of tyranny is caprice. Arbitrary application of the law foments long-simmering resentments which are the seeds of tyranny’s self-destruction. The administration’s lawless behavior is approaching beastliness, and has triggered an absolute free-for-all of criminal behavior nationwide.
We have VA hospitals placing veterans on secret waiting lists where they await medical treatment for as long as 21 months and die in the meantime. Let us not forget the treatment of our first responders on 9/11 who were sent into the toxic dust cloud at the World Trade Center in New York without adequate respiratory gear. Nor should we forget our Navy personnel who were not informed of the severity of radiation exposure they would endure during the Fukushima meltdown, and are now dying of leukemia and other cancers.
And what about Benghazi? We were lied to; Congress was lied to. Anyone with half a minute to think about that attack would know that it was not about an online video as it occurred on the anniversary date of 9/11. Susan Rice lied about it at the UN. And Hillary Clinton with her comment, “What difference at this point does it make?” As was tearfully testified before Congress, it made a world of difference to the families of those who were lost, including our noble Navy SEALs.
I started this article with a description of true power in our highest ideals and ended it with a discussion of tyranny and its consequences. Notice the difference in the way one feels while contrasting the two. Life-affirming is what we used to be; death-affirming is where we are now.
Americans will always and forever choose that which inspires because of its unshakable power of attraction. The power of persuasion is how we operate in this country. The problem with lawlessness in leadership is that it has a tendency to sink the whole nation into an abyss of criminal or unethical behavior. The administration is establishing legal precedents of criminal misconduct in government, at present and in the future. This will pave the way for a continuance of oppressive forms of government in the lives of our children and grandchildren. We must prevent this at all costs.
After filing multiple petitions signed by millions of Americans, occupying Wall Street, filibusters in Congress, and a plethora of class action law suits, what is there left for us but impeachment? Perhaps we should suggest the idea strongly.
Mott is a resident of Kalispell.