"Conservatives: Let’s Prove We Can Govern by Shutting Down the Government and Impeaching Obama"

[Miles Archer]

Conservatives: Let’s Prove We Can Govern by Shutting Down the Government and Impeaching Obama



http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/11/conservatives-lets-shut-down-and-impeach.html

In the wake of the midterm elections, Republicans said they would prove they could govern. This did not, in contrast to the flickering hopes of bipartisans, mean that they would start passing business-friendly reform bills that Obama would sign. It meant they would keep the kooks locked in the basement. Republicans had swept the elections by making politics boring, relentlessly policing their nominees from uttering any controversial statements, and grinding Washington to a halt. The Republican plan for the next two years was continued, boring gridlock. No shutdowns, no impeachment.

But just a week and a half after the elections, the kooks are pounding on the door.

The cycle of events was set off by President Obama snubbing the traditional ritual of penitence at his post-midterm press conference, crediting the Republicans with merely a “good night” rather than supplying them with a brandable term like “thumpin’” or “shellacking,” and generally acting unchastened. He followed this up with a series of steps that displayed a desire to continue acting like the president rather than waiting quietly for his term to end: He endorsed vigorous support for net neutrality, secured a major climate agreement with China, and plans a major liberalization of immigration law through executive action.

Obama’s forthcoming immigration plan, in particular, is the thing most likely to set off the Republican right. The main reason is that Republicans have a legitimate cause for complaint on procedural grounds. Obama may have a sound legal basis for his proposed actions, but he would be stretching executive branch power in new and potentially disturbing ways. Selective refusal to enforce laws, even if legally permissable, opens up vast new avenues of presidential power.

[Thinkingabout]

1. Though not effective they continue on the same path, I dont think they

Can prove they can be effective in governing even it they had a GOP presidential.

[muntrv]

2. The righties say government doesn't work, then they get elected and prove it.