How can it be that Bill Clinton was essentially impeached for cheating on his wife....

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

157. You are absolutely right!! Had the majority of Dems in the House/Senate stood firm

and not went along with the Republicans and authorized Bush to go to war, they would have been able to issue Articles of Impeachment.

This is something that Pelosi never explains. She took impeachment off the table but never explained why. You broke it down beautifully, something that no one here on DU has ever done. So I'll echo your argument. Here's why Pelosi/Dems took impeachment off the table and why Obama should not be blamed for it:

The Democrats were pushed into a corner, going along with this fucking war. At the time, the majority of Americans were pissed off about what happened to us on 911; we all wanted revenge. Though many of us here on DU and in many liberal circles knew the truth--that Saddam Hussein had absolutely nothing to do with the events that occurred on 911--the Bush administration, PNAC and the neocons had already established the meme, and with the aid of the Corporate Media, were going to push this story, punish and condemn anyone who got in their way.

Any liberal, any Democrat who questioned anything had their patriotism questioned, even by many Democrats themselves if they went against the established meme. Over 80% of this country supported George W. Bush and no one dared challenge his administration or this meme. Democrats were backed in a corner. Notice that the Democrats who challenge the establishment were from pretty safe districts or would have an easy time winning reelection. And I'm not making excuses for the Democrats who authorized Bush to attack an unarmed nation who had done nothing to us. A good number of Democrats in the House DID NOT give vote for the authorization. Still, a good number of Democrats DID. And those Democrats in both the House and Senate couldn't then turn around and bring forth Articles of Impeachment 5 years later. They essentially fucking approved war crimes!

A similar rationale applies to Wall Street. Those of us liberals who are angry at Obama for not adequately going after Wall Street need to understand why:

There were NO crimes committed. I repeat: THERE WERE NO REAL CRIMES COMMITTED. Why? Because Congress deliberately abdicated and weakened its oversight powers. Congress deregulated the entire banking and housing/mortgage industry. (I worked for Fannie Mae and now HUD, so I know what the fuck I'm taking about.) So what Wall Street did was essentially legal!! What crimes did they commit and how would we prove that what they did was illegal if the banking industry was deregulated and oversight function in Congress rendered useless? That's why when NY Attorney General Eric Schneiderman was appointed to look into the crimes committed by Wall Street and the banking industry, he came up essentially empty. What he did find were smaller, frivolous acts of little significance that amounted to fines that didn't even scratch the surface compared to what happened to the American people. He could find no evidence of REAL crimes committed because what Wall Street was doing was NOT illegal!!

These things are very difficult for us liberals to wrap our heads around because what these people did was morally wrong. I get it. What they did was wrong and they should be punished and under the jail. Yes, I agree. But those acts were conducted within the bounds of a system that they decriminalized. Congress makes the laws; those laws can be undone with the stroke of a pen or a vote. We liberals are going to have to start coming to grips with how government works. Our job should be to get people into office who can change the laws to what WE want them to be. Restore oversight. Restore reasonable economic regulations. But simply pointing fingers and blaming with no solutions gets us nowhere. And taking our balls home, threatening not to vote, and stomping our feet like children doesn't win elections. You never see the Teabaggers/Republicans act like this, even when they lose major fights. They're like a fucking fungus. They stick around; they just keep coming back and fighting harder no matter how many times they lose. We need to start acting like them.

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Your post is absolutely brilliant, and I've not seen anyone on this forum discuss this in 5 or 6 years. I wish there were more thoughtful, critical folks here on DU like you.

Bravo!! Well done! :