{"id":8478,"date":"2023-09-22T13:32:38","date_gmt":"2023-09-22T17:32:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ciss\/?p=8478"},"modified":"2023-09-22T13:32:38","modified_gmt":"2023-09-22T17:32:38","slug":"does-impeachment-mean-anything-anymore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ciss\/2023\/09\/22\/does-impeachment-mean-anything-anymore\/","title":{"rendered":"Does Impeachment Mean Anything Anymore?"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article, by\u00a0Doug Most<\/a>, originally appeared on\u00a0BU Today<\/a> on September 14, 2023.<\/em><\/h4>\n
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Photo by Devonyu\/iStock<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Demands to impeach politicians aren\u2019t new. What is new is how those demands are handled<\/h4>\n

In\u00a0<\/span>The Boy Who Cried Wolf<\/em>,<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>a shepherd boy protecting a flock of sheep shouts, \u201cWolf, wolf, wolf!\u201d when there is no wolf, until townspeople ignore his cries. When he finally does spot a wolf, he\u2019s ignored.<\/p>\n

Are today\u2019s politicians on their way to becoming the shepherd boy? The more they shout \u201cImpeach, impeach, impeach!\u201d will the word lose its meaning and historical importance and be relegated to just another political stunt? One Boston University presidential historian says that day has already come.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou cannot hope to have a functioning government if we are impeaching leaders every year or two,\u201d says\u00a0<\/span>Thomas Whalen<\/a>, a BU College of General Studies associate professor of social sciences. \u201cNow it\u2019s as common as a Taylor Swift concert.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not much of an exaggeration. Donald Trump was impeached twice, lost the presidency, and is now the leading 2024 Republican presidential candidate, as if his impeachments never happened. House Republicans responded by threatening to impeach President Biden, despite presenting no actual evidence of wrongdoing. Meanwhile, across the country, the Wisconsin GOP is threatening to impeach a state Supreme Court justice, the Texas attorney general has been impeached and suspended from office, the Philadelphia district attorney is fighting impeachment, and some New Mexico officials are calling for the governor\u2019s impeachment.<\/p>\n

Are the circumstances behind each of these legitimate and grave threats to democracy? Are they, as the US Constitution says in\u00a0<\/span>Article II, Section 4<\/a>, examples of politicians committing \u201chigh crimes and misdemeanors?\u201d Or is the threat of impeachment merely being used as a weapon to rile up and divide voters, with no bipartisan support and zero chance of moving forward?<\/p>\n

\u201cImpeachment proceedings [historically] have not been brought except in cases when there were serious crimes charged and usually a broad consensus that there was at least some crime worth investigating,\u201d says\u00a0<\/span>Bruce Schulman<\/a>, the William E. Huntington Professor of History at the College of Arts & Sciences, and the author or editor of several books, about the Constitution, public policy, and the White House. \u201cThey were not purely symbolic investigations.\u201d<\/p>\n

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You cannot hope to have a functioning government if we are impeaching leaders every year or two. Now it\u2019s as common as a Taylor Swift concert.<\/div>\n