Monday, April 2, 2007

IMPEACHMENT: Politics, Opinion or Criminality?

My assumption is that Impeachment is as much a social phenomenon as a legal phenomenon, an assumption I think shown to have some empirical validity in the Clinton Impeachment, where the (R)epublican legal gambit failed in the face of Clinton's rising popularity. However, I am wondering if the current social and legal rolls around Impeachment have switched. In an article entitled BYU Campus Protests Dick Cheney Speech, I wonder if I am seeing just such a roll reversal.

Even though 'criminality' and 'impeachment' were not directly used in the article, what does it mean that such a conservative school, in such a conservative state, when reacting to Cheney's 'politics', is making just such a concept distinction in fact, if not in name ...? If, when looking at Cheney, the distinction between political bias and criminality is now part of the discourse at Brigham Young University, can the social 'acceptance' of the act of Impeachment be all that far behind, generally?


Utah has consistently supported the administration, delivering President Bush his largest margin of victory in any state in 2000 and 2004. In Utah County, home to BYU, about 85 percent of voters chose the Bush-Cheney ticket in 2004.

Richard Davis, a political-science professor and adviser for the college Democrats, said the uproar over Cheney's visit is evidence of a rift within the school and church that belies the faith's larger claim of being politically neutral.

"He should be invited to come. He should speak. But let's not send the signal that we're abandoning our political neutrality," Davis said. "There is no political gospel in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints."

The church has a policy of political neutrality and issues an annual statement declaring that both major political parties include ideals that Mormons could embrace.
[...]
"We recognize that members of our campus community are entitled to their opinions," said university spokeswoman Carri Jenkins. "Political neutrality does not mean there cannot be any political discussion."


Even if 'neutral' BYU administration, like the 'neutral' MSM, is 'refusing' any qualitative assessment of illegally in Cheney's 'politics', what does it say about the country's mood, that these politically, very conservative students, don't seem as amorally vacuous or as intentionally ethically bland ...?

When Cheney makes public appearances, such questions seem to come to light. Maybe we'll find with Congress's willingness to use its subpoena power, Cheney's secrecy was 'warrented'.

Snerd

6 comments:

KEvron said...

how bigoted am i?

look, i kinda like the mormons. they sem like genuinely nice and happy people. they've managed to overcome many of the social ills which plague our society: low teen pregnancy rate, low divorce rate, low crime rate.

but they've always struck me as, well, homogenous. it would never have occured to me (the the realization doesn't stun me) that there are democrat mormons out there.

proving, once again, that i've still got a ways to go....

KEvron, pilgrim

KEvron said...

btw, ol' bean, regarding your request for a link to my "trolling": i wouldn't want to make a regular thing about it on my blog (though it seems to be my favorite topic!). that'd be vain. diminishes folk's respect for me (assuming i've ever garnered any). but here's a link to my first appearance on amy's blog. the deletion (found at the bottom of the page) was not the result of any profanity on my part; amy went into delete mode when, on a later thread, i called the chimp a chimp. i thought i did pretty well on this one, and figured you'd get a kick out of it, too. enjoy, bub.

KEvron

KEvron said...

ugh.

"...though the realization...."

KEvron

Snerd Gronk said...

KEv: ... regarding your request for a link to my "trolling": i wouldn't want to make a regular thing about it on my blog (though it seems to be my favorite topic!). that'd be vain.

SG: Not necessarily.

First of all, you seem to show up at a 'maudlin' party, as it were, and inject life into it. Life is best when shared, I believe ...

You've got a very good mind and you've developed a style that has an art about it, my friend. The art, for me, is the clear depth of thought the has the ability to express itself minimally, lightly and with bite.

So ... that said, possibly you could choose another concept as your theme ... 'Most Eventful Encounter of the Week', or 'Most difficult "Discussion" of the Week', etc.

Failing that you could send me links ... I promise not to view them with vanity in mind, but just as a buddy helping me out

Snerd

KEvron said...

i'll try to keep you abreast of my trolling, but it may be all for naught; i find myself banned from blogs at the drop of a hat.

parklife does a little trolling of his own, too. he occasionally will post exchanges he's had with some wingnut or other. funny stuff!

KEvron

KEvron said...

"a style that has an art about it"

a kind of guerrilla art, i agree. and thanks.

parklife had a post on his blog about some guys who project images onto buildings at high-profile locations. that's sorta what trolling has become for me; i do my thing, knowing full and well that my work won't be there in the morning....

KEvron