(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . An Argument Against Calling on Politicians to Resign [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-09-26 It seems our society has evolved to the point where every day there is at least one shit-storm which shoots to the top of our news coverage. This is relatively new. During the dark ages, whole centuries went by where literally nothing of interest happened. Sure, there was the occasional plague which wiped out half of this country or that continent. But people barely noticed, and mostly went about their business trying to make ever-sharper tools out of rocks. As I write this, we find ourselves in the middle of the current shit-storm involving Bob Menendez. It seems that the senior senator from the “Great State of New Jersey” (do TV pundits consider any states not to be great. I mean, North Dakota is great. But the others?) has found his unusual personal bounty of human kindness overflowing. The man just likes helping out others with various problems they have that may make them sad, like business competition or possible criminal charges. Bob’s kindness also extends to relieving people of things that are weighing them down, such as envelopes of cash and large gold ingots. I mean, you’ve got to admire such a kind man. He probably routinely helps little old ladies cross the street...and then helps them find a place for any wads of cash they may have in their purse. Sadly, the federal government doesn’t view Bob’s kindness as benign as you and I and his lawyers do. Rather than thanking him, they have indicted him on a number of bribery-related charges. All of this has triggered a number of people to call for Bob to resign. In fact, each new hour seems to bring new demands for Bob’s head, from his fellow senators, pundits, newspapers, members of leading boy-bands. Everybody really. The thing is, that I think that calling on politicians to resign is a silly and unproductive thing to do. First, let me make it clear. I am very troubled by what Menendez has appeared to have done. I find bribery and corruption on the part of public officials to be odious, and not in the usual cute and adorable way that odious is usually used. I am no fan of Bob’s. In fact, I have committed to allowing my membership in the Bob Menendez Fan Club to lapse and I’ve removed most of the Bob Menendez posters from my bedroom walls (and ceiling!). No, my objections to calling on elected officials to resign transcend Bob, or these allegations. They are universal. Loyal readers of my columns (hi mom!) know that I am no fan of Donald Trump. I won’t expound on that at length other than to say that if (not when...) I die, “Fascist, loofa-faced shit gibbon” will be etched on my tombstone as my one enduring contribution to humanity. I supported both Trump impeachments and am only upset that there weren’t more. Given the choice between voting for Trump and a lion who was in the process of eating my pancreas, give me my Kimba 2024! sign right now! I called on Trump to be impeached, removed from office, prosecuted, and sentenced to live out his life in the Great State of North Dakota. But I never, ever called on him to resign. The first reason I oppose calling on people to resign is that it is anti-democratic. Trump, Mendendez, etc, all won elections. By calling on someone to resign, I am disregarding and, in effect, voiding the votes of all the people who supported them. Do the voters get no say? Are they totally irrelevant? Does their expressed will not count because the person they’ve chosen has done (or has been alleged to have done) something to offend me? Everything Trump did offended me. I could have been calling on him to resign four, five, a million times a day. Yet Trump was almost re-elected. In other words, we should not generally replace elections with self-selected arbiters of acceptability. I also oppose demands for resignation for the same reason I oppose recall elections. There are no do-overs in politics. Officials are elected for two, four, six or ten year terms. They should generally be able to serve out those terms, even when they make mistakes, and even when they make people mad. I remember about 15 years ago when Grey Davis was governor of California. He was a bland, uninspiring leader. But he had been convicted of no crime. Yet the people thought that Arnold Schwarznegger was more exciting, and certainly more ripped. So in the middle of Davis’ term, he was booted out and replaced by The Terminator. But if officials can be replaced whenever they somehow fall out of favor, it makes it very difficult to lead. All electeds have to face the voters and defend their actions. But it should be at the appointed end of their terms. Otherwise, we run the risk of encouraging a continuous cycle of election-recall-replacement or calls to resign by someone for literally anything. This leads me to the final, and perhaps most compelling reason to resist the temptation to call on people we don’t like to resign. You can demand that a politician resign all you want. BUT THEY’RE NOT GONNA DO IT! If there is one thing that calls for resignation clearly are, and that is impotent. Thousands of electeds are called on to resign every year. Almost none of them do. Millions called on Trump to resign. Did he? Menendez has made it clear he doesn’t plan to resign, what is the benefit of yet another person calling on him to do so? Since everybody knows that nobody is resigning because they are asked to, it is fair to conclude that calls for resignation are not serious political acts. They are instead just rank exercises in virtue-signalling. “Look how noble (or righteous, or caring, or courageous) I am! I called for that douchey senator to resign!”. Well good for you. If they gave out Nobel Prizes for fecklessness, there would be very stiff competition. I’m not saying that there is no way to rid ourselves of corrupt politicians. In fact, there are some very effective ways to do just that. Mendendez is being prosecuted. If convicted, he will lose his seat and go to jail. Further, there is a method of purging bad public servants built into every political body. Presidents and Governors can be impeached. State legislators and Congress People can be expelled. Local township commissioners can be similarly removed. But those acts require clear corruption, criminal activity, or “High Crimes and Misdemeanors”. They also require the votes of other elected officials who must themselves answer to the voters actually sticking their neck out and taking a position. As a Democrat, I certainly don’t want Menendez to be our nominee for senator from New Jersey in 2024. But he is already being primaried, and donors and party leaders are perfectly within their rights to make it clear to Bob that he won’t be receiving their support. If you really don’t like a politician, don’t call for them to resign. It’s the wrong thing to do and nobody will care. Organize to defeat them in the next election. That is the method of removal that is the most effective and consistent with democracy, no matter what great state you live in. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/9/26/2195592/-An-Argument-Against-Calling-on-Politicians-to-Resign Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/