Impeaching Biden is only one battlefield in Republicans’ total electoral war | TheHill – The Hill

While Democrats debate the fine points of how to engineer social change through legislation, Republicans have been waging a total electoral war to retake power. They just opened a new front the impeachment of President BidenJoe BidenTrump to offer commentary at heavyweight fight on 9/11 Manchin would support spending plan of at most .5T: report South Dakota governor issues executive order restricting access to abortion medicine MORE.Politics, as the saying goes,aint beanbag, and not all Republicans play by total war rules, which are no rules at all.But the Republican strategy, looked at in its totality, takes political warfare to a level suitable for military metaphors.

Like in many shooting wars, the firstcasualtyin the Republican war is truth, as in many Republicans belief thatthe 2020 election was stolen.Falsely claiming voter fraud or the risk of fraud, Republican state legislaturesenactedballot restrictions to weaponize election laws and oversight against Democrats.Arizona Republicans are running a deception operation in the form of anauditof the states 2020 election results that is akin to a Super Bowl loser asking one of its fans to review the referee calls on the game tape and declare the real winner.

Now, a remarkably broad range of Republicans, from extreme right wing Rep. Marjorie TaylorGreene(R-Ga.) to the partys authoritative foreign policy figure, Sen. LindseyGraham(R- S.C.), are turning the Constitutions impeachment clause into a negative branding howitzer aimed at the White House.

Under total war rules, its irrelevant that Biden did not commit an impeachable offense, unlike Trump, who committed two, first by pressuring a foreign ally to intervene in his favor in the 2020electionand then, when he lost, by incitingan insurrection to block confirmation of his opponents victory.Biden stands accused by Republican impeachment-mongers not of undermining the Constitution but of mismanaging a military engagement.

By that standard, quite a few Republican presidents should have been impeached.Ronald Reagan lost the lives of 241 U.S. Marines, Navy sailors and Army soldiers to a truck bomber by sending them on an ill-considered peacekeepingmissionto Lebanon in 1983, the worst single-day toll for the Marines since the Battle of Iwo Jima. On the basis of egregiously flawedintelligence(some say it was outright misrepresented), George W. Bush sent anAmerican army into Iraq in 2003, which suffered tens of thousands of casualties.Even Abraham Lincoln should have been impeached after the Uniondefeatsat the First Battle of Bull Run, Fredericksburg and Chancellorsvillesince he had obviously been derelict in his choice of generals.

Fighting a total war may be liberating for Republicans, especially when their only value is victory.If they retake the House of Representatives, distractions like constitutional impeachment standards and American history will be easily ignored in favor of appeasing the MAGA base by impeaching Biden. Having set their base in motion withImpeach Joe Biden demands, Republicans may have created an unstoppable dynamic.Republican congressional offices are already besieged withdemandsfor a Biden impeachment.By next spring,Republicansin primary fights may be booed off campaign stages unless they pledge to impeach Biden if the House changes hands.

Sure, SenateGOP Leader Mitch McConnellAddison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellImpeaching Biden is only one battlefield in Republicans' total electoral war Democrats stare down nightmare September GOP hopes spending traps derail Biden agenda MORE (R-Ky.)said "there isnt going to be an impeachment, but this was thesameMcConnell who first denounced Trump as having beenpractically and morally responsible for the Jan. 6 insurrection and then pivoted to pledging to absolutely supportTrump if he is the 2024 Republican presidential nominee.

More and more, especially with Joe Bidens plummeting approval ratings, Democrats seem to be back on their heels.Part of their problem is that they do not play by total war rules, which is to their credit. But they probably wouldnt be very good at it if they tried.The Republicans ruthless intensity can be a force multiplier, and Democrats have yet to find their own intensity to match it.

Republicans have stood Clausewitzs famousdictum war is the continuation of politics by other means on its head.To them, politics is the continuation of war by other means.

Gregory J.Wallance is a writer in New York City and a federal prosecutor during the Carter and Reagan administrations, where he was a member of the ABSCAM prosecution team that convicted a U.S. senator and six U.S. representatives of bribery. He isa long time human rights activist andthe author of the historical novel,Two Men Before the Storm: Arba Cranes Recollection of Dred Scott and the Supreme Court Case That Started The Civil War.Follow him on Twitter @gregorywallance.

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Impeaching Biden is only one battlefield in Republicans' total electoral war | TheHill - The Hill