Impeachments are supposed to be for crimes committed in office while recalls are intended to remove elected officials suspected of corruption or gross negligence.

Republicans in Wisconsin are threatening to impeach a recently elected state Supreme Court justice and raised the possibility of doing the same to the state’s election director.

A Georgia Republican called for impeaching the Fulton County prosecutor who brought racketeering charges against former President Donald Trump. Republicans in the Pennsylvania House have already impeached the top prosecutor in Philadelphia.

None of the targets met the bar traditionally set for impeachment — credible allegations of committing a crime while in office. Their offense: staking out positions legislative Republicans didn’t like.

As Republicans in Congress begin their impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, the process is calling attention to the increasing use of impeachment in the states as a partisan political weapon rather than as a step of last resort for officeholders believed to have committed a serious offense.

  • mindbleach
    2·
    1 year ago

    Their stated ideals are ad-hoc justifications. All that has ever mattered is ingroup loyalty.

    And they think you’re the same way, because they think that’s all there is.