The Legacy of John Conyers
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by BAR Managing Editor Bruce Dixon
"...now that John Conyers finally has the power to pull the trigger on impeachment, he won't."
For months now, according to the polls, most Americans have favored the impeachment of the president and vice president. Among Democrats, the majorities favoring impeachment are lopsided, and are highest of all among African Americans, the bulwark of the American left and the anchor of the Democratic party. The only place where most Democrats and nearly all black Democrats seem not to favor impeachment is the one place where the power of impeachment resides; in the Congress.
Detroit's John Conyers is a longtime legislative champion of African American communities, the sponsor of reparations and universal health care legislation for several consecutive sessions of Congress. His constituents, friends and allies in Michigan and across the country have invested in his political career for more than a generation, electing him to Congress twenty-two times so that he might gain seniority, and with it the power to act decisively on behalf of black and progressive America. John Conyers has been and remains the sponsor of impeachment legislation in this and the previous Congress. Since January, he has chaired the body in which impeachment proceedings must begin, the powerful House Judiciary Committee. But now that John Conyers finally has the power to pull the trigger on impeachment, he won't.
"...Speaker Nancy Pelosi has nothing she can use to enforce her will upon Chairman John Conyers that will not injure her more severely than him."
The current Congress, though dominated by Democrats, has made its choices. It has chosen not to stop the war, and not to hold the president responsible for crimes abroad like torture and waging illegal wars. It has decided to let the killing of thousands of Americans and the dispossession of hundreds of thousands more on the Gulf coast stand unchallenged, except for the occasional drive-by campaign speech.
But at the age of 77, with 44 years of Congressional seniority, John Conyers has the power to make his own choices and make them stick. At this stage in his career and at this political juncture, if he is determined to do something, John Conyers is practically bulletproof. The Speaker and other leading Democrats know that retaliation against Conyers for unleashing the dogs of impeachment would tear the Democratic party apart, perhaps permanently. In fact, Speaker Nancy Pelosi has nothing she can use to enforce her will upon Chairman John Conyers that will not injure her more severely than him. The only forces with real leverage on John Conyers, now nearing the end of his career, are what he wants his legacy to be, and what we who have invested in him for all these years demand from him.
The catastrophe for the Palestinian people began 75 years ago and their struggle against the apartheid state continues.
The United States deploys naval warships and drones after creating the conditions for destabilization in Sudan. AFRICOM's presence is expanding under the guise of protecting US nationals.
Anthony Blinken has refused to hand over cables in which US embassy officials warned of an imminent Taliban victory weeks before Washington's botched withdrawal.
Protest in France, gentrification in Philadelphia, and school safety and achievement.
Philippe Gendrault, Ph.D. is a mental health provider committed to the anti-racist, anti-imperialist struggle for social and political justice. He joins us from San Francisco to discuss the…
