A congresswoman wants to impeach Kristi Noem. She’s right to do so | Jan-Werner Müller
IFollowing the murder of Renée Nicole Good, Congresswoman Robin Kelly announced the filing of three articles of impeachment against Kristi Noem, the Secretary of Homeland Security. As expected, the reactions have been muted, to say the least: with the Republican Party holding both the Senate and the House, impeachment can be dismissed as purely performative, an impotent response to an inherently understandable moral imperative to “just do something!”
But such dismissals are coming too quickly: This administration ran on the promise of impunity at every level, and Democrats need to start signaling that their actions have consequences. They also need to get out of a fateful dynamic: under Trump 2.0, misdeeds and scandals follow one another so quickly that neither the press nor the public ever seem to be able to focus on just one. Impeachment can focus minds and slow down political time.
Of course, on one level it is obscene to immediately subject a senseless murder to political calculations – what happened in Minneapolis is not a test of Machiavellian know-how, but of capacity for compassion and decency. Trump’s courtiers have failed; they rushed into television studios, spreading lies about Good’s conduct and character, outdoing themselves in blaming and slandering the victim. They also made it known that anyone seen as obstructing the triumph of Stephen Miller’s will can be declared a “domestic terrorist” – and treated as if the law no longer protects them at all.
As is often the case, JD Vance turned out to be particularly vile; he also falsely claimed that ICE agents have “absolute immunity,” reinforcing the message to American citizens that there is simply nothing they can do about bad behavior.
Lies that are unopposed tend to persist, and the rewriting of history on January 6 demonstrates that Trumpists will relentlessly work to make everyone repeat them, as they become part of a test of political loyalty. Impeachment is a way to create a truthful record. Impeachment cannot simply be stopped by the Speaker of the House. Kelly announced that she wanted to charge Noem with willful obstruction of control of Congress, directing unconstitutional actions and abusing her office for personal gain.
This combination makes sense because it highlights the particular political dynamic of this administration: Since pardoning violent insurrectionists on day one, it has shown that those who obey Trump and work for his benefit – whether political or financial – can count on impunity. And while not all ICE agents are monsters, the number of monstrous acts has been so great that there is no doubt that the violence and cruelty are systemic and, in a sense, encouraged from the top. Obscene advertisements for DHS – including not only the dehumanizing dramaturgy of cop shows, but also outright Nazi iconography – are not somehow aesthetically irrelevant; Anyone who studies them cannot be surprised if state agents begin to act more like death squads.
The imperative to stage spectacular violence — then lie about the circumstances, laugh at the victims, and refuse accountability — is likely to grow stronger as Trump weakens politically; after all, there will be more need for intimidation. Whether it’s blowing up fishermen in the Caribbean or parading masked men through schools like in Fallujah, the message is that anyone can become subject to arbitrary and irresponsible power. And — this is why it’s important to include the point about Noem’s apparent corruption — anarchy also removes restrictions on personal enrichment.
Smart would-be autocrats actually realize that they should, at least occasionally, do something to convince citizens that legality still exists and that bad actors will face consequences. The consolidation of power matters more to them than the kind of unabashed celebration of cruelty that only seems popular among Vance’s very online audience.
Some might worry that sanctioning Trumpists in the long run will only increase anarchy (and any desire to prevent midterm elections from being free and fair). This is not a crazy concern. But, of course, by this logic, one could just as easily abdicate responsibility altogether and admit that the initiative – and, ultimately, the power – now permanently rests with one’s political adversaries. More importantly, it seems, given their willingness to lie no matter what, members of this administration don’t need fact-based excuses to escalate — they do it anyway.
A good opposition party takes the lead in framing the issues — the same way the Republican Party did with its impeachment of Biden’s Homeland Security Secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas (an effort that failed to remove the man, but reinforced the idea that the situation at the border was out of control). A good opposition party forces its opponents to publicly declare whether they support killings with impunity. And good opposition gets the audience to focus on symbolic, revealing moments that everyone can see: the murder of a mother of three, the police officer then calmly walking away from the carnage he caused; the refusal of ICE agents to let a doctor approach the victim; and a DHS agent knocking over lit candles in Good’s memory, saying, “I don’t care.” »
