Consider the purpose of city government: to deal with specific local issues in order to improve a city at its basic levels. Apparently, the Madison City Council thinks its role includes trying to remove the top executive public official in the country from office. On Sept. 4, the same council postponed local politics in favor of dealing with matters unrelated to Madison.
They stayed late into the night to discuss and vote on a resolution calling for the impeachment of President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. The audacity required for such an action is outstanding. Today, they could possibly return to the resolution and even repeat a vote for it.
These proceedings are unnecessary, brazen and wasteful. Beside the obvious fact that such a demand is well beyond the authority of the council, the time and resources spent on this proposal should have been spent on concerns directly related to the city of Madison.
Presidential impeachment is neither a local nor a city issue. Therefore, the City Council should remain focused on other important issues that are exclusive to Madison. Safety and crime are two of the most important concerns in this city. Solving these problems requires valuable time and resources, so it would be prudent not to waste time on national issues such as impeachment. The alders that withheld their vote on the measure rightfully recognize their public role and don't extend their position to matters beyond the city.
Council members have a responsibility to try to improve Madison, a responsibility that doesn't include publicly arraying themselves to make a statement about national politics.
If council members wish to express their political opinions privately, that's their business, but doing it at the expense of public time and money is disrespectful to Madison residents who could otherwise be helped.
Should the resolution even pass, it would have no tangible effects. It's a meaningless measure for some alders to claim some sort of moral victory for themselves, instead of remaining focused on Madison residents.
In voting on such a resolution, indeed even by discussing it, the council also alienated any Madison residents who may happen to support the President. Even though most of Madison does not support the current presidency, the council disrespects those that do with their vote.
While it's not the duty of the council to only discuss matters that every citizen agrees upon, the council members did not include their presidential views in their platforms during elections. The public did not vote these council members into office because of their desire to impeach the president, or any disposition toward the president.
This action is clearly beyond the city's authoritative reach. The government is structured on multiple levels for very good reasons. The federal and state levels take on matters that are too large for local authorities to handle, but they don't handle many minor concerns; dealing with every local issue would consume more time than they have.
Likewise, local and city officials aren't capable of handling national issues, but instead are able to cover the many things that affect people's day-to-day lives more directly.
The council's discussion of impeachment challenges the limits of which issues city officials should attend to.
I value freedom of speech, and I do not wish to say that the council should not have the right to discuss, or even pass, this resolution. However, I consider it an inefficient exercise of power. I'm not concerned with whether the City Council is right or wrong in their desire to have the president impeached, but instead in the placement of their priorities.
Brian Bisek is a sophomore with an undecided major. Please send responses to opinion@dailycardinal.com._
