White House response to Impeach Obama petition

[Nightangel8212]

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov//response/short-answer-no-keep-reading

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Sorry, I can't stop laughing at the fact that they even TRIED this!! Had to share. Hope you find it as funny as I did.

[ironbite]

Someone used the White House petition site to start a petition to impeach the President....

Ironbite-oh....oh I need to sit down for awhile.

[Dakota Bob]

Thinking a petition on that site would get anything significant done, let alone get the fucking president impeached? Lulz.

[nickiknack]

This person who came up with this bright idea, is a special kind of stupid.

[Radiation]

This is pretty much on par of the one I seen last year demanding that the White House and President Obama disclose who are in the Illuminati and force them to disclose their plans as well as putting them on a public watch list.

Then again conspiracy theorists have abused that site and IIRC, wasn't there one where the site had be closed for a while because they were being inundated by conspiracy theorist requests?

[TheUnknown]

It's even more stupid when you consider that these people actually seem to think that if they reach a certain number of signatures, they can actually impeach the President, despite the fact that Obama also won the popular vote, meaning that the majority was in favor of him as President.  They're basically demanding that the country be controlled by what a minority of people want, which is exactly what they accuse "liberals" of trying to do."

Do they not know Obama also won the popular vote, or do they think that enough people have suddenly changed their opinions since the election?

[dpareja]

It's even more stupid when you consider that these people actually seem to think that if they reach a certain number of signatures, they can actually impeach the President, despite the fact that Obama also won the popular vote, meaning that the majority was in favor of him as President.  They're basically demanding that the country be controlled by what a minority of people want, which is exactly what they accuse "liberals" of trying to do."

Do they not know Obama also won the popular vote, or do they think that enough people have suddenly changed their opinions since the election?

Well, they might think that the people who a) voted for third-party candidates and b) did not vote at all might support them--those, plus Romney voters, do comprise a majority.

[chitoryu12]

I just don't get why people still think that petitions hold any kind of weight. Even in the presidential election, the popular vote isn't what gets you into office. The people who submit electoral votes would have to be stupid (or at least really, really dedicated to their party) to go against the popular vote for their state and risk not getting reelected, but the people still don't hold any sort of official power. Presidents have won the election while losing the popular vote.

And yet, despite not even having an official decision in deciding who gets to be the President of the United States, there are still far too many who seem to think that a petition with 500,000 signatures holds any kind of legal weight. "The population of a small town agrees with me, so you have to do what I say!"

[Askold]

Well the white house seems to insist that the petitions CAN get something done as long as they aren't goddamned retarted petitions.

But since the petitions that have gotten famous are the silly ones like "build a death star!" "Let ALL states seccede!" "Impeach Obama" etc. any good ideas are buried deep. And people only vote for the silly ones anyway.

I actually went there to see if there seem to be reasonable petitions as well:

"Better protect and recognize rape victims by making the FBI's definition of rape more inclusive" 695 votes

"Eliminate gerrymandering in every state by using an algorithm to design congressional districts." 1660 votes

"allow for 700ml (and other sized) bottles of distilled spirits to be imported for sale into the United States." 538 votes. Apparently current U.S. laws mean that foreign distilleries have to make special 750ml bottles for import to USA and since not everyone bothers there are many drinks that you can't get in USA.

"Look into state constitutions banning atheists from holding public office." 2976 votes. 7 states have such constitution.

etc.

[chitoryu12]

Well the white house seems to insist that the petitions CAN get something done as long as they aren't goddamned retarted petitions.

But since the petitions that have gotten famous are the silly ones like "build a death star!" "Let ALL states seccede!" "Impeach Obama" etc. any good ideas are buried deep. And people only vote for the silly ones anyway.

I actually went there to see if there seem to be reasonable petitions as well:

"Better protect and recognize rape victims by making the FBI's definition of rape more inclusive" 695 votes

"Eliminate gerrymandering in every state by using an algorithm to design congressional districts." 1660 votes

"allow for 700ml (and other sized) bottles of distilled spirits to be imported for sale into the United States." 538 votes. Apparently current U.S. laws mean that foreign distilleries have to make special 750ml bottles for import to USA and since not everyone bothers there are many drinks that you can't get in USA.

"Look into state constitutions banning atheists from holding public office." 2976 votes. 7 states have such constitution.

etc.

No matter how good an idea is, it's almost entirely dependent on the politicians' will to implement it. If they don't agree with something, they're under zero obligation to follow it no matter how many people demand that they do. They may put their careers in jeopardy if a large enough amount of people FROM THEIR AREA demand it and they patently refuse, but petitions otherwise have pretty much no weight.

Not to mention that very few petitions manage more than a few hundred thousand signatures at the most, which aren't all going to be from the relevant politicians' area of governance. No point petitioning the mayor of New York City when there's only 200,000 signatures for a petition related to a city of over 8 million (or less than 1% of the population) and 3000 of those signatures aren't even from residents and thus are effectively useless for determining its impact.

Petitions, especially in a country with several hundred million people, are really only useful if you manage to get a ridiculously large number of signatures (on the level of several million at a minimum) AND actually make a good point. A petition reading "Impeach the president because of this bullshit conspiracy theory" or "Ban atheists from life" is functionally useless even if you get the entire population of Wyoming to sign it, because the majority think you're an asshole and will ignore you. Or firebomb Wyoming.

[SimSim]

"Look into state constitutions banning atheists from holding public office." 2976 votes. 7 states have such constitution.

The Supreme Court has ruled that the first amendment applies to states, so those part of state constitutions don't matter.

[Random Gal]

"Look into state constitutions banning atheists from holding public office." 2976 votes. 7 states have such constitution.

The Supreme Court has ruled that the first amendment applies to states, so those part of state constitutions don't matter.

Even if it didn't, said state constitutions would still violate this:

no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.

[Askold]

"Look into state constitutions banning atheists from holding public office." 2976 votes. 7 states have such constitution.

The Supreme Court has ruled that the first amendment applies to states, so those part of state constitutions don't matter.

Even if it didn't, said state constitutions would still violate this:

no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.

So if it really is against the constitution then doesn't it mean that they should stop doing it? Shouldn't white house actually go tell those states to stop being idiots?

[SimSim]

Most of the state constitutions are old. It'd be different if states were trying to add those clauses now, or actually trying to enforce them. There are lots of state laws that aren't legal but since they aren't enforced they get ignored. I'm guessing that's the situation here.

I'm not sure that the White House can do anything, I think the Supreme Court would deal with the issue(but I'm not positive).

[dpareja]

Considering the response this petition probably deserved, I'm pretty impressed with whoever wrote that response.