The founders of our country were convinced that impeachment was so essential a component of democracy that it is mentioned specifically six times in our constitution. When the usual checks and balances fail to reign in tyrannical leadership, impeachment is the tool available to restore that balance. Thomas Jefferson said, "I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves, and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them but to inform their discretion by education."
This book provides an excellent reminder of the history and uses of impeachment both in the United States and elsewhere, detailing its derailment by legislators who think it better to "wait for the next election" or a populace unwilling to support such an action against a popular leader. Nichols warns that an expansion of executive powers in one administration tends to permit continuing expansions in subsequent administrations with unfortunate consequences for the future of our democratic government.
"It is time," Nichols writes, "to renew the familiarity of the American people not merely with the concept of impeachment, but with its glorious potential to serve as the truest corrective of abuses of constitutional power, and the surest weapon in the defense of the republic."