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The impulse to add a presidential recall mechanism to the Constitution is understandable when accountability feels broken. But this piece makes a systems argument: you can't solve a collapse of norms by adding procedures that depend on those same norms to function. Impeachment isn't failing because the mechanism doesn't exist. It's failing because the people responsible for using it won't. A recall process would face the same problem.
I don't think the idea of a presidential recall is illegitimate. Amending the constitution is a valid process and proposing new rules is working within the current system. But the problem we are facing isn't a lack of tools. We already have impeachment. We have oversight, elections, and courts. They aren't failing because they don't exist. They're failing because the people responsible for enforcing them refuse to act in good faith. Any recall process would face the same dilemma. If the bar is low, it becomes destabilizing — people will just recall the president for any variety of reasons, many of which may not have anything to do with substance. If the bar is high as it should be, it's just as easy to capture and block as impeachment has been. You can't solve a collapse of norms by adding procedures that depend on those same norms to function. The issue isn't that we need another button. It's that the people assigned to press the existing ones just won't.