You can find a lot of discomforting things about the policies of the Bush Administration in many sectors of interest, but perhaps none so basic and so far-reaching and so disturbing as their attack on the US Constitution. Using the ramrod of the “war on terror” they have mounted what appears to be an all-out assault on some of our most basic freedoms. It seems that we are saved from the specter of another Caesar only by their astonishing military incompetence, which may yet lead to their wick being trimmed in this upcoming election.
I have before me, and I recommend to you, a report of the Cato Institute on the Bush Administration’s record on Constitutional matters, and it’s not a pretty read. Note please that the Cato Institute is not exactly a hotbed of liberalism, and one of the authors of this report had previously published a book entitled “Arrogance of Power Reborn: The Imperial Presidency and Foreign Policy in the Clinton Years.” So when these guys take on the current administration, it’s a real sign.
I can do no better than to quote from their summary. They conclude that we are faced with:
- “a federal government empowered to regulate core political speech—and restrict it greatly when it counts the most: in the days before a federal election;
- “a president who cannot be restrained, through validly enacted statutes, from pursuing any tactic he believes to be effective in the war on terror;
- “a president who has the inherent constitutional authority to designate American citizens suspected of terrorist activity as “enemy combatants,” strip them of any constitutional protection, and lock them up without charges for the duration of the war on terror— in other words, perhaps forever; and
- “a federal government with the power to supervise virtually every aspect of American life, from kindergarten, to marriage, to the grave.”
I guess its the near-discarding of the Great Writ, the writ of Habeas Corpus, that bothers me most. And make no mistake about it, they now have the legal authority to ignore habeas Corpus whenever they choose to do so.
What’s the solution to this? As I’ve watched this unfold over the last 5 years I’ve gradually come to the conclusion that the President is nothing more than a two-bit tyrant-wannabe surrounded by a great lot of drooling sycophants who think its great fun to play at government. They have distorted our economy by giving tax breaks during a war, and by allowing record-setting amounts of war profiteering by their corporate friends, debased our image as a beacon of freedom and liberty throughout the world, and now are attempting to strip us of the very liberties we are supposedly in Iraq and Afghanistan to defend.
They should be thrown out, the lot of them — the administration, the congress, the whole bunch. We would be better off with legislators chosen via a random draft.
I know you have chatted it up with my dad once and I am not sure what the two of you discussed, but you may be surprised to know that while he hands us a copy of Sleeping Eagle Press’s “Organic Sovereign American Freeman Compendium” to read -as we have been investigating the legitimacy of Federal Income Tax, SSN’s, and various other mandates of the Federal Government and the roles of States in government (to a degree or seven deeper than what they tech you in even college anymore)- he is at the same time telling us what a great nation this is with an intelligent leader who is quite possibly the “best president since our Founding Fathers”. I nearly choked on my coffee when he said that last little bit.
In three words, we are terrified.
One of the great mysteries of life to me is how Bush II has managed to extract such devoted support from sectors of the population that his policies have hurt the most. The middle class has been crucified by his economic and military actions and the bill for most of this is yet to come due. He has expanded the reach of the Federal government in an unprecedented degree into areas that are clearly not constitutional and for some reason he’s being allowed to do this not only by Congress but by the electorate who seem either to not understand or to not care as long as he mouths different words from what he’s doing.
That is the very thing I have said to my dad followed by “tell me what he has done for you, dad?” He cannot name a thing, except for hardships of the past few years, yet devotion remains. OY.
It’s excellent PR management. The Administration has been on-message consistently and completely throughout, and the message is one that is not based on the reality of their actions. Unfortunately, most of the people who are being creamed by their policies don’t seem to have the drive to actually look to see what’s happening, so when the PR machine says “you have never had it better” they just believe it, even though their real wages are dropping. They’ve also created a number of phantom hot-button social items such as gay marriage, around which they’ve convinced people that only they will preserve the American Way of Life, and again they’re believed because they keep repeating the same simplistic mantra over and over and over.