A New Way - Safeguarding the Constitution
This is the third of a series of articles exploring the creation of
The Independence Party
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Life and Liberty depend upon more than the good wishes of our fellow citizens, and upon more than the promises of their safekeeping by our governmental officeholders. The former has never been a strong assurance, for we have seen riots, and lynchings, and private corporate armies set loose upon labor organizers. We have killed one another in fits of anger and disagreement. The Founders held little confidence in comity among our populace. Laws were required, but they also knew that laws set loose upon our People without clear limitations on their scope were, and would always be, a far greater risk to the Nation than anarchy. Their words are clear, and have been reaffirmed in public oaths of allegiance to uphold them, by every Federal officeholder since the Constitution of the United States of America was ratified as the Founding Law upon which all our laws are based. George Bush's defiling comment that It is a "God-Damn piece of paper" notwithstanding, the Constitution will withstand him as well, though the time frame is open to question. On May 9, 2007, the President signed a document titled "National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive" which purports to convey special powers and responsibilities upon persons under him in the case of a "catastrophic emergency", ... to be defined by him at the time. It feigns concern that the underlying Constitutional foundations of our Nation would be at risk in times of such a designated emergency. The document then goes on to convey special over-reaching authority upon executive branch designates, and assures "comity" among the designated branches laid out in the constitutional founding of our nation will be upheld. The lower case "c" reference, in itself, to the Constitution puts the lie to what this document sets out to do, or attempts to do. It attempts to lay to rest any concerns that the Legislative and Judicial branches might be rendered worthless and toothless, when in truth they are rendered lifeless of any resemblance to the Balance of Constitutional Powers as set forth by its authors.
What the "NATIONAL SECURITY PRESIDENTIAL DIRECTIVE/NSPD 51" does at its heart is to grant license to George Bush as the first dictator of the United States of America, without Legislative authority or Judicial oversight of any kind whatsoever. He says when it begins, and he says when it ends. During his "catastrophic emergency" he could lock the Senate doors and ban the House of Representatives from even meeting in session. He could preclude any actions by the citizenry, and there is nothing whatsoever in it that precludes the suspension of elections across our Nation. Nothing in it precludes him from declaring an emergency of his own making, either, such as an unprovoked attack upon Iran, and the aftermath which would follow.
It is typical of the Right Wing in American politics these days to exaggerate the threats to the American People which exist at this moment in our history. As much as they love to cling to the Founders' pant legs, they seem to have ignored the sacrifices which were, and have always been, made by our generations of forebears.
Before the Constitution was the law of America, The Declaration of Independence was an overt collective act of Treason against the Crown of England. The 56 signers placed every life they loved, and all the property they owned in peril by writing those words, and placing their signatures and seals to them. For those who survived, there would come other wars. In 1812 our Capitol and the very White House, which Bush calls home until he ends his term, were burned during the occupation by the British. The American Civil War raged across wide swaths of our Nation, costing over 600,000 American lives, more than all wars to which our Nation has ever been party, all lost on our land and waters among and between our fathers. World War I, World War II, the Korean War, The Viet Nam War, and the First Persian Gulf War, ... all left cleaving marks across our land in loss of life, disruptions of lives and families, and the rendering of our political beliefs across our Nation to this day. Every one of these wars, ... EVERY one, ... caused America to bleed. More importantly, every war visited upon America or caused by Her, in the 220 years since the Constitution was adopted, have been "catastrophic emergencies". Nothing will occur in Bush's final months that we can not survive as a Nation, as long as the Constitutional Balances remain intact! Nothing this Homo de minimus could achieve, even if given another 8 years, could ever give him a run at historical importance or achievement of anything approaching a Coolidge, let alone a Lincoln, stature in the history books. It will be highly unlikely that historians will fully distinguish one Bush from the other, in the end, so to speak.
Sadly, George W. Bush could never withstand a calamity the scope or size of any, or even part, of the disasters this country has already often survived, long before he was anointed President by the Supreme Court. The Constitution for which he holds so much childish disdain was MADE to survive just such misadventures and misdeeds as these, and more. In fact, It was made to survive HIS PRESIDENCY in particular; this is not because It grants him or his contemptible clan special powers, but because it does not. George W. Bush has saved us from NOTHING in his time in office, except perhaps from the truth.
In the end, every President of the United States has worked for the People of the United States, and never the reverse. That this President has done nothing for us in turn, is our own fault, but should never, in the end, become our undoing as a People, unless we allow that to occur. While there are risks in the world, and some would do us harm, that is not something our fathers and mothers did not face in spades. Perhaps now is the first and only time that the greatest risk came from within, ... from our own officeholders rather than from enemies abroad. We know, and must face, that this man will never be a true President to our People. What we must guard against more than any other risk, is that as time grows short on this man's time in the White House, that he will not lay ruin to something which cost our parents so much to create and protect! Our parents and our grandparents are no longer here to assure he will not take away what many of them have died to protect for us. It is our turn to act as Americans and to protect what we have been given as our birthright. I do not yet know what form or force that protection will require of us. I fear that we may all be about to discover that in ourselves, as our parents did in their own lives.
The Independence Party
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Life and Liberty depend upon more than the good wishes of our fellow citizens, and upon more than the promises of their safekeeping by our governmental officeholders. The former has never been a strong assurance, for we have seen riots, and lynchings, and private corporate armies set loose upon labor organizers. We have killed one another in fits of anger and disagreement. The Founders held little confidence in comity among our populace. Laws were required, but they also knew that laws set loose upon our People without clear limitations on their scope were, and would always be, a far greater risk to the Nation than anarchy. Their words are clear, and have been reaffirmed in public oaths of allegiance to uphold them, by every Federal officeholder since the Constitution of the United States of America was ratified as the Founding Law upon which all our laws are based. George Bush's defiling comment that It is a "God-Damn piece of paper" notwithstanding, the Constitution will withstand him as well, though the time frame is open to question. On May 9, 2007, the President signed a document titled "National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive" which purports to convey special powers and responsibilities upon persons under him in the case of a "catastrophic emergency", ... to be defined by him at the time. It feigns concern that the underlying Constitutional foundations of our Nation would be at risk in times of such a designated emergency. The document then goes on to convey special over-reaching authority upon executive branch designates, and assures "comity" among the designated branches laid out in the constitutional founding of our nation will be upheld. The lower case "c" reference, in itself, to the Constitution puts the lie to what this document sets out to do, or attempts to do. It attempts to lay to rest any concerns that the Legislative and Judicial branches might be rendered worthless and toothless, when in truth they are rendered lifeless of any resemblance to the Balance of Constitutional Powers as set forth by its authors.
What the "NATIONAL SECURITY PRESIDENTIAL DIRECTIVE/NSPD 51" does at its heart is to grant license to George Bush as the first dictator of the United States of America, without Legislative authority or Judicial oversight of any kind whatsoever. He says when it begins, and he says when it ends. During his "catastrophic emergency" he could lock the Senate doors and ban the House of Representatives from even meeting in session. He could preclude any actions by the citizenry, and there is nothing whatsoever in it that precludes the suspension of elections across our Nation. Nothing in it precludes him from declaring an emergency of his own making, either, such as an unprovoked attack upon Iran, and the aftermath which would follow.
It is typical of the Right Wing in American politics these days to exaggerate the threats to the American People which exist at this moment in our history. As much as they love to cling to the Founders' pant legs, they seem to have ignored the sacrifices which were, and have always been, made by our generations of forebears.
Before the Constitution was the law of America, The Declaration of Independence was an overt collective act of Treason against the Crown of England. The 56 signers placed every life they loved, and all the property they owned in peril by writing those words, and placing their signatures and seals to them. For those who survived, there would come other wars. In 1812 our Capitol and the very White House, which Bush calls home until he ends his term, were burned during the occupation by the British. The American Civil War raged across wide swaths of our Nation, costing over 600,000 American lives, more than all wars to which our Nation has ever been party, all lost on our land and waters among and between our fathers. World War I, World War II, the Korean War, The Viet Nam War, and the First Persian Gulf War, ... all left cleaving marks across our land in loss of life, disruptions of lives and families, and the rendering of our political beliefs across our Nation to this day. Every one of these wars, ... EVERY one, ... caused America to bleed. More importantly, every war visited upon America or caused by Her, in the 220 years since the Constitution was adopted, have been "catastrophic emergencies". Nothing will occur in Bush's final months that we can not survive as a Nation, as long as the Constitutional Balances remain intact! Nothing this Homo de minimus could achieve, even if given another 8 years, could ever give him a run at historical importance or achievement of anything approaching a Coolidge, let alone a Lincoln, stature in the history books. It will be highly unlikely that historians will fully distinguish one Bush from the other, in the end, so to speak.
Sadly, George W. Bush could never withstand a calamity the scope or size of any, or even part, of the disasters this country has already often survived, long before he was anointed President by the Supreme Court. The Constitution for which he holds so much childish disdain was MADE to survive just such misadventures and misdeeds as these, and more. In fact, It was made to survive HIS PRESIDENCY in particular; this is not because It grants him or his contemptible clan special powers, but because it does not. George W. Bush has saved us from NOTHING in his time in office, except perhaps from the truth.
In the end, every President of the United States has worked for the People of the United States, and never the reverse. That this President has done nothing for us in turn, is our own fault, but should never, in the end, become our undoing as a People, unless we allow that to occur. While there are risks in the world, and some would do us harm, that is not something our fathers and mothers did not face in spades. Perhaps now is the first and only time that the greatest risk came from within, ... from our own officeholders rather than from enemies abroad. We know, and must face, that this man will never be a true President to our People. What we must guard against more than any other risk, is that as time grows short on this man's time in the White House, that he will not lay ruin to something which cost our parents so much to create and protect! Our parents and our grandparents are no longer here to assure he will not take away what many of them have died to protect for us. It is our turn to act as Americans and to protect what we have been given as our birthright. I do not yet know what form or force that protection will require of us. I fear that we may all be about to discover that in ourselves, as our parents did in their own lives.
Protecting ideas requires understanding them. Protecting your rights demands that you know what they are. Go here for a start!
posted by TheIndependenceParty at Tuesday, June 12, 2007
1 Comments:
What a great resource!
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