Next must-read book:
How Would a Patriot Act? Defending American Values from a President Run Amok by Glenn Greenwald
How Would a Patriot Act? is one man’s story of being galvanized into action to defend America’s founding principles, and a reasoned argument for what must be done. Greenwald’s penetrating words should inspire a nation to defend the Constitution from a president who secretly bestowed upon himself the powers of a monarch. If we are to remain a constitutional republic, Greenwald writes, we cannot abide radical theories of executive power, which are transforming the very core of our national character, and moving us from democracy toward despotism. This is not hyperbole. This is the crisis all Americans—liberals and conservatives–now face.
In the spirit of the colonists who once mustered the strength to denounce a king, Greenwald invites us to consider: How would a patriot act today?
This is something that’s been on my mind for a while. I keep thinking of the accusations against King George III in the Declaration of Independence, and the hopeful but impractical list of impeachable offenses against President Georgie II… and thinking they sound a lot alike.
And here’s something that’s been bothering me: if the Administration has spent the last 5 1/2 years concentrating power in the Executive Branch, and has deliberately sidelined the Legislative (and possibly the Judicial) Branch, how does that square with leaving office as constitutionally mandated in 2008? Or is that part of the Constitution insufficiently protective of national security, too?
I keep hoping for a return to relative normalcy, post-2008 — that the electorate will be sick and tired enough of this administration that neither candidate (and certainly not the successful one) will be inclined to follow his constitutional lead.
That said, the precedents set will come back to haunt us for many decades.
I am not, that all said, too worried about whether 2008 will be the end of the Bush presidency — if only because people were all in a tizzy about that in 2004, too (and I can remember folks worried, on the other side, that Clinton would declare martial law around Y2K and take over the nation).
That said, 2008 (or, properly, 2009) can’t come soon enough, and hopefully the 2006 elections will be a clear legislative “beginning of the end.”
I am certainly hoping for a return to rationalism, but that’s probably hoping TOO much.