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Is the constitution a dead document walking?
There are very few members of congress with the intelligence, the focus, the moral courage or the understanding of the foundations of the very nation they purport to serve to know what to do and to do it in this, the defining crisis of the century to the United States. Very few. The leaders of the House and Senate do not understand that if they do not forcefully push for impeachment of Dick Cheney and George Bush; if they choose to allow them to serve out their lame duck terms, depending on backlash against administration crimes to elect a democrat as president in 2008, it will not matter who wins the presidency. Because the constitution will be dead, destroyed by the unbelievable and unbelievably stupid actions Cheney and Bush have taken in the service of their selfish, ignorant and arrogant political agenda.
It is difficult to even chronicle all of the secretive, manipulative, unethical, unlawful actions they have taken in order to transfer power from the other formerly co-equal branches of government to the “privileged” executive. What has been revealed thus far is frightening enough. What is as yet unrevealed because of the unprecedented level of non-transparent operations within the offices of the president and vice-president is the real horror story. What they are hiding behind their stubborn, trapped-animal reactions to the legitimate need of congress and the people to know what this administration is doing, is an Orwellian nightmare that will make Islamic extremist terrorism seem like child’s play. If these two are allowed to continue to stonewall congress for the remainder of Bush’s term, we will never see behind the iron curtain of secrecy to discover just how much of the constitution has been destroyed and just how imperial the executive has become. By January, 2009, it will not matter a pigtail’s whit who the next occupant of the Oval Office is, the damage will done. The constitution and the republic Benjamin Franklin challenged us to keep will be gone. Because what electee could resist keeping and wielding huge executive power if it is handed to him or her. Could we trust our new president to restore the balance of power to our democracy upon election? Not likely, if his or her political party has no understanding of or care for the constitution. Not if that party is focused only on politics and not on country.
What pundits and lamestream media analysts with their polls and statistics about the popularity of the president, vice-president and congress do not understand about the mood of the public right now is that we hold them all in contempt because they are ALL politicians. Politicians think politically, use politics to achieve their aims and narrowly focus on winning public office. None of them understand that we fear for our democracy and that if a democratic congress does not hold this administration’s feet to the fire we will find a way to fire them all. Republicans cannot gleefully exult in a poll that shows a congress less popular than the president. It is less popular because members of congress, by and large have no idea what the constitution is or care about the survival of our system of government enough to impeach an administration that is murdering it and our republican democracy.
This democratic congress does not have the courage to use the tool given to it by the founding fathers to thwart a power grab by an unscrupulous administration. It does not have the courage to impeach. Forget filibusters, veto overrides, republican defections, subpoenas, committee hearings, investigations and even the “power of the purse”. They will not work. They are band aids applied to mortal wounds. Even if they succeed in curbing the ambitions of the Cheney/Bush neocon administration, or in beginning a troop withdrawal from Iraq, they will not stop nor even stem the blood flow of power from the legislative and judicial branches to the executive and the establishment of a constitution-free form of government. Impeachment is the constitutional remedy. It is the only remedy that will save the constitution. Men and women of the House and Senate must understand that their positions are meaningless in a world without the constitution. While there is one left they need to use it to expose the secret machinations of the Bush administration to the light of day. As a lesson to all who would covet and amass absolute power, there must be a price to pay and at the very least, it should be expulsion from office.
The nation demands impeachment. Without it the constitution is a dead document walking.
