Editor's Note: Many Americans seem to have forgotten the spirit of integrity, the courage - and the sense of outrage over the British Crown's abuses of power - that led to the founding of the Republic. Instead, we have seen a lazy acquiescence to the many crimes of another imperious prince, George W. Bush, and the courtiers who surrounded him.
In this "Declaration of Indictment," David Swanson of Afterdowningstreet.org adapts the outrages of President Bush to the style of the Declaration of Independence:
IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 2009
The unanimous Declaration of the fifty united States of America
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with a gang of lawless thugs and insist on the appointment of a special prosecutor to enforce the laws of the land even against those until recently holding the reins of Power, a decent respect to the opinions of humankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the Prosecution.
We hold these truths to be the foundation of our Constitution and therefore of the U.S. Code of law, that all men and women are considered equal, that they are given by the laws they have created certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
- That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men and Women, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, - That whenever the high officials of any Government become destructive of these ends, and when that Government refuses to correct itself through impeachment, expulsion, and other checks and balances, it is the Right of the People to demand the prosecution of the criminals and to refuse subservience to that Government until this Demand is met, and thereby to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that high Government officials should not be charged for light and transient causes, nor should amorous affairs enter the consideration of responsible governance; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that humankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government by prosecuting the chief offenders, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
- Such has been the patient sufferance of these fifty states; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to insist upon the appointment of an independent Counsel to prosecute the following criminal acts. The history of the recent rule of George W. Bush, abetted if not directed by Richard B. Cheney, is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden the Congress to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws.
He has made Judges and Prosecutors dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
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