History has shown us that if you grant more police and surveillance powers to those in charge of law and order -- and if there is no effective oversight mechanism in place -- those powers will be abused. This is as true under the Bush Administration as it was in ancient Rome and in Hitler's Germany.

In other words, if you build an authoritarian structure, they will come.

If ignorant and/or insecure bullies are appointed as administrators, or as prison guards, or as surveillance experts, you should not be shocked when they exceed their authority and run roughshod over the rights, civil liberties and privacy of citizens under their control.

That's what authoritarian types do -- and, as key experiments have shown, even non-authoritarian types on occasion when they are put into similar positions of untrammeled power. ("Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." -- Lord Acton.)

BREAKING POWER UP INTO PIECES

The fact that CheneyBush have nearly a full two years to go until the next president is inaugurated (unless they're impeached and removed before that) is creating political frustration and tension in the body politic: If truth be known, a great majority of Americans, Democrat and Republican, would be happy if Bush and Cheney and Rove just resigned now, disappeared, left, vamoosed into the night. 

But that is not likely to happen. In the period until they are gone, they can carry out further depradations on the Constitution and launch more military wars abroad, and seem determined to do both. And, in their back pocket is their statuatory authorization to declare martial law ( click here ) whenever they see fit. Shame on those who voted to give the Administration such police-state powers!

SOME REASONS FOR HOPE

But the news is not all bad. Current events offer some encouragement and issues to use in helping turn this ship around:

1. The Opposition. The Democrats, after more than six years divorced from the reins of power, are slowly, fitfully, almost reluctantly at times, moving toward becoming an actual "opposition party." But they seem unsure how far and fast to proceed in righting the balance among the three branches of government, both in terms of ending the Iraq War (and prohibiting a likely attack on Iran) and, domestically, in restoring many of the protections guaranteed under the Constitution and Bill of Rights -- such as habeas corpus -- that have been ignored or decimated by the Bush Administration.

True, the Dem leadership is moving in fits and starts in such directions -- almost as if they aren't willing to admit to themselves how desperate the situation really is in this country -- and can't seem to shake their timidity-addiction, but they face enormous obstacles within their own ranks, and from an Executive that doesn't mind fighting back and fighting dirty.

Still, despite their slow-as-molasses progress, the Dems are beginning to move in the right direction on some issues and should be thanked and encouraged to do more. Corollary: The Dems should be slammed upside the head on other issues where they become enablers of CheneyBush's reckless, dangerous policies, especially with regard to Iraq and Iran.

THE U.S. ATTORNEYS SCANDAL

2. The Fired U.S. Attorneys. When the Democrats do manage to unite on key issues, and bring enough moderate-Republican allies along with them, the Bush Administration has shown that it will back down. Case in point: They've backtracked on aspects of the fired U.S. attorneys scandal. After one of the most embarrassingly contorted spin campaigns ever about why the U.S. attorneys were fired, A.G. Alberto Gonzales finally said the Bush Administration will alter its way of appointing new U.S. attorneys, and will accept limitations on its ability to appoint interim ones.

It did the heart good to see Gonzales get roughed up by both Democratic and Republican senators on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and for him to eat some humble pie in public, admitting to gross mistakes. Doesn't happen often with this crew, which makes the rare times when they do own up to their bad policies all the more delicious.

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