But the debate over torture brings us to a bottom line over the Bush administration in relation to national security. Here's Deputy Press Secretary Tony Fratto speaking today.
It's troubling . . . I've had the awful responsibility to have to work with the New York Times and other news organizations on stories that involve the release of classified information. And I can tell you that every time I've dealt with any of these stories, I have felt that we have chipped away at the safety and security of America with the publication of this kind of information.
Like Fratto, I reflect on the ways in which "the safety and security of America" is being compromised every time I see these stories. But I view the Bush administration and the right-wing as the ones who are chipping away at American security. The Bush administration's war in Iraq, refusal to cooperate with other American political institutions, and relentless defiance of American and international law have all served to strengthen global terrorism and weaken American capacities for dealing with global terror.
At the same time, the political fights over the Bush administration's conduct of the war on terror have revealed that the right-wing is more of a threat to American society than the global jihadis. What has emerged is that the right-wing has little respect for American democracy and that major figures on the right like Newt Gingrich and Thomas Sowell are thinking about how democracy can be overthrown in this country. With their ideas of creating military tribunals for trying and imprisoning war opponents, activists on the right have even worked out a "constitutional" mechanism for ending American democracy as we know it.
It's impossible to separate the Bush administration from the right-wing. Efforts by the Bush administration to nullify laws against torture show the same contempt for American democracy that's shown by the chatter on the right about military tribunals, one-man rule in this country, or curtailing the First Amendment. They represent an effort to chip away at the democratic character of Amerian government and society.
And it strikes me that the Bush administration's and the right's efforts to strike at democracy represent a greater threat to this country than global terrorism.
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“It is better that ten guilty escape than one innocent suffer”-Sir William Blackstone.
"it strikes me that the Bush administration's and the right's efforts to strike at democracy represent a greater threat to this country than global terrorism."
It 'strikes' you that way because it is true.
For example; The Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution prohibits unreasonable search and seizures stating, “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the places to be searched and the persons or things to be seized." The USA Patriot Act violates this Amendment as well as the first, and parts of...I believe the ninth. All this is a clear pursuit of a police state. That would certainly be a greater threat than the terrorism that right-wing leaders claim they are trying to protect us from.
The danger here is not unlike the situation Cicero described in "Letters to his brother Quintus". Cicero recognised that the end of the Republic was inevitable. He said this,“the Republic, the Senate, the law courts are mere ciphers and that not one of us has any constitutional position at all.”
We are fortunate in the year 2007 in that it is not too late to reverse the disasterous constitutional crisis into which right-wing leaders have sent us careening like a runaway train.
Course correction has already begun; first with the 2006 mid-term elections after which our nation was blessed with a Democratic House and a [more or less] Democratic Senate.
Next year the Democratic party, and by extension will achieve further success by more gains in the US Senate and the House as well as the White House. So there is hope that we will be rescued from the six-year relentless pursuit of total suspension of our Constitution.
If we can hold out we just might make it.
Hyperbole often? You guys make Sully and the Gleens appear to be level headed.
Todd, up the meds.
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