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• Friday, July 25, 2008 12:29 PM

  Raises many interesting issues

  I happen to be reading Liberty's Blueprint by Michael Meyerson about how James Madison and Alexander Hamilton (and John Jay) wrote the Federalist Papers. It makes you realize that the continuation of our government is far from certain. The Founding Fathers (and mothers) tried hard to ensure that a balance of powers would mitigate the inevitable human urge towards dictatorship.

  Yet here we are, in 2008, wondering what happens to our government when the Executive branch refuses to balance its powers with Congress, Congress refuses to exercise its powers in a meaningful way, the courts are heavily packed with judges who agree with the Executive view on issues (since 1981), and the major media outlets are owned by giant corporations who view news as entertainment (as narrative based more than fact based).

  And don't forget the continuity of government issue, which reflects the Reagan/Bush view of Executive power, not the Founding Fathers view of balanced power. Remember, Washington DC was sacked and burned by the British in 1812. I don't recall the US government response was to arrest citizens, ignore Congress, and all the rest. During the Civil War, Lincoln made a point of seizing extraordinary powers then giving them back to Congress. There should be, in other words, alternate views of how the government should function in emergencies. The Bush/Cheney view is simply one very dark, very authoritarian and anti-democratic option.

  I don't see Obama changing any of this, especially if he takes counsel from Cass Sunstein (sp?) and the like. And what can citizens do if, as noted above, the balance of power fails in our constitutional system? Not much. We have to rely on the tender mercies of Reid, Pelosi, Hoyer, Rockefeller, and the rest. You know how that has turned out so far.

  I don't hold much hope citizens will get their government back. Far more likely is continued dictatorship with the sheen of democracy. We'll get to vote. But we won't get to stop the spying, stop the corporate giveaways, stop the endless wars, and all the rest. And there'll be two tiers of justice, a punitive one for citizens and lax Scooter justice for those in power and the corporations and individuals who support them.

  We're already there, today, thanks to Bush, the Congress, the courts, the media, and corporations. The question is whether tomorrow will be any different. Unlike the Revolutionary War, most citizens in this country are not riled up, not protective of their legitimate interests. So the federal government will continue to get what it wants.

  —fred!head Read fred!head's other letters
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