The American people MUST be given the opportunity to declare whether or not they still believe in limited government, in checks and balances, in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Unless Democrats are willing to campaign on this simple point, to raise public awareness and public outcry of the implications of the legislation just passed, one cannot rely upon the Courts to intervene, as much as we might like them to. After all, the Courts will not case in which the appellant does not have standing, and to have standing you would have to be in custody and denied access to the Courts - Catch-22 anyone?
You are, so long as this law is on the books, now in a dictatorship. Okay, let's label it properly - we have a new euphemism -- you are now in a Decidership, there is only one Decider and he pretends that he is still a president under a Constitution.
This diary will probably disappear in the midst of the fully on diaries on this subject, most of which will be more cogent than one I cut turn out in the few minutes before I must turn to sleep - I get up in less than 6 hours for my next school day, in which I am supposed to teach lessons on a Constitutional government - I may no longer be able to do so, not because I am unwilling to teach, but because so long as this law stands the Constitution has become meaningless.
That is why this should be the SOLE issue on which honorable Democrats campaign. This administration and this Republican Congress are willing to gut the Constitution. The president as Decider has the sole power to determine if you or I are enemy combatants - even though we are American citizens within the boundaries of a nation in theory under a Constitution and a Bill of Rights. If he determines that our actions are aiding the enemy he can easily now lock us up as his minions have denied entrance to the US to an eminent Islamic scholar merely because that man contributed to a charity which then used some of the many funds contributed to it for purposes we have unilaterally declared to be terroristic. If such is the standard, Princess Haifa, wife of former Saudi Ambassador to the US Prince Bandar should be arrested and charged as an enemy combatant, since some of the funds used by some of the hijackers originated from her contributions.
And given the increased access to all forms of telecommunications this administration asserts and this Congress seems willing to grant, any communication any of us even reads - including this post on dailykos - could be interpreted by an unchecked Decider as aiding terrorist enemies and used as a basis to arrest and detain indefinitely anyone of us. Let the administration deny that they do not under this legislation have that power, at least in theory. And since this administration has often claimed in practice powers for which there is no theoretical justification, we cannot expect that they will do other than exercise all possible powers to fullest extend that they deem "necessary."
If you think my alluding to possible retribution for reading a site such as this, one merely need listen to the words of the Decider denigrating those Democrats who opposed this power grab.
Of course the Bill is Unconstitutional. If it is not, then the Constitution is meaningless. But then, this administration is prepared to deny Marbury v Madison if it stands in the way of their exercising power, rendering moot the words Marshall offered to justify ruling part of the Judiciary Act unconstitutional.
Godwin's Law is now obsolete -- it was repealed by the actions of the current Congress in passing this legislation. Let me offer a caution - the only reason Nazi comparisons are inappropriate is that they are insufficient - Hitler never had the power to destroy any and every country in the world. We might not have the manpower to invade Iraq, but we still have the nuclear weapons and delivery systems that enable us to wreak total devastation on any nation that dares to oppose us, and we now have had our equivalent, as another diarist pointed out today, of the Enabling Act that removed any further check upon the grandiosity and obscenity of Hitler's visions for his rule.
If we believe in democracy, then we must take this issue to the American people. Those running for office who have any courage MUST make this the only issue that matters - are we going to insist on a government of laws and not of men, of laws restricted by the overarching construction of a Constitution and Bill of Rights which were designed to prevent such arrogation of powers into the hands of the executive? If we make the case forcefully and cannot persuade the American people, then the nation will rightfully have abandoned its heritage, and we will know that thoughtful people should no longer feel obligated to be loyal to this country and would be well advised to seek shelter elsewhere.
I believe in democracy. I believe that if we clearly and forcefully present the case, we can rally the American people.
If we do not believe that we can rally the people, then we have no choice but to admit that we do not believe in democracy. If we do not believe in democracy, then the efforts I and many others have been making this cycle - in funds, in time, in blood, sweat and tears - would have been worse than pointless.
I apologize that I cannot be coherent. I wish I had the gift of expression of some of the other diarists here. But I also cannot be silent. And so, before I am declared an enemy combatant, I hereby commit to speak - and write - as loudly as I can on this subject to all who will listen and even to those who will not. The actions of the Congress are an abandonment of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Anyone who believes in the kind of government we have had - with all of its flaws - since 1789 MUST oppose the administration and its supporters. If we do not, then we acquiesce in tyranny.
I would rather die than so acquiesce. I am prepared to die, I am prepared to be tortured, knowing that under torture I might abjure. I am prepared to be outcast, scorned, denigrated. But I will not be silent, and I will not be ignored.
What about you?