The Great American Experiment is Over
Robyn Blumner is a columnist for my hometown newspaper, the St. Petersburg Times, and she always has something interesting to say. But in yesterday’s column, she shook me to the bones with her essay on the end of “The Great American Experiment in Liberty.”
“Did you hear that click, like the turning of a dial, auguring a new America?
It happened on Sept. 29 at 2:47 p.m. That was the seismic minute that Congress passed the Military Commissions Act and formally granted President Bush royal powers he had been unilaterally arrogating. The historic action may one day be remembered as the moment the great American experiment in liberty ended. It was a good run.
You see, it is one thing for a renegade executive to crown himself like Charlemagne and declare that his (cough) wisdom is exceptional enough to designate Americans and foreigners as enemies to be detained indefinitely. It is quite another for 315 members of Congress to go along. When the people’s representatives collude to collapse the separation of powers into one omnipotent executive, our nation becomes defined by that act….
The right to habeas corpus, which is the ability to get before a judge to challenge the legitimacy of your imprisonment, is nonnegotiable. Congress may suspend habeas corpus only in cases of invasion or rebellion, according to the express terms of the Constitution.
But Congress has now eliminated habeas rights for noncitizens not in response to a massive invasion, but an amorphous “global war on terror” where the enemy is anyone seeking to do us or our friends harm….
Bush will be free to determine what abuses by interrogators do not rise to the level of “humiliating and degrading treatment.” Then detainees will be barred from court to challenge that treatment.
The law is a true abomination. It is our fault. We let this happen. We allowed them to draw the false dichotomy between security and freedom. We accepted Bush’s Torture Nation and his untouchable island prison.
Judge Learned Hand said “Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; if it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it.” Americans no longer understand what liberty means. They think it has something to do with tax-free shopping and their right never to be offended by others’ opinions.
E Pluribus Unum be damned. Here’s America’s new motto: If we can’t pronounce your name, we don’t care what happens to you. Now let us get back to our Happy Meals.
How was your lunch?
Date: October 9, 2006
Categories: homeland insecurity, liberty, politics, republicans
(487 votes, average: 2.96 out of 5)
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