The great political myth of 2006 was that if only we could get a Democratic controlled Congress in place, the problems created by the Bush White House would be solved. Progressives across America dedicated themselves to electing Democrats in their home districts in an unprecedented rush of attention to and participation in congressional politics.
Well, now the Democratic Congress has been in place for a month, and some good has been done. Yet, on the most important issues of the day, the Iraq War and the restoration of liberty, the Democrats in Congress have been dawdling and impotent.
On the Iraq War, all we got from the Democratic Congress is a failed resolution that didn’t have any power anyway. On the restoration of liberty, nothing has been accomplished.
Last year, the Republican Congress passed called the Military Commissions Act. This new law does the following:
- Revokes habeas corpus, thereby giving the power to imprison people without trial for as long as the President likes
- Gives George W. Bush legal amnesty for any war crimes he may have committed
- Legalizes torture
- Creates a secret committee controlled by the President that can declare anyone to be an enemy, and thereby strip away their legal rights guaranteed by the Constitution
- Ends protection of prisoners of war by the Geneva Conventions
- Removes the right to a speedy trial
- Sets up absurd kangaroo courts that fail to meet the most fundamental civilized standards of justice, with unfair trials kept hidden from the American public
In short, the Military Commissions Act gives the President of the United States the powers of a dictator.
Here’s the dirty little open secret that the Democratic leadership in Congress doesn’t want you to know about: Many Democrats helped the Republican Congress pass the Military Commissions Act. 34 Democrats in the House of Representatives and 11 Democrats in the Senate voted for the despicable new law.
What has the Democratic Congress done to stop the power grab of the Military Commissions Act? Not much. The Democratic leadership is too afraid to deal with the issue. They’re afraid that if they make a public stand for true liberty and justice, they’ll become unpopular. They’re hoping that the judicial branch of the federal government will take care of the problem for them, by declaring the Military Commissions Act to be unconstitutional.
The problem with that strategy is that, over the last six years, George W. Bush has packed the courts with extremist right wing judges who don’t have much respect for the liberty guaranteed us by the Constitution. So, it’s quite possible that the courts will not overturn the Military Commissions Act. Just yesterday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled in favor of keeping the dictatorial powers of the Military Commissions Act intact.
Three bills to provide some limits to new powers granted by the Military Commissions Act have been introduced into Congress, but they are incomplete and have not advanced quickly. The most comprehensive of these bills, S. 576, the Restoring the Constitution Act, deals with many of the problems of the Military Commissions Act, but allows some powers, such as the power to hold military commissions with loose standards of justice, to remain intact.
Two other bills, S. 185 and H.R. 267, only address the problem of the revocation of habeas corpus. That’s only one of the many dictatorial powers granted by the Military Commissions Act. What about the others?
What needs to be done is for the Military Commissions Act to be fully repealed. There was no real need for the Military Commissions Act in the first place. The law was designed to provide legal cover for George W. Bush to prevent his impeachment and imprisonment, and to grant the President outrageous powers. There is no reason the Military Commissions Act cannot be repealed. We don’t need imprisonment without trial in America. We don’t need torture in America. We don’t need secret kangaroo courts in America.
As it is, even the weak and incomplete bills to amend the Military Commissions Act of 2006 are receiving little support from Democrats in Congress. S. 576 has only three sponsors out of the hundred member Senate. S. 185 has only two sponsors. In the House of Representatives, H.R. 267 has only no cosponsors at all, only gaining the support of its creator, Representative Sheila Jackson-Lee.
In short, the Democratic Congress is failing to protect freedom. The Democrats in Congress are failing to stand up to George W. Bush. The Democratic Congress is failing to do what it was elected to do: To undo the damage done by the Republicans.
If Congress won’t stand up against the Military Commissions Act, then it up to you to stand up. It is up to you to stand up and join with other Americans, forcing Congress to repeal the Military Commissions Act. It up to you to decide if you will be a citizen of a democracy or a subject in a dictatorship.
When you make your decision, stand behind it with action. Later today, I will be unveiling a new resource here on Irregular Times: a Project to Repeal the Military Commissions Act.
Stay tuned.
Very good article!