The End of "Rule of Law" in America
Saturday, July 13, 2013
The Democrats' refusal to enforce the rule of law (an extraordinary admission by Pelosi a couple of weeks ago, particularly as she admitted it as the reason that Republicans shouldn't uphold rule of law by holding Holder in contempt - "Nancy Pelosi Slams Contempt Vote: 'I Could Have Arrested Karl Rove ... But We Didn't') is now a bipartisan agreement that we're no longer a nation of laws.
At the very root of our problems are Constitutional crises created by, first, Republican presidents and now under a Democratic president. Republicans' utter contempt for the Constitution and callous disregard for creating them caused by Democrats' cowering response is what underpins all of our problems and what's destroying the country.
As President, you've got to really want the U.S. to work, to exist, to not exploit the loopholes in the Constitution that keep our three-branches of government precariously balancing the democracy. But Bush-Cheney drove tanks through the loopholes, breaking the law and with no apparent concern for exposing the loopholes nor any consequences.
Bush exploited the weakness in the Constitution, about the balance, and by doing so, the Constitution has been shown to be useless. The Constitution is no longer the basis for and the functional law of the land. The Constitution is no longer much respected in Congress, the Executive branch, the Supreme Court, nor in law or business.
Bush wasn't the first to create Constitutional crises, but he created more of them, eviscerating the Constitution for all time. How do you go forward with it when its Achilles' heel has been laid bare for any Bush-Cheney wannabe waiting in the weeds to exploit? What's now happened in the aftermath of Bush-Cheney is that what Nixon did has been made legal. Once Bush-Cheney happened, once they exploited those loopholes for everyone to see, you can't just go on as if it never happened. You can't "look forward, not back".
The situation might have been remedied had Democrats and Obama come into office investigating and prosecuting the Bush administration and restoring the 'rule of law'. BushCheney exploited the inherent weaknesses in the Constitution: A precarious balance of power between the three branches of government. But Obama refused, and has continued the Bush-Cheney disregard of the Constitution, even going beyond Bush-Cheney abuses.
We got off on a wrong turn in this country, not just once but at many important junctions throughout our 200 plus years, but never always with the possibility of enough lead time to rectify and change course. When it comes to a Supreme Court decision, some say, "Oh it's not a big deal, it's just one decision, unlikely to affect much." That one decision, Bush v. Gore, has set the course for the demise of human civilization on the planet within my children's lifetime. By giving the election to Bush and Cheney with all the power that went with it, a set of actions have been put into place which spell the end game for ecosystems around the world as well as political systems.
If it sounds like I'm speaking in extremes, apocalyptic, yes, I am. The extremes were are facing include monetary (another worldwide Great Depression, beyond the last one because the planet doesn't have the raw materials to build on like the last one), energy that is too dangerous to handle (nuclear and gasoline, destroying the environment and making it impossible for humans to survive), extreme weather, food and water shortages, pandemic diseases, anarchy in the streets.
When you don't right the wrongs in history, they have a funny way of coming back to cause mayhem all over again.
The Bushes, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Karl Rove, et al, all happened because Nixon was pardoned, not tried. Had Clinton investigated and prosecuted George H.W. Bush over Iran-Contra, his son and Dick Cheney never would have gotten into the White House. Jeb Bush and Liz Cheney would never have the political futures like the ones they're about to have because Obama decided to "look forward, not back".
With investigations and transparency, the CIA (and the latest revelations about the NSA) would have been dismantled, the buildings burned to ashes and the ground upon which it stood salted. Instead, this is our future - “The Lily-Pad Strategy: How the Pentagon is Quietly Transforming Its Overseas Base Empire and Creating a Dangerous New Way of War” and it's making us more loathed and unsafe than any time in our history.
