One Country, One Rule of Law, One Constitution

"Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer!" One People, one State, one President Bush! The genius of our Founding Fathers was to create a system of checks and balances that would make loyalty to a constitutional ideal the only acceptable patriotic loyalty for soldiers, government officials, and ordinary citizens. This is what makes our system work. We argue vehemently about what is best for the country, tinker with the appropriate means for achieving our political and social ends, and fully expect no one vision to triumph completely. A Democratic general serves a Republican commander-in-chief, then a Democratic commander-in-chief, never pledging loyalty to a person, only to the entire constitutional system the executive represents. That is why we don't have military coups, palace coups or any other total upheaval-- we have elections.

Right from the Florida election theft in 2000, the Bushies have not shown much devotion to our constitutional system. In fact, they not only disdain more than two centuries of U.S. experience, the Bushies seem quite willing to ignore far more ancient principles of English Common Law, like habeas corpus, whenever it suits their purposes.

Sara Taylor was born well after Watergate. Perhaps she can't understand the chilling effect of her words the other day to those of us a few decades older, but this reader of Andrew Cohen's piece caught my mood exactly.

Did you hear Sara Taylor explain that she wouldn't testify because she takes her oath "to support the President" seriously?!? She needed to be advised that the oath she took was to protect the Constitution of the United States, NOT the President. Seriously, we can't get this new generation of the Hitler Youth out of American government fast enough.
Posted by: view from the couch July 11, 2007 02:33 PM

Yes, it's unfair. Cheney, Bush, Rumsfeld et al. have a lot to answer for as regards their evil warmongering. Yet they also should be held to account for their corruption of a whole new generation of Beltway Bullies, robbed of the opportunity to learn respect for the U.S. principles and traditions that have served thus far to hold tyranny at bay.

A growing majority of Americans are waking up to smell the coffee. They are starting to realize that business as usual is no longer possible with this wannabe tin-horn dictatorsip that has hijacked the White House. Call your representatives in Washington, D.C. and let them know how you feel!!