Robert Parry today on the Democrats’ indifference to the erosion of the American Republic:
Though many issues on the DCCC’s priority list surely have merit, what’s missing is any commitment to the larger purpose of the American Republic.
The Democratic leaders have yet to grasp that the transcendent principles of democracy were a major factor in the national rejection of Bush and the Republican congressional majority on Nov. 7.
Many traditional conservatives and libertarians, who normally vote Republican, switched their allegiances or stayed home out of disdain for the authoritarian tendencies of the Bush administration and the failure of the congressional Republicans to conduct any meaningful oversight.
These right-of-center voters shared the alarm of many liberals and independents over Bush’s assertion of “plenary” – or unlimited – powers for the duration of the interminable “war on terror”; his abrogation of constitutional rights; his “signing statements” that set aside laws; and his excessive secrecy that often left the American people in the dark.
These voters from across the political spectrum – what might be called the “constitutionalist bloc” – were offended, too, by neoconservative hubris that treated average citizens as children to be frightened with color-coded terror alerts and tricked them into surrendering their liberties.
And these voters were fed up with the lies and exaggerations that sent thousands of American soldiers and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis to their deaths in the misbegotten Iraq War
Thus, the Nov. 7 election held out hope for a new national consensus, pulling together Americans of all political stripes who share a deep reverence for the founding principles of the Republic and who viewed Bush as a threat to what they held most dear. For this voting bloc, all other issues paled by comparison.
Though the congressional Democrats may not have known what was happening – and did little to actively encourage it – they rode this patriotic wave to victory. In the nearly two months since, however, they have largely turned their backs on these voters.
As the Washington Post noted, “Nowhere in the Democrats’ consensus-driven agenda is legislation revisiting last year’s establishment of military tribunals and suspending legal rights for suspected terrorists. Nor is there a revision of the civil liberties provisions of the USA Patriot Act, a measure curbing warrantless wiretapping by the National Security Agency or an aggressive confrontation of the President on his Iraq War policies.”
As noted here last month, Connecticut’s Chris Dodd is proposing legislation to radically alter the provisions of the Military Commissions Act, but it’s disturbing to me that we’re not hearing more from Democrats on this. I hope I’m wrong, but at this point the concerns of the "constitutional bloc" that Parry describes above seem as off the radar for the majority of the congressional Democrats as they are for the Republicans.
As I write this NPR in the background has two reports on the detainees in the WOT. Listen here to this one by Ari Shapiro for an excellent review of where the law stands now regarding detainee treatment policy since the Supreme Court ruled on Hamdan and this one by Jackie Northam about how all this affects the detainees in Guantanamo. I’m encouraged that at least NPR is keeping this in front of their listeners.
This is not a conservative/liberal conflict; it’s a conflict between those who are inclined toward accepting authoritarianism and those who seek to preserve the rule of law and republican ideals.
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