Dark Days Ahead for our Rights and Freedoms
Buzzflash
| January 14 2006
The Alito hearings are over and, barring
some miracle, Judge Samuel Alito will probably take a seat on the United
States Supreme Court, replacing the more moderate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor,
who believes there are limits on presidential power even in wartime.
What we need to understand is that the right-wing in
this country has been much more dedicated to moving America in their ideological
direction than the rest of us have been dedicated to seeing to it that they
didn't. Most of us have just rolled merrily along assuming the old battles
about rights and liberties were settled long ago; we believed there was
no reason to fear we would have to re-visit those arguments.
We were wrong.
Books have been written about how the "good"
Germans slept while their country was being taken over by right-wing fascist
ideologues. Future historians will write books about how the "good"
Americans slept while our rights and liberties were being obliterated by
a band of ideological oligarchs.
It doesn't much matter if the power-crazed individuals
currently in power take this nation in the direction of "fascism"
or not; that is an irrelevant argument. What matters is that they want to
turn this into a police state, where a small oligarchy of wealthy and powerful
people will be able to exploit the resources here (human and mineral) to
their own advantage.
In a police state, all power resides with the rulers,
and the people have only those rights the rulers permit them.
In America, according to our Constitution, the people
are sovereign. That means all power resides with and comes FROM the people.
The government has only those powers provided to it in our Constitution
-- and no other powers, privileges or rights.
The first words in the preamble to our Constitution
are, "We the People."
The Tenth Amendment to our Constitution says, "The
powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited
by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the
people."
"...powers ... are reserved...TO THE PEOPLE."
If you want to know why we need to worry about what
Judge Alito would do as a Supreme Court justice, there is the long and disturbing
record of his judicial opinions and public speeches.
For example, in a November 2000 speech to the right-wing
Federalist Society, Judge Alito claimed that the Framers of our Constitution
"saw the unitary executive as necessary to balance the huge power of
the legislature and the factions that may gain control of it."
That is not so.
If you read the "Notes of Debates in the Federal
Convention of 1787 Reported by James Madison," you will see that the
Framers were adamant that they would not trade one king for another king.
They gave as little power to the president as they felt he would need to
see that the laws enacted by Congress were implemented. They certainly never
intended for the president to have any unchecked powers.
Assuming Judge Alito's almost inevitable confirmation
as a justice on the United States Supreme Court, he will soon have the opportunity
to endow the president with more powers than our Founders and Framers ever
envisioned.
The Constitution will be interpreted in a very novel
way; the government will have "rights" and "powers"
undreamt of by the men who wrote it. We will have whatever rights the government
doesn't need for the moment. Bush and his successors (if he ever leaves
the White House) will spout -- as he does now -- patriotic slogans to make
the uninformed feel safe but, at the same time, will be working feverishly
to seize more control, power and money from those who aren't part of the
"in" group.
Sustaining Roe v. Wade is important, yes; but it pales
in significance to all the rights, freedoms and liberties that will be eroded
by the coming change to the balance of power on the Supreme Court.
I don't think I can begin to draw the picture of the
future here in America darkly enough.
And the American people snooze on, almost totally unaware
of how frightening the people are who are winning.
An oligarchy of the powerful and greedy has bought
Congress and most of the media. There is almost no one left out there willing
and able to protect us.
"They" have been patient. "They"
started this takeover 30 years years ago and never took their eyes off the
prize. "They" didn't bother with silly infighting ... they just
keep making progress toward their goal.
And now "they" seem to have won. They have
the three branches of government and the mainstream media.
Before it is too late, we must use what power we still
have; let's all call our senators and ask them to reject Judge Samuel Alito's
vision for America.
You can phone the United States Capitol switchboard
at (202) 224-3121, and an operator will connect you directly with the Senate
office you request.
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