Independence Day

Because: reasons I never published this when I wrote it 19 years ago.  

It’s timelier now than it was then.  Enjoy. 

It’s Independence Day, 2007.  In the year since the last Independence Day, our nation has experienced:

The “inadvertent” suspension of habeas corpus in order to justify our judicial and military response to terrorism;

The conviction on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice, of a senior appointed official of the Bush Administration, and the subsequent commutation of his sentence by President Bush;

A seemingly endless series of “terror alerts” which seem less intended to protect our physical well being than to distract, disturb, and disorient us;

The continued occupation of Iraq, at the cost of billions of dollars a day, three American soldier’s lives, many more traumatic injuries to American soldiers, and countless Iraqi lives taken and ruined, not to mention the incalculable loss of goodwill to America and Americans throughout the world; and

A series of Supreme Court decisions that have collectively reduced the rights of individual Americans to seek remedies for and protection from unjust actions by employers, schools, and religious organizations while strengthening the rights of corporations, churches, and the government to limit the freedoms our founders argued and fought – not once, but three times – for.

This is far from a comprehensive list of how Americans have seen our individual and collective independence and freedom eroded over the last year.  And many people have spoken far more eloquently than I can on the individual issues that threaten to tear apart the fabric of our Republic.  That this Administration and its supporters believe themselves to be beyond the rule of law is the single overarching threat to our Republic.  

The failure to abide the rule of law by the Executive Branch has been growing as a threat at least since President Nixon was pardoned for his actions in the Watergate scandal, leaving any number of illegal actions (the bombing of Cambodia, the U.S. role in the Chilean coup d’etat) that were never investigated or prosecuted in the interest of “national healing”.  It reappeared as the Iran-Contra scandals, the Savings and Loan crisis, the investigation of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), and the perjury trap encountered by President Clinton as a result of his consensual sexual relationship with Monica Lewinski.  

This is not the first time in American history where failure to abide the rule of law was seen as a threat to the Republic.  Abraham Lincoln wrote and spoke of the threat in his Address to the Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois.  In a speech that was meant to address the issue of the perpetuation of the political institutions of the United States, much of what Lincoln spoke concerned his fear of the growing presence of mob rule.

“I know the American people are much attached to their government; I know they would suffer much for its sake; I know they would endure evils long and patiently before they would ever think of exchanging it for another, - yet, notwithstanding all of this, if the laws be continually despised and disregarded, if their rights to be secure in their persons and property are held by no better tenure than the caprice mob, the alienation of their affection from the government is a natural consequence; and to that, sooner or later, it must come.”

I’d argue that this is exactly the sentiment that allowed the Republican Party to convince a majority of Americans to vote for them.  By both advocating “law and order” for the masses and openly disregarding the laws – and their fiduciary responsibility to the country – the Republican Party has brought the nation to the edge of dissolution for a second time.

Addendum, 19 years later.  

I hate being correct.  All of this and worse continued during the remainder of the Bush/Cheney Administration, and with the seditious intent of the not-so-shadowy right-wing conspiracy, visible as the American Legislative Exchange Council, the Heritage Foundation, the Federalist Society, and Leonard Leo’s alt-project, Teneo. 

That’s before the shitshow confluence of grifters, reality TV personalities, celebrities, and ignoramuses and bullies that make up the Executive Branch as constituted in both Trump Administrations arrived.  

The solutions for the problems remain the same. The effort and amount of time required to correct the damage caused will be far greater than had we started the work to fix the systemic issues and address the critical, immediate issues in say 2010.