By Diana Lee
June 1, 2006
| UNIORB: REALITY CHECK: POLITICS |
 |
| George W. Bush/King George III |
The American democracy that
was once exemplary to the world is now under siege by a power-hungry president
with an insatiable lust for global dominance. For more than five years, George
W. Bush has continuously violated the law of the land by ignoring the
Constitution, by rewriting laws passed by Congress with his signing statements,
and by issuing more than 200 executive orders as new directives for fine-tuning
the government to suit his policies. The United States is now facing a regime
change — from democracy to autocracy.
Incidentally, the last monarch of England to rule the American colonies was also named George. Known as the mad King George III, he suffered bouts of insanity until he was considered unfit to rule. The oppressive autocracy of King George III gave birth to democracy in the United States.
It is precisely abhorrence
for dictatorship that our forefathers fought for independence and created a
democratic government with separation of powers. In James Madison’s words
written in The Federalist Papers, No. 47:
“The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.”
To put it succinctly, Thomas
Paine wrote in Common Sense:
“In America, the law is king. For as in absolute governments the King is law, so in free countries the law ought to be king; and there ought to be no other.”
However, Bush
believes he is above the law. Like a medieval Christian king, he claimed
that God chose him to rule, as he once commented, “I believe that God wants me
to be president.”
Surrounded by conniving
neoconservative courtiers, sycophantic Republican ministers, loyal military
soldiers, and obedient press corps jesters, President Bush has taken
surreptitious steps to anoint himself king in the White House where greedy
corporate leaders stood in line, bearing donations in exchange for political
favors. While the unaware public subjects have descended to serfdom, King Bush
and his henchmen have amassed power and control over the land, tracking
everything from Internet to telephone calls. While ordinary citizens have been
worrying about rising gasoline prices, impending global warming disasters, or
losing their jobs to outsourcing, King Bush’s clan and heads of oil and
military-related conglomerates have been reaping profits under the new kingdom
of ill-gotten wealth at the expense of Americans, Afghanistanis and Iraqis.
While the nation shows that every sector is suffering across the board, from
homeland security to economics, the military has nevertheless gained grounds on
war fundings and productions of deadly nuclear weapons to pursue King Bush’s
endless war on terror.
Dismantling the
Constitution
Since he took office, Bush
has been consistently disobeying the Constitution, racking up a long list of
violations, some of which have been revealed recently, ranging from illegal war
to prisoner torture to domestic warrantless spying. He has not only trampled on
our Constitution but also made a concerted effort to remove checks and balances
in our democratic system by making Congress irrelevant and the courts tilted in
his favor with appointed judges advocating his policies.
Citing Unitary
Executive
To justify his right being
“king” in a democracy, Bush believes he has “unitary executive” authority
stemming from his role as commander in chief, which grants him license to
overrule and bypass Congress or the courts, and even violate long-established
laws and treaties. Ironically, by claiming his authority of “unitary executive,”
Bush violates his own presidential oath of office, which explicitly states that
the president’s role is to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed.”
Citing “unitary executive” authority as commander in chief, Bush overruled or bypassed Congress with his signing statements at least four times:
--Overruled Congress to
forbid U.S. troops from engaging in combat to assist the Colombian government in
its fight against rebels. (Bush wrote that he didn’t have to obey Colombia
restrictions.)
--Bypassed Congress twice to
forbid the military using intelligence for “illegal searches” in violation of
the Fourth Amendment (before and after the disclosure of warrantless domestic
spying) in August 2004 and December 2005. (Bush declared that he is the Decider
whether such intelligence can be used by the military.)
--Bypassed Congress’ set of
new 2004 rules for military prison regulation — calling provisions for military
lawyers to advise on torture, retrain military prison guards, perform background
checks on civilian contractors in Iraq, and ban contractors from “security,
intelligence, law enforcement, and criminal justice” duties. (Bush wrote that he
could ignore them all.)
Making Congress
Irrelevant
Since 2001, Bush has
silently countered more than 750 laws passed by Congress with presidential
signing statements, by far a record for any president. Bush believes he
can ignore any law passed by Congress when it conflicts with his interpretation
of the Constitution. The record shows that he has ignored many laws that are
related to military regulations, affirmative-action provisions, Congress
awareness of immigration services problems, whistle-blowing protections, and
federally funded research.
In an attempt to keep
Congress in the dark, Bush deliberately bypassed numerous laws that involved
requirements to provide congressional oversight committees information about
government activities. In 2003, Congress tried to keep track of his
out-of-control signing statements by passing a Justice Department spending bill
with a requirement that the department informs Congress whenever a legislative
provision is ignored. In response, Bush signed that spending bill with a signing
statement, nullifying the notification requirement.
According to Presidential
Studies Quarterly, Phillip Cooper, who is the leading expert on signing
statements, recounted Bush’s abuse of signing statements in his first term:
-
2001: 23 signing statements
-
2002: 34 signing statements, raising 168 constitutional objections
-
2003: 27 statements, raising 142 constitutional challenges
-
2004: 23 statements, raising 175 constitutional criticisms
In fact, Bush is the first
president since Thomas Jefferson to remain in office without ever issuing a
veto. He never once gave Congress a chance to override his judgments. Instead,
he continues the quiet maneuver of penning his opinion in a signing statement to
override a bill that Congress passed.
Challenging Court
Decisions
Bush has also tried to
weaken the judicial branch. Although the Supreme Court has repeatedly backed
Congress to create positions for executive branch officials to act independent
of the president, like special prosecutors free of Justice Department oversight
and the board of the Federal Trade Commission free of political interference,
Bush has declared in his signing statements that every executive official falls
under his control.
Furthermore, the Supreme
Court has always supported minorities in affirmative-action programs. At least
nine times in the past, Bush has endorsed provisions that could be construed as
representing reverse discrimination against whites.
By placing his handpicked
Supreme Court judges, Samuel A. Alito (creator of signing statement) and John G.
Roberts, both of which are conservative and supportive of his policies, Bush has
evidently tipped the balance of the judicial branch in his favor.
Conclusion
It looks as though America
will come full circle, from autocracy to democracy, back to
autocracy. Unbelievably, on February 17, 2005, Congress delivered the Bill
#HJ24IH, Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to
repeal the 22nd amendment to the Constitution, on a silver
platter to Bush to continue serving as President beyond two terms.
Perhaps, President Bush may
get his wish after all — to be King of the United States of
America.
Copyright © 2006 UniOrb
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By Diana Lee
UniOrb - Reality Check (http://uniorb.com)