One thousand days, as a measure for a President’s accomplishments, were enshrined by the length of John F. Kennedy’s time in office cut short by assassination. But now it could be an organizing principle for undoing George W. Bush’s troubling legacy – what might be called “a reverse thousand days.”
With Bush’s second term having about as many days left as Kennedy’s presidency lasted in total, the challenge to the American people is how to use that time to restore U.S. traditions in a variety of key areas. These include: limits on Executive power; protection of constitutional freedoms; pragmatic policies based on science, not ideology or religion; avoidance of “entangling” foreign conflicts when military objectives are unclear.
In five-plus years in office, Bush has pushed radical approaches in each of these areas – asserting “plenary,” or unlimited, powers as Commander in Chief; abrogating legal and constitutional rights of citizens; disdaining the “reality-based community”; and ordering “preemptive” strikes in an indefinite conflict against vague notions, “terror” and “evil.”
...and he has some recommendcations....
1) First and foremost, if the Republic is to be protected, the President’s claims to unlimited power must be challenged. When Bush asserts “plenary” powers as Commander in Chief, the word “plenary” is defined as “complete in all respects, unlimited or full.”
Since the “war on terror” is also indefinite, Bush’s powers are not simply a response to a short-term emergency. They represent long-term or even permanent changes in the American system of government.
Thus, to be honest, U.S. schools should recall old civics books with those quaint lessons about fundamental liberties. Revised editions could be ordered explaining to the schoolchildren how their parents traded the “unalienable rights” bestowed by the Founders on American “posterity” in exchange for a promise of a little more safety while driving to the shopping mall.
The children could learn how this generation of Americans also swapped the exalted status as citizens invested with the sovereignty of the Republic for the subordinate position as subjects with their rights dependent on George W. Bush or some successor.
2) A second recommendation is that if Americans are to hold Bush accountable and restore their traditional freedoms, they must overcome fear with courage and reject the proffered trade-off of rights for security. More than any other motivating force, the Bush administration has relied on fear of terrorism to convince Americans to sacrifice their rights.
Some right-wing pundits even argue that surrendering liberties is the patriotic thing to do, because it’s needed to prevent another 9/11 attack. In other words, how can you be so selfish to insist on your rights when the lives of fellow Americans are at stake?
While there’s an emotional appeal to this argument, it ignores the fact that earlier generations of Americans have done the exact opposite. They chose, again and again, to sacrifice safety – and often their lives – for liberty, not the other way around.
3) Thirdly, if the American people truly want to halt the drift toward authoritarian government, they must express themselves in many ways – in the streets, in letters to newspapers and to politicians, on the Internet and at the ballot box.
...if the Republicans retain control of Congress in November, Bush would have a strong chance to appoint at least one more Supreme Court justice who could put the high court’s seal of approval on the redefinition of American liberty within an imperial presidency.
With Bush’s appointments of Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito – joining Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas – Bush now has four solid votes in favor of his views on presidential powers. Only one more is needed for a majority.
OK American Voter, what is your report card on Bush say? How did you grade him after 1000 days? Do you really want this man to have a lock on our government for even two more years, really?
If you just love what he is doing to America, go ahead, it's your right, leave Congress in the control of the self-righteous Republican-Right for the next two years; but you had better buy plenty of Vaseline and practice bending over.
For the rest of us who love the America our Founding-Fathers intended, we will not surrender congress to the Republicans for another two years if we can help it. We will not cower in fear.
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