Monday, December 26, 2005
All the President's Confessions
Bush's advocacy of lawlessness lies at the heart of the right-wing agenda to remake America.
By G. Pascal Zachary - AlterNet
Presidents past have denied breaking the law, even when they have, because following the law is their prime directive, their sole basis for democratic legitimacy. Because rule of law is fundamental to the moral basis of the presidency, presidents must even uphold laws they don't agree with. In this regard, presidents are unlike other citizens. They do not have the option to perform acts of civil disobedience.
Why then is President Bush insisting on his duty, and even his right, to disregard the laws covering domestic spying laws that demand the government seek a judge's authority before spying on Americans on U.S. soil and is boasting about it?
The president had options. Many commentators and critics have noted that he could have asked Congress to approve his spying program. He did not. Instead he chose lawlessness.
He is positioning himself as the nation's chief advocate of lawlessness. Bush's advocacy of lawlessness lies at the heart of the right-wing agenda to remake America. For example, the attacks on federal courts (and the judges themselves) by Tom DeLay and other right-wingers are expressions of the new conventional wisdom that there is a higher law than the law of the land, and that law is the right-wing agenda.
Bush will be quite pleased to go down in history as the man who broke the law to satisfy the dictates of the right-wing ascendancy in America. His greatest legacy will be the promotion of a culture of lawlessness. After Bush, 'Might' will become 'Right' in America. Laws will be bent to reflect the new ethos of lawlessness.
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Bush's advocacy of lawlessness lies at the heart of the right-wing agenda to remake America.
By G. Pascal Zachary - AlterNet
Presidents past have denied breaking the law, even when they have, because following the law is their prime directive, their sole basis for democratic legitimacy. Because rule of law is fundamental to the moral basis of the presidency, presidents must even uphold laws they don't agree with. In this regard, presidents are unlike other citizens. They do not have the option to perform acts of civil disobedience.
Why then is President Bush insisting on his duty, and even his right, to disregard the laws covering domestic spying laws that demand the government seek a judge's authority before spying on Americans on U.S. soil and is boasting about it?
The president had options. Many commentators and critics have noted that he could have asked Congress to approve his spying program. He did not. Instead he chose lawlessness.
He is positioning himself as the nation's chief advocate of lawlessness. Bush's advocacy of lawlessness lies at the heart of the right-wing agenda to remake America. For example, the attacks on federal courts (and the judges themselves) by Tom DeLay and other right-wingers are expressions of the new conventional wisdom that there is a higher law than the law of the land, and that law is the right-wing agenda.
Bush will be quite pleased to go down in history as the man who broke the law to satisfy the dictates of the right-wing ascendancy in America. His greatest legacy will be the promotion of a culture of lawlessness. After Bush, 'Might' will become 'Right' in America. Laws will be bent to reflect the new ethos of lawlessness.
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