"Don’t Let America Be Held Hostage By the Authoritarians"
John Dean — (archived)
Received an email newletter from the ACLU today, with a somewhat-barbed Doonesbury strip, and a short essay by John Dean on my topic-du-jour, authoritarian conservatism.
Special Message from John Dean: Don’t Let America Be Held Hostage By the Authoritarians
Speak Out in Washington, D.C., Oct. 15-17
http://action.aclu.org/images/content/pagebuilder/18613.jpgOver 30 years ago, I walked in to the Oval Office and told Richard Nixon there was a cancer growing on his presidency. Never, in my lifetime, did I expect to see activities in the White House that are, in fact, much worse than Watergate. No one died, or was tortured, or was kidnapped, or imprisoned indefinitely without being charged, or hidden in a secret prison because of Nixon's abuses of power. By comparison, Nixon's warrantless wiretapping was trifling. Nixon employed warrantless searches to uncover national security leaks in a handful of situations. Bush and Cheney, on the other hand, openly defy the law to undertake covert surveillance of thousands upon thousands of Americans.
Similarly, the secrecy of the Nixon White House pales in comparison to that of the Bush/Cheney White House. Had Nixon attempted to gag the body politic by portraying his critics as un-American, as Bush and Cheney have done since 9/11, the mainstream news media would have eviscerated him. Yet today they tolerate, and even encourage, such actions by Bush and Cheney. We have never before had an authoritarian, fear-mongering and media-manipulating presidency such as the likes of Bush and Cheney, which so easily bullies the American people and its representatives into compliance.
With zero Congressional oversight, the current administration has been able to abuse the powers of the executive branch so radically that our democracy is in serious danger. In lying to Congress about his reasons for going to war in Iraq, and defying the war crimes law, the president commited impeachable offenses. Instead of demanding the president comply with the rule of law, his compatriots on Capitol Hill seek to rewrite the laws to make such illegal actions permissible. It is all quite remarkable. As long as the president believes he can get away with his actions, he figures the rest of us can go to hell.
That's where I am headed to join other concerned citizens for leadership discussions and workshops on a range of civil liberties issues, including the abuse of power. We will also be visiting with lawmakers on Capitol Hill to let them know we want democracy, not dictatorship, in America.
I won't be surprised by the [excrement]storm from the Right, go ahead, get it out of your systems. Then, could you please remind me why defending civil liberties is anti-American?
