May 22 2009
The People’s Democratic Republic of the United States
I can hardly describe the blind side that struck me with the announcement by the Obama administration that they would ignore all convention and open up the legal decisions of the previous administration to prosecution. I had not heard of this happening in any other past transfers of power in this country or in any other country with a stable democratic tradition. This was unprecedented and represented something akin to what happens in banana republics and following military coups.
This threat directly assaults the political stability of the country and the much admired smooth transitions of power that take place here following our elections. A weakening of this tenant, particularly in these hyper-partisan times, is quite dangerous and the administration is playing with revolutionary fire. Just to hear their representatives talk about the possibility, and to not automatically dismiss it with a laugh at the insane concept, send shivers down my spine. This is the absolute worst thing I see going on at the moment in the midst of a plethora of worst things. For stability and crucial civil transitions of power these actions cannot be contemplated by any administration. The precedent that these decisions could set would be quite destructive and represent a slippery slope to French Revolution style anarchy.
Should this become the norm or acceptable behavior only the dishonorable and corrupt will be interested in serving a new administration and even then, they would be constantly fearful of any decision that they are called upon to render. In the not so distant future this precedent could be used to go after judges that upheld Roe vs. Wade, for instance, should a sufficiently emboldened right wing administration attain the Executive Branch.
The insidiousness of this potential action is compounded by the targeting of unsettled legal opinion which a sufficiently large portion of the American public is far from being in lock-step agreement with Obama on, Nancy Pelosi style revisionist history notwithstanding. The culpability of the media in this situation, just the latest example of abdication from our “fourth branch of government”, would leave little non-violent recourse left for the substantial number of countrymen that hold opposing beliefs and a stark sense of injustice. Simply claiming something is something else, loudly and often enough with a large enough chorus, is not enough to make it so.
There must be a general consensus before any thoughts of retribution can be even entertained. By muffling the opposing opinion the media and majority politicians do not allow this debate to take place and further disconnects a significant portion of the governed from the governing authority. This is not a good thing in any society and the Obama Jacobins are threatening to take us too far down that wretched road. For this specific issue, the idea that water boarding is unequivocally torture remains a matter of much debate and, as the Speaker of the House is coming to realize, the political dance is hard to sustain when the tune of the country changes, or appears to change. To attempt to prosecute good-willed members of a previous administration in the service of their government, for their honest and thought out legal opinions on a murky topic is the height of political arrogance and a tyrannical abuse of power.
This treachery of the current majority over the past majority sullies America’s sterling political tradition for no good reason other than to yield to rabid partisans. The global economy may be in shambles, nuclear Pakistan basically in the midst of a civil war, and deadly transnational viruses are running amok, but I am most fearful for the future of our nation from these prosecutorial threats. This would be like Thomas Jefferson arresting and executing, as criminals of the state, George Washington and Alexander Hamilton for any perceived excesses from their suppression of the Whiskey Rebellion. Potical retribution in this manner is a path that should never be contemplated if we value at all our stability and tradition.





