Our Republic On A Slippery Slope
by Christopher G. Adamo
The ability of a nation to peaceably govern itself is entirely dependent on its willingness to abide by previously stipulated agreements wherein limits of governmental action are established. Most importantly, such rules must define the method by which authority transitions from one leader to another. The alternative to this approach can only be violent revolution. For more than two centuries the United States, with the notable exception of the Civil War, has operated in an orderly manner in which the rights of citizens have been generally regarded as paramount. However, in the past decade or so, an emerging pattern of overt contempt for the American political process has presented the potential to completely destroy those qualities of the Republic that once moved Thomas Jefferson to describe it as a “near perfect” form of government. Consider some events of recent decades. Though they are neither the first nor the only such incidents, the increasing regularity with which they are occurring should be cause for great alarm.
In 1963, the Supreme Court effectively countermanded an inarguable pretext of the Bill of Rights by substituting a phrase "separation of church and state," for the free expression of religion unambiguously stated in the First Amendment. A decade later, “Roe v. Wade” established as constitutional a “right to privacy” nowhere alluded to in the Constitution, but instead fabricated from thin air, as shamelessly explained by Justice Blackmun. Clearly the Supreme Court simply determined to ignore any Constitutional boundaries to its authority and instead asserted itself as the ultimate legislative body. Since that time, its pattern of activism has only worsened.
However, the determined efforts of governing individuals to subvert the law and thus destroy its restraining effect on those in power did not reach their present, dangerous form until the advent of the Clinton administration in 1993. Though Richard Nixon could rightly be labeled as a chief executive who exceeded his authority, he was clearly held accountable, and would undoubtledly have been removed from office had he not resigned first.
In contrast, the brazen disregard for the law exhibited by Bill Clinton, his wife, and virtually the entire Clinton cabinet, served as its own weapon to intimidate and cow those who should have held his administration to accountability. Ultimately, the flagrant abuses of power regularly perpetrated by the Clinton White House never resulted in the punitive responses that were warranted, primarily because his political opposition was so often stunned into relative silence by both the audacity of the deeds and the public indifference to them.
Since that time, the seeming successes of such behavior have convinced unscrupulous Democrat operatives to conduct themselves in a similar manner. The entire Florida election debacle of 2000 was itself nothing more than a transparent effort to turn the tables on an extremely close vote tally.
Elsewhere in the country, a Missouri Senator was installed in office, without any legal authorization whatsoever, subsequent to her husband's tragic plane crash. Minnesota Democrats similarly bypassed the law, placing Walter Mondale on the ballot following the untimely death of Senator Paul Wellstone. Fortunately, in both cases the voters rectified each situation at their earliest opportunity. However, such was not the case in New Jersey where Robert Torricelli was replaced at the last minute, and in direct defiance of law, once the state's Democrat party realized that political baggage had doomed his bid for reelection.
Throughout the past year, Democrats in the United States Senate have sought, through an unprecedented series of filibusters, to establish themselves as the ultimate authority defining the makeup of the nation's courts. Furthermore, the timidity of Republican response to their audacious action has further emboldened Democrats to assume the moral high ground and defend their behavior as a fight for the integrity of the Constitution.
Finally, consider the reprehensible actions of Democrats in the Texas Legislature who, for the second time this year, have fled the state in order to prevent the lawful process of redistricting, now that Republicans hold the legislative majority. Such actions display contempt for the law and government when they don't hold complete dominion, which borders on sedition.
Shame on those sheepish “conservatives” who disparage the efforts to recall California Governor Gray Davis, on the grounds that doing so will somehow undermine the integrity of a heretofore-unblemished political process. For if they truly believe this to be the case, they prove that they have no concept of the war being waged against them.
|
