Thought this was interesting.
This newspaper is generally the more conservative of the two Chicago
dailies (the Tribune is the other, much wealthier and more elite). Yet
it published this article. And it’s by Father Andrew Greeley, the
Catholic priest and writer.
(See his own web page at
http://www.agreeley.com/articles.html )
Calling the sitting Vice President – who according to most political
experts is far more powerful than Pres. Bush – a “vile… evil
influence” is unusual in the normally tame US media.
Cheney really wants U.S. dictator
July 7, 2006
BY ANDREW GREELEY
In the winter of 1933, before Franklin Roosevelt’s first inauguration on
March 4, there was a clamor in the United States for a military
dictatorship. The banks were closing, a quarter of Americans were
unemployed, rebellion threatened on the farms. Only drastic reforms,
mandated by the president’s power as commander in chief, would save the
country. Something like the fascism of Mussolini’s Italy – viewed
benignly by many Americans in those days because it worked (or so
everyone said) – would save the country from communist revolution.
As Jonathan Alter reminds us in The Defining Moment, his brilliant book
about FDR’s first 100 days, men as different as William Randolph Hearst,
financier Bernard Baruch, commentator Lowell Thomas and establishment
columnist Walter Lipmann argued for the necessity of dictatorship to
reorganize the country’s economy.
The call for a military style dictatorship is the ultimate temptation to
the greatest treason of a democratic society. Fortunately for us, FDR
resisted the temptation and reformed the American economy by a mix of
gradualist changes (like Social Security) and magical “fireside chats.”
Unfortunately years later he yielded to the temptation to a military
dictatorship when he interned Japanese Americans simply because they
were Japanese. In the first case he resisted the demands of the American
people. In the second he caved in to their racist demands.
The United States is caught up in a new campaign for a military
dictatorship – rule by a military chief with absolute power. The White
House, inspired by Vice President Dick Cheney, has argued that in time
of great danger, the president has unlimited powers as commander in
chief. If he cites “national security” he can do whatever he wants –
ignore Congress, disobey laws, disregard the courts, override the
Constitution’s Bill of Rights – without being subject to any review.
Separation of powers no longer exists. The president need not consult
Congress or the courts. Moreover the rights of the commander in chief to
act as a military dictator lasts as long as the national emergency
persists, indefinitely that is and permanently.
Many, perhaps most Americans, don’t mind. The president is “tough on
terrorists” and that’s all that matters. What is the Bill of Rights
anyway? George W. Bush, his supporters will argue, is a good man, even a
godly man. He won’t misuse the powers, even if the power he claims is no
less than Don Hugo Chavez exercises in Venezuela
The Supreme Court in its ruling about a Guantanamo detainee just before
Independence Day was a sharp rebuke to Cheneyism. It dealt with only one
case and left the president wiggle room. He could consult with Congress
about new legislation that would provide more rights for the detainees
in a military trial. But that violates Cheney’s first principle that the
commander in chief doesn’t have to consult with anyone on matters of
national security. If the president was consistent with the Cheney
theory and the Alberto Gonzales memos, he should defy the Supreme Court
and insist that he has the right to establish whatever judicial process
he deems proper for these potentially dangerous people without any
interference from anyone. He may still do that.
Republicans who will seek re-election in November already suggest they
will run against the court’s decision. The court, they will tell the
American people who want the detainees to be shot at sunrise tomorrow,
is soft on terror, just like Democrats in Congress. They could probably
get away with this nonsense because fear will cause the voters to forget
that this is the Republican court that elected Bush.
Richard Cheney is a vile, indeed evil, influence in American political
life. He is a very dangerous person who would if he could destroy
American freedom about which he and his mentor prate hypocritically. His
long years in Washington have caused him to lose faith in the
legislative and judicial processes of the government. The country, he
believes, requires a much stronger executive. Such concentrated power
would have been necessary even if the World Trade Center attack had not
occurred. He uses the fear of terrorists as a pretext to advance his
agenda of an all powerful president, a military dictator. So long, of
course, as he is a Republican.
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