Optimist or Pessimist; the more things change... (0.00 / 0)

I agree that we need to work as hard as we can to protect our rights proclaimed in the Constitution, but suggesting the Constitution might be an historic relic.

As you already suggest, the Constitution has always been under attack and has always required defending.  We may be in a local minima, but the dynamic remains the same.

They say an optimist believes we live in the best of all possible worlds and the pessimist fears this is true.  I'm not sure if pointing out the Constitution has always been under attack and what we are going through today isn't all that unique qualifies as optimism or pessimism, but it is an important point, nonetheless.

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by: Mark Matson @ Wed Sep 17, 2008 at 22:28:10 PM CDT

it would be nice (4.00 / 6)

to hear Obama, McCain and the media focus more attention on the egregious violations of our constitution and the separation of powers.  

My guess is we'll see a repeat of the Ford administration...a decision to "put the problem behind us" so the government can get focused on fixing pressing problems of the economy, foreign policy, etc.

Failing to pursue the truth and hold people accountable may again be disastrous for the future.

Conyers and Pelosi had the opportunity to hold all kinds of impeachment hearings this year which could have put McCain in the daily dilemma of a)defending president Bush and the GOP misconduct or b)criticizing Bush and GOP and a deep level..and alienating the GOP base.....oh well.

Addressing the constitutional crises would seem to be a good priority for Openleft after an Obama victory.

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by: amberwaves @ Wed Sep 17, 2008 at 22:44:14 PM CDT

unfortunately, our nominee has already sided (4.00 / 1)

against the Constitution with his vote on the FISA Amendment Act. So we'll have to work around him to get any progress. Namely, working on Congress. And forming groups like this one to fight for our civil liberties.

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by: limpidglass @ Wed Sep 17, 2008 at 23:31:04 PM CDT

Yeah, really ... (4.00 / 3)

I blogged about this today in Constitution Day: Can we please talk about it?, and quoted John Nichols' post in The Nation:

Constitution Day has arrived without major statements from Democrat Barack Obama or Republican John McCain on the need to restore this country's commitment to the rule of law.

Sigh ...

Still, I'm optimistic in general, for pretty much the reasons Matt describes in the last three paragraphs.  While the FISA vote in July was incredibly disappointing, we shouldn't let it blind us to the continuing progress we're making: adding Strange Bedfellows and Get FISA Right to non-partisan organizations like the ACLU, bloggers, and Senators like Feingold, Dodd, Leahy and their staffs really changes the equation.  And 80% of the Democratic Senators opposing telecom immunity, and the majority against the FISA bill as a whole ... not enough to win that battle, but significantly better than seemed likely in late June.  

One way or another, the battle will re-engage early next year -- on somewhat more favorable terms if it's an Obama administration.  I continue to believe that a multi-million person movement is possible -- and is likely change the equation, and turn into the tipping point for restoring the constitution.  Our challenge is to take advantage of the time to prepare while focusing on the election as well.  Three key areas leap to mind: improving our communications channels, abilities to coordinate, and skills at social network activism.  The learnings from campaigns like 100,000 Strong against Evan Bayh for VP and the experiments with SaysMe.tv all apply ...

Will it be enough?  We shall see.

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by: JonPincus @ Thu Sep 18, 2008 at 00:24:56 AM CDT

If we are serious, we have to understand (0.00 / 0)

it took the country many years, under both parties, to dig itself into a situation in which a majority really doesn't care more for the rule of law than for its imagined security.

It will take years, if we have them, to dig ourselves out of the hole of voluntary surrender to authoritarianism that the current regime amounts to.

But others have clawed their way back. We need to be looking to Latin America, to Argentina and Chile and Uruguay among others, for courageous examples of how societies can reassert the rule of law. And dig in and keep at it.

Can it happen here?

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by: janinsanfran @ Thu Sep 18, 2008 at 10:24:02 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Impeachment (4.00 / 1)

is the best way to restore Constitutional rights that have been stolen by a President.

that's what the Founding Fathers intended.

perhaps after the election all the bloggers who opposed impeachment exclusively because of fear it would impact the 2008 election (led by Kos) will finally change their minds.

Dennis Kucinich has introduced all the Articles of Impeachment that are needed, but we'd need to persuade Pelosi to call a lame-duck session.

that would be a challenge for the Netroots, but it's not inconceivable - especially when Americans realize Bush plans to PARDON everyone who helped him break the law for the past 8 years.

http://democrats.com/pardon

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by: bob fertik @ Thu Sep 18, 2008 at 07:24:31 AM CDT

As far as I can see it the real problem (0.00 / 0)

with upholding the Constitution is that Pelosi is a** deep in the Bush illegal activities herself. Of course she's constantly opposed impeachment hearings. Pelosi is one of the Democrats chosen to "oversee" the Bush information gathering activities. She isn't going to allow impeachment when she knew about it in advance and approved at least to the extent that she didn't go public with her knowledge. Read Greenwald, he's hot under the collar about this in particular.

So, to get the Constitution back into force, first we need to send Pelosi back to whatever hole she crawled out of. Then we can work on Obama.

And, of course, it's all irrelevant if the new "Christ" (the word means the annointed one, it's their term, not mine) and her running mate win this election. In that case, buy land in northern Canada, preferably as far from Alaska as you can, and dig a deeeeeep hole, stuff it with twinkies and coke, crawl inside and close the top, pray the prevailing winds blow the fallout away from you. At that point the Constitution becomes totally irrelevant.

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by: Silence Doesnogood @ Thu Sep 18, 2008 at 13:43:29 PM CDT