In my center column, I’ve linked to this article (via Metafilter) in the New York Review of Books, but I strongly encourage readers of blurbomat to take a look.
“At the center of the current conflict over the Constitution is a president who surrounds himself with proven loyalists, who is not interested in complexities, and who is averse to debate and intolerant of dissenters within his administration and elsewhere.”
The article makes great points about the grab and it underscores the Democratic Party’s inability to construct a narrative around why Bush & Cheney’s power grab is so damaging to the Constitution as well as the system of checks and balances between the executive, legislative and judicial branches.
Aside from the obvious claims that the president is trying to subvert the rule of law the article has some other great points:
- Republicans are more reverential toward their own party’s president.
- Republicans are more disciplined about delivering their party’s “talking points” to the public.
- Republican fund-raising is done more from the top than is the case with Democrats, and there’s always the implicit threat that if a Republican isn’t loyal to the president, the flow of money to their campaigns might be cut off.
- Bush claims the power to execute the laws as he interprets them, ignoring congressional intent by using “signing statements“.
- Bush and Cheney’s (and their underlings) subscription to this notion.
It’s pretty clear that Bush & Cheney are obviously in favor of governmental intrusion (despite shout outs to their corporate cronies to deregulate industry at every turn), hate the Constitution, hate the meddling legislative branch and hate the Americans they are spying on. Including me and you. P.S. Happy Father’s Day.
Other links from a commenter on the source MeFi article thread:
America’s problem is again a usurping king called George
The Man Who Would Be King – Ludolph