Caveat: This diary isn't for those kossacks who are into complaining about how shitty everything is right now, accurately describing the mess we are in and lamenting the futility of all our actions and ideas. This diary, in short, isn't for the "we're so fucked we might as well emmigrate to whatever country will take us because the US is just too frustrating to deal with"-crowd. Those folks can continue to complain (elsewhere, it is to be hoped) and, it is to be sincerely hoped, emmigrate.
This diary is for the activists among us, specifically those, like Rusty 1776, who see the clear path that needs to be taken to swiftly and Constituionally repair the damage that the Bush Gang has inflicted on our beloved Republic, and who aren't afraid or too lazy to take it to the next level.
This diary is about the only option left to us as we watch the Democratic Party fiddle while America disintegrates. Follow me down the flip if you're not too timid:
First let me set this up.
America, as the whiners accurately note, is truly on its last Constitutional leg, as Rusty's diary, linked above, so eloquently lays out. In fact, just about every day on this site, several Kossactivists paint this same dismal picture, so that everyone here except lurking trolls from Kool-Aid country know that this is the case: George Bush and his criminal gang have shredded the Constitution and made this country something other than what we call "America." They have, in fact, made it something closer to Franco's Spain than Franklin's Republic-if-you-can-keep-it-madam.
So the question is, what should we do about keeping, i.e. saving, our beloved Republic which is now almost no more than a wistful memory? The apparently official Democratic Party solution, which I glean from the actions - and inactions - of that herd of Donkeys, is to make things somewhat uncomfortable for the Bush regime and its supporters, and to hightlight, from time to time, selected Bush Gang travesties and crimes so as to increase the chances of a sweeping Democratic takeover of the Executive and Legislative branches of US government. Then, presumably, the Democrats on their white horses will go about repairing the ship of state and putting the old girl back on course.
Just one problem with that plan, ladies and gentlemen: it won't work. The rub lies here, in the one word that trumps all others in the real world of American politics: "precedent." All the savaging of our hallowed system of laws and governmental administration that has gone on for the last 6.5 years has established a set of "facts on the ground" that cannot be controverted by the writing of some new laws that, for instance, outlaw torture or warrantless wiretapping, or (really really this time no kidding) put a stop to the outing of covert CIA agents. Why? Because those laws would presumably be enacted to repair the ones we all know have been broken decimated by Bush's cabal, laws that were on the books when the cabal in question decided to abrogate them, and the unchallenged precedent of those myriad abrogations of duly enacted laws are what will stand when any new law of any kind is enacted. In fact, that cancerous precedent also applies to the entire Constitution, not just the US Code, and will become, absent Impeachment, the new unitary law of the land: "The President shall do as he wills. Period. "
That the "legislators" in charge of our Party don't seem to get this is truly disturbing. It raises the serious question of whether they themselves would like to pick and choose among the "new powers" Bush has created, for their own aggrandizement. Either that or they are just plain dense. Unfortunately, they don't seem to be stupid.
Thus it is that we have come to this pass: if we fail to Impeach Bush and his criminal coconspirators, any government that follows them (and this includes the next Democratic one) will have the unmitigated power to do as they have done, and worse. And, for those of you thinking "But the Democrats will prosecute these thugs when they get in the White House," think again, and this time think more clearly: Bush's last act sometime before January 8th, 2009 will be to issue blanket pre-pardons for all of his principals, as Ford did for Nixon. There will be no prosecutions of Bush gangmembers, folks, even if Elliot Spitzer is the Attorney General, especially since any such attempt will end up before the Supreme Court that the neocons have stacked. And Impeachement is the only secure method of preventing such a miscarriage of justice:
Article 1 Section 3:
Judgment in Cases of Impeachments shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust, or Profit under the United States, but the Party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment, and Punishmnet, according to Law.
Article 2, Section 2:
The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices, and he shall have Power to Grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offenses against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.
So this extremely bleak picture begs the obvious question: What do we, who actually care about the future of our Constitutional form of goverment, do now? This is the exact pressure point that is causing all the throwing up of hands in the progressive community right now, and it has been a roadblock against which our netroots movement has been bumping up against ever since it became apparent that the mandate we delivered to the Democrats last year to bring an end to the most massive of the Bush Gang's crimes, the illegal War on Iraq, will likely be shunted aside.
My opinion is that the choice is clear: we must start immediately to form a new political party, one that will assume the prinicples of American Liberalism and make its primary goal the salvaging of the Republic. I know that this is daunting beyond description, not the least because of the conundrum I laid out above: if the Bush Gang is not Impeached (and that is the starting point of this new Party), repairing the Republic will be akin to a mechanic repairing a car that has been run over by a locomotive. But I see no other way at this point because a Democratic failure to Impeach disqualifies them for the repair job.
I believe, however, that such a new party ("The New Progressive Party" sounds good to me) should be formed only as a stop-gap against the failure of the Democrats to Impeach; that is, if they come to their senses and a trial in the Senate is convened in the very near future, such an endeavor should be halted in order to preserve the chances of a liberal sweep in '08. Therefore, I believe that the way that this endeavor should proceed is for those of us here, in the "netroots," to begin immediately e-caucusing amongst ourselves to set up a committee to draft a Declaration which will announce our prinicples and intentions and to select a standard-bearer who will lead us in the Presidential campaign (I would ask Bill Moyers to do the honors, myself).
The Party itself would officially form only after a cut-off date after which Impeachment becomes an impracticality (mid-July probably, since Primary season is in full swing after that and dissipation of political focus will be too wide-spread for the intensity of a Senate trial); prior to that, the new movement would be called just that, "The New Progressive Movement," and it would focus its whole public effort on forcing Impeachment onto the national agenda, and its internal agenda would be the preparation for Party formation in the event that the Democrats fail the country.
Before I wrap this up, I want to anticipate some objections:
- "It's too late to form a party in time for the next election." Don't underestimate this medium we are swimming in here. It is fluid, fast, and indescribably innovative and self-replicating. If Ross Perot had both major party candidates on the ropes in '92 before he lamely pulled out of the race (he had 40% to HW Bush's 30% to Clinton's 25%), an intellegent, flexible, e-savvy organization with someone like Moyers at its head could definitely pull it off today.
- "Impeachment is impractical because Pelosi would be accused of power grabbing by virtue of her assumption of the Presidency after the Conviction of Bush and Cheney." Pelosi would have to announce, prior to Articles of Impeachment being voted on in the House, that if she were to assume the Presidency, she would only occupy the post long enough to appoint a caretaker VP, after whose approval by the Senate she would step down. If she wanted to run for her open seat that would be up to her and the caretaker should be someone who is non partisan and who understands military matters and who eschews politics and will not run in 08 (former Marine General Anthony Zinni comes to mind). Of course, Pelosi wouldn't be required to do this, but I blieve she should in order to dispel charges of a "coup." This is just one idea, also; there are certainly others out there to deal with this minor issue.
- "Impeachment is a fool's errand because 67 votes are needed in the Senate to convict and we all know that is impossible." Do we? The crimes in question have never been trumpeted on the evening news night after night in their profusion and depravity. Everything from election fraud to numerous violations of the Geneva Conventions, to obstruction of justice in USAgate, to who knows what else will come out. And if they fail to convict, the historical pox will be on the GOP, the case having been laid out for history and the planet to judge. If the Democrats fail to even indict, however, the pox will be on theirs.
- "Who the hell are you to propose such an audacious plan, and don't you have it more fleshed out than this?" I'm nobody, but I'm sure I'm not the only one thinking about this right now. In fact, if you know of someone somewhere who has it all together (please don't mention the Greens) and ready to roll, please give me their URL so I can check it out. I'm just doing right now what I think I have to to keep this country from disintegrating and I surely don't have the chops to do much more than bring this idea up. I am borrowing a computer, so I can't even service this diary adequately (not to mention I have a blue collar job that takes 8 hrs and most of my energy every day), but I have quite a bit of faith in this community and I'm willing to toss this out there and see what becomes of it. I will be here for a few hours before I pass out tonight, and at least I'm doing something.
- "This is a troll diary and you should be banned." I realize that this is putatively a Democratic blog and that Kos is a pretty blue boy. I mean, a very blue guy. But this is also a forum where lots of competing ideas regularly get tossed around this idea is one that addresses the really big question of how we can pull this country out of the shitter, a job that the vast majority of users here agree needs to be done. On the other hand, I also realize that it is the site's right to ban me if they see fit based on my undonkeyness, and if so, please consider this my GBCP (Goodbye Cruel Party) diary.
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Ok, to close: as huge a mountain as this is to climb, I believe we must start strapping on our hiking boots. We are, when you think about it, faced with no more of a challenge than the Founders were, and we have at our disposal a bag of tools that was inconcievable when they faced down the mightiest Empire on the face of the Earth. And we can do it, unlike they were forced to do, nonviolently and within the framework of the government they themselves established.
Going back to the analogy of repairing that car that was smashed by a freight train: the crash hasn't happened yet; at this point, to save the vehicle, all that needs to happen is for some of the passengers to get out before the train plows into them and for them to push the damn thing off the tracks. That action is the act of Impeachment. Some of us are already pushing but the passengers (the Dem leadership) must get behind us or it won't budge. The whistle is blowing and the semaphores are flashing. Let's just do it and we will only have to give her a tune up and fix the broken steering linkage. It really is a no brainer.
Push, people!