This will be a very short diary. It basically reproduces below the fold a comment I made a few moments ago on another thread.
I am far too buried with the preparation for school to do a truly thoughtful diary. What I offer is my gut reaction about my priorities for a presidential candidate.
Do not read this as a comprehensive statement. It is a reaction to reading someone else's list of priorities for our government. I think I begin at a very fundamental level. And hence this diary.
My first priority is to save the Constitution.
and while it seems as if the best way of accomplishing that is to elect as Democrat president, given a choice between a Democrat who is not committed to that course, and whose track record is hostile to the Constitution at least as I see it, and given an opponent not nominally a Democrat who is committed by track record and verbal commitment to Constitutional restoration and protection, my choice would be clear.
I state that as a hypothetical. Given what I have said about track record, it would be exceedingly difficult to find a prominent Republican who would not already be disqualified. What is sad is how many Democrats have failed to meet the test of protecting the Constitution.
What is truly sad is the lack of clear statements by our presidential candidates which would
- reject the idea of signing statements as a backdoor veto
- reject the idea of the unitary executive in any form
- acknowledge the importance of checks and balances and separation of powers
- commitment to maximum defense of the Bill of Rights, pointing out that "protection" and "security" which overrides those is neither protection or security of America as we have known it
That is one reason I find it hard to motivate myself for a presidential race that is moving too quickly, and is too much about personalities, and not about us.
Some of the candidates have addressed pieces of this. Some are raising issues that need to be raised - about health care, about poverty, and so on.
But where is the clear statement of a commitment to the Constitution and the Bill of Rights? Where is the leader willing to inspire us on that fundamental ground?
I think there is a window of opportunity to initiate a public discussion of what America means - it would be a rejection of racism, of political hatred, of using tragic events to accumulate power to oneself. It would challenge us to think about the meaning of our Constitution in light of our lack of equity, the deteriorating environment, the economic disparity. All of these matter.
But without an affirmation of our Constitutional system and a commitment to living by and reinvigorating the idea of liberty as expressed in the Bill of Rights, while simultaneously reaffirming that we as Americans ahve a common destiny with one another and with people around the world, the other things about which we content politically are the equivalent of rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic while the band plays on. I do not need to hear "Nearer my God to Thee" as our democratic republic slowly sinks into oblivion. I do not need to think of the words of T. S. Eliot, that this is how the world ends, not with a bang, but with a whimper.
I wish I could say with confidence that I am wrong in my perceptions. All I can do is to wish as I always do with hope:
Peace.