Wednesday, March 14, 2007

You're pirates. Hang the code, and hang the rules. They're more like guidelines anyway.

I just read the phrase "the constitution is not a suicide pact" for about the umteenth zillioneth time in the context of a political debate. The implication is always that the shady and extraconsitutional measures taken by the administration over the last several years were necessary in order to ensure the physical safety of the populace against our enemies. In a nutshell: it's okay to ignore the constitution if it keeps us safe.

But what if it's the actions of a bumbling executive that have made us less safe? What if it's his incompetence that's emboldened our enemies and left us more at risk of attack? Would it be proper in this instance to employ extraconstitutional means to remove such a president?


Of course not. The constitution isn't some sort of quaint document suggesting the means of formation and rules by which we govern ourselves. It is a statement of values and mission. It says who we are as Americans and as Americans we believe that this is a nation of laws. Laws that apply to everyone.

6 comments:

Don Snabulus said...

What if we stop being pussies and grow up to realize the world is not without risk?

The Constitution was written by people who were at much more risk than we are. When Ben Franklin said that those who relinquish freedom for security deserve to lose it, he wasn't saying it sitting on the largest military of the world. He said it despite being at risk from England.

We are freaking out because of a 9/11 sucker punch when our guard was down that is going to be impossible to replicate. Our people are like children cowering under Mommy-government's nighty because of a tiny number of big, bad scary radical Muslims. I'm sick of it.

The Constitution once defined us as Americans. Who would have thought that cowardice would be the largest test that great document would need to face?

(That was a rhetorical question. Of course, lots of people thought so like Sinclair Lewis)

Dean Wormer said...

Aargh.

Just wrote a multi-paragraph reply to your comments and blogger went tit's up.

Suffice it to say that I agree completely with your comments.

Weenies the lot of 'em.

Swinebread said...

I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic...

Overdroid said...

Damn. I just wrote a fifty page well thought out and cross indexed article in response to this post with an annotated bibliography, but blogger ate it. Also in there was the solution to all the world's problems, but I can't remember them now.

Don Snabulus said...

Me too. Sh*t!

Dean Wormer said...

Okay Douglas Adams. :-)