Patriotic Dissent: Missing In Action
posted by Rick at 11:52 PM

Ken Sanders, in his "Politics Of Dissent" blog, issued a stirring appeal to Republican members of Congress to do the right thing. Here's an excerpt:

Love Your Country? Demand Impeachment

Those who, in the name of nationalism disguised as patriotism, would remain silent when faced with the Bush administration's common plan to wage war and torture captives in violation of customary and treaty-based international law; those who would waive their rights while they wave their flags; those who would turn a blind eye to evidence that the Bush administration manipulated intelligence to justify its preconceived war; they would do well to consider the oath of office taken by all members of the civil service or uniformed services. The oath is not to the President or any other person. Rather, those who take the oath swear to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic."

I have taken this oath. All members of Congress have taken the same oath, as has every member of the armed services. Every naturalized citizen is likewise sworn to support and defend the Constitution. All of us, regardless of any particular political affiliation, are sworn to support and defend the Constitution. None are sworn to support and defend this or any other President. While the military concerns itself with challenging foreign enemies of the Constitution, it is up to the rest of us to defend the Constitution and the principles it embodies against its domestic enemies. Right now, there is no greater domestic enemy of the Constitution than President George W. Bush.

There is an untruth here. George W. Bush is, to be sure, an awful man who deserves every bit of contempt that can be mustered against him. Unfortunately, though, the threat is much bigger, much more serious, than one demagogue. The legislators from the right wing of the Republican Party don't merely fail to defend the Constitution: they actively participate in the attack on it. Witness the gerrymandering of Texas; witness the closed-door GOP caucuses where major legislation is drafted without the knowledge, let alone the input, of the loyal opposition; witness the across-the-board pandering to religious fundamentalists who would turn our nation into a theocracy; witness, of course, the enthusiastic pursuit of an illegal war of aggression; witness, finally, the extension of the so-called Patriot Act.

And the representatives of the aforementioned loyal opposition, for their part, are either too cowed by the right or too beholden to the same corporate interests to raise their voices. Not one of them has yet, for example, shown up in Crawford to support Cindy Sheehan's call to stop the madness. Instead, the supposed leaders of the opposition party step all over each other as they race to call for still more troops to bolster the occupation of Iraq. The woman who warned the nation of a "vast right-wing conspiracy" now appears to kowtow to the right wing, even as the right continues to vilify her and her husband. It's a tragedy akin to Winston Smith shouting "Long live Big Brother" at the moment of his execution.