Oh Tyranny, Thy Name is US

Under the newly passed Military Commissions Act of 2006, Congress has given the Bush Administration the power to detain anyone indefinitely and decide what constitutes torture; it eliminates habeas corpus and judicial review, and it permits coerced evidence. Our country is at a precipice, if we have not already crossed it. I vacillate between anger, disgust and despair.

There is a profound and fundamental difference between an Executive engaging in shadowy acts of lawlessness and abuses of power on the one hand, and, on the other, having the American people, through their Congress, endorse, embrace and legalize that behavior out in the open, with barely a peep of real protest. Our laws reflect our values and beliefs. And our laws are about to explicitly codify one of the most dangerous and defining powers of tyranny -- one of the very powers this country was founded in order to prevent.

That is how Glenn Greewald, of Unclaimed Territory describes it, in the legalization of torture and permanent detention.

In Bush Rules, Dan Froomkin of the Washington Post calls it a "defining moment for this nation." He inquires:

How far from our historic and Constitutional values are we willing to stray? How mercilessly are we willing to treat those we suspect to be our enemies? How much raw, unchecked power are we willing to hand over to the executive?

The legislation before the Senate today would ban torture, but let Bush define it; would allow the president to imprison indefinitely anyone he decides falls under a wide-ranging new definition of unlawful combatant; would suspend the Great Writ of habeas corpus; would immunize retroactively those who may have engaged in torture. And that's just for starters.

It's a red-letter day for the country. It's also a telling day for our political system.

The people have lost confidence in their president. Despite that small recent uptick in the polls, Bush remains deeply unpopular with the American public, mistrusted by a majority, widely considered out of touch with the nation's real priorities.

But he's still got Congress wrapped around his little finger.

Today's vote will show more clearly than ever before that, when push comes to shove, the Republicans who control Congress are in lock step behind the president, and the Democrats -- who could block him, if they chose to do so -- are too afraid to put up a real fight.

For my earlier posts on this issue, see Shame, Shame, Shame and The Inquisitor. See also the NY Times Editorial, Rushing Off a Cliff.

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So long as the people do not care to exercise their freedom, those who wish to tyrannize will do so; for tyrants are active and ardent, and will devote themselves in the name of any number of gods, religious and otherwise, to put shackles upon sleeping men.

— Voltarine de Cleyre

Tags: Law, Civil Liberties, Politics, Quote of the Day